Los Angeles freelance science writer and editor
When I started diving, I made a promise to myself to take a dive trip at least once a year. I did a pretty good job sticking with that philosophy for a couple of decades. Well, until the pandemic. Then any plans I had before the lockdowns were delayed and then delayed, and then delayed... Continue Reading →
In December of 2019, I made a deposit on a dive trip on a liveaboard to the Banda Sea in Indonesia for September of 2020. Adios to my deposit, I thought just a few months later when the lockdowns began. I’d said yes to a destination I’d been to twice before – a destination with... Continue Reading →
A line I read from an essay a few years ago claims no one tells you the protagonist in your first novel is you but with a better personal life. At the time, I was trying to write a draft of a novel. I had no idea I was writing a book about me until... Continue Reading →
American Ava Alemagna, an expat working as a cancer researcher at a university in Norway, discovers a cancer causing genetic mutation in a tribe of islanders in Indonesia. Her science and scuba diving lives collide when a Norwegian philanthropist and CEO of a centuries-old family ship building business funds her work and builds her an unprecedented... Continue Reading →
by Janice Nigro People stared at Ava as she wandered through the market, even though westerners were common in Sorong. The island city grew up around the international business of oil and natural resources, and was becoming a point of entry and disembarkation for divers destined for Raja Ampat. The airport was no longer a... Continue Reading →
by Janice Nigro The idea of traveling to Alor was as enchanting to me as finding the field of anemones. The area is remote. Divers go there, but throngs of tourists do not. But I still am a girl who likes flushing toilets, warm showers, and tasty food. I booked a land based trip to... Continue Reading →
by Janice Nigro I have been living in Southern California for several years now. I know, I hear a collective “aww” it can’t be that hard to live here-sun, palm trees, and the ocean wilderness right there in front of me. But you always give something up to get something else. In my case, I... Continue Reading →
My fingers are still tingling. I stretch and bend them several times making sure they aren’t stuck permanently in a clutching position around my underwater housing. Endorphins are coursing through my body. “Mind-blowing,” I am thinking surfacing from my dive in Anemone Fields in the Alor Archipelago, Indonesia. For some of my dive buddies? Yawn.... Continue Reading →
by Janice Nigro It was my fifth airport in 4 days of travel. And I still hadn’t arrived at my destination. “Is this a vacation?” I asked myself. Living in LA, I can't cry that I have poor access to a major airport hub. I was on my way to another diving adventure. This time... Continue Reading →
by Janice Nigro There I was again. In the store. Less than three weeks before a dive trip. Considering the options. “I just want to see what it looks like,” I said. That was the end. The guy behind the counter knew he had me. “Yeah, here you can hold the housing and see how... Continue Reading →
Janice Nigro 