Meet Alanna

Welcome!

Hi, I’m Alanna — a passionate Oregon Coast tidepool tour guide, foraging guide, and lifelong advocate for the Pacific Northwest’s incredible coastal ecosystems. My love for the ocean runs deep, and I’m so grateful to have a platform and community that allow me to teach others about our marine environments and inspire care for this beautiful coastline we call home.

Shifting Tides is my workshop series and educational platform dedicated to sharing the wonders of our wild intertidal ecosystems, coastal foraging, and the edible treasures found along the Oregon Coast. Through hands-on tidepool tours and foraging workshops, I help people connect more deeply to the marine environment, exploring everything from seaweed and shellfish to coastal ecology and sustainability. Shifting Tides is about bridging science, stewardship, and experience to create meaningful, immersive moments by the sea.

Through seaweed farming and coastal foraging, I have gained a deeper love and appreciation for the PNW ecosystem and the food it provides, our sustainable seafoods, and all the people and power behind them. I’m ready to continue sharing our unique coastline with others.

I’ve worked for marine science education organizations since I was in high school on the Oregon Coast. From Oregon’s Haystack Rock to California’s Catalina Island, I’ve taught people of all ages about a wide variety of ocean ecosystems. Through Pacific Northwest tide-pooling and Channel Island diving, I’ve been submerged in these wild spaces and had the privilege to share them with so many.

When I’m not leading tidepool tours, teaching workshops, or collaborating with local fisheries, you’ll find me surfing, biking, exploring forests, or cooking up fresh coastal meals inspired by my foraging adventures. I’ve spent the last decade working in marine science education, from Oregon’s Haystack Rock to California’s Catalina Island, teaching people of all ages about tidepools, seaweed, and the rhythms of the ocean.

Through my work as a tidepool tour guide, foraging educator, and coastal conservation advocate, my mission is simple: to help people fall in love with the ocean and understand its power, resilience, and importance in our daily lives. The story of our coast is ever-changing, and I’m here to help tell it.

2024 Stewardship Award
from Travel Oregon

In 2024, for work as a tidepool and foraging guide, Shifting Tides was acknowledged with the Stewardship Award from Travel Oregon. The Stewardship Award recognizes an activity, event, project or program that utilizes a stewardship approach to positively impact Oregon’s economy, cultures and natural environment. Watch the video here to learn why partners believe Alanna was suited for this award.

Growing up in a family of chefs and food lovers, it’s no surprise that food and the ocean have become central to my work. Today, I get to share that passion with others through guided coastal foraging experiences, ocean-to-table workshops, and educational storytelling about the Pacific Northwest’s intertidal ecosystems. I am also co-founder of Winter Waters PNW, a culinary event series celebrating sea vegetables and local sustainable seafood, held each February. It’s a gathering of chefs, fishers, and ocean enthusiasts who share a common goal, showcasing the abundance and importance of our regional waters.

Beyond my own projects, I work with Oregon Seaweed, where we farm Pacific Dulse in a land-based aquaculture system, helping to build awareness and a market for sustainably cultivated seaweed. I also serve as the Coordinator of the Oregon Marine Reserves Partnership, connecting outreach organizations across Oregon’s five marine reserves to strengthen conservation education and community involvement.

What people are saying…

  • “Alanna's passion and joy exude from her and you will leave inspired and in awe. I trusted her with a retreat I put on for a group of women and not only did she create a safe space for all of us, she set the tone for the day. None of us had done intertidal foraging and many were nervous. Alanna made us feel safe, comfortable, and completely engaged for the entire 3 hours. We all left more connected, educated, and can't wait to do it again. Asking Alanna to be a part of my retreat was one of the best decisions I've made and I cannot wait to work with her again. If you're thinking about doing one of Alanna's workshops or hiring her, stop thinking and do it.”

    Jillie Johnston, Life Coach

  • “Alanna’s passion for and knowledge of wild foods and foraging are perfect matches for Shifting Tides’ workshops. She balanced the scientific knowledge some clients were seeking with the hands-on, seaweed feeling and tasting exploration that fit all folks’ learning styles. I appreciated Alanna’s scheduling of the workshop around the lowest tide, which allowed us to explore a diverse array of seaweeds (and invertebrates) that Alanna had previously scoped out, ensuring our group would discover and experience a lot of species during the two-hour workshop.. She had hot seaweed tea waiting for us at the meeting spot, which was a lovely way to start the group experience. I highly recommend joining Alanna on a Shifting Tides experience."

    -Leslie Palotas, Kayak Guide

  • “Alanna is literally a force of nature, connecting people to the living ocean and its vibrant plant life, revealing how interconnected we are. She brings such an infectious smile and sense of wonder to her workshops. She is a living expression of the coast, because she has spent her life in a deep relationship with this place, and her magic is that she takes joy in sharing all the secrets and wonders of what she knows with others. Alanna is the the Seaweed Queen! She makes this mysterious underwater world of plants come to life revealing how they feed our bodies, provide air to our lungs and delight our eyes with their beauty. If you haven’t experienced a workshop with Alanna, you have never really touched the deep mystery of the tide pools and near shore along our coastlines... Alanna has collaborated with me on my many of my Gyotaku workshops, initiating the participants into the wondrous underwater world of seaweeds!”

    Duncan Berry, Gyotaku Artist, Cascade Head Biosphere Reserve Co-Director

  • My partner and I had been wanting to take a class with Alanna ever since we started seeing her share about her adventures on Instagram. We started with the mussel foraging class, which had us out at low-tide on a gorgeous spring evening. The atmosphere, great conversation, and encounters with nature would have alone made the class worth it. But of course we left with a breadth of knowledge, practical skills, and cooking tips to get the most of our shellfish license! We left with a cooler full of mussels and even some seaweed and barnacles. We left wanting more… we’ll be back to explore more of the coast with Alanna soon!

    - Thomas Kavanagh, 2024 student