About Elle Wibisono

Who is Elle Wibisono?

Elle was born and raised in Indonesia. Growing up in the world’s largest archipelago, since a young age, Elle has always been passionate about marine conservation. She created fishtory to combine her hobby on creating comics, story telling and occupation as a fishery scientist.

When not creating fish comics or creating fish merch, she is a fishery scientist at Conservation International, working on climate resilience in Small-Island Developing States. Previously, she was a Fisheries Science and Policy Fellow.

Elle earned her doctorate researching the deep-water snapper grouper fisheries in Indonesia at the University of Rhode Island in December 2020. Prior to her PhD journey, she has worked in an international NGO on fishery projects and the U.S. Senate to help bridge science and policy.

As both an artist and scientist, Elle continues to explore the intersection of research and policy, as well as the importance of effective science communication through art and design. In 2023, she authored and illustrated a children’s book about deep-water snappers, published by Binatang Press (Jakarta, Indonesia)!

(Somewhat) Fun facts:

In 2019, she competed and won third place at the Open Sea Lab Hackathon hosted by ICES (International Commission for Exploration of the Seas) to design an app that uses open-access ocean data. She also competed in the Dance Your Ph.D competition hosted by AAAS and presented in several international science conferences.

Watch Elle in Action:

In 2024, Elle led Konservasi Indonesia’s science team during the Indonesia Mission 2024, aboard the OceanXplorer vessel. She spent 46 days at sea exploring the Indian Ocean, collecting marine biodiversity and fishery data. See our aerial megafauna survey as capture by the OceanX Media Team: 

https://youtu.be/3orYDHumaZg?si=0tEDyeb5QcuTIRZ1

Elle pitching the importance of an integrated marine protection and production approach at the Philanthropy Asia Summit 2023:

Brief introduction to my dissertation research:

Open Sea Lab 2019 Hackathon Design Pitch (pitch starts at 3:13:13) :

Dance Your PhD 2019: