Dr. Brian Tissot is a marine ecologist, surfer, filmmaker, and science fiction writer living on the wild edge of the Pacific NW. With one foot in the world of hard science and the other in the tides of imagination, he writes visionary stories that blend marine biology, indigenous wisdom, and speculative futures. A lifelong explorer of waves and oceans, Brian has led pioneering research on coral reefs, kelp forests, and the deep sea, publishing widely in scientific journals and appearing in films and popular media.
His blog, science fiction writings and films reflect a deep reverence for the ocean and a poetic sensibility shaped by years of diving, surfing, and listening to the rhythms of the natural world. Brian’s stories often unfold in richly imagined worlds — part crumbling utopia, part sacred dreamscape — where ecology is destiny and memory is terrain. Whether charting alien oceans, haunted ruins, or spiral stairways rising from submerged cities, he writes with the heart of a surfer, the eye of a filmmaker, and the soul of a poet.
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SCIENCE FICTION
The Songs of the Universe Trilogy is an epic science fiction saga about humanity’s place in a living, conscious cosmos.
When humans discover the ocean world Thalassa — home to an intelligent, cetacean-descended species called the Nesoi — everything changes. As tensions rise between exploitation and preservation, alliances form between humans and indigenous life who understand the planet in ways science alone cannot. The story explores survival, forgiveness, and whether humanity can evolve beyond its destructive instincts.
As Earth faces ecological and political collapse, a new generation must confront old wounds. Ancient wisdom, indigenous knowledge, and advanced technology collide as humanity struggles to decide what kind of civilization it wants to become. Personal stories of love, loss, and redemption unfold against a backdrop of global transformation.
In the final book, the scope expands beyond one planet. A hidden interstellar alliance known as the Engineers reveals that life across the galaxy has been guided for millions of years to foster consciousness itself. But a powerful civilization believes struggle and destruction are necessary for growth. The fate of entire worlds — and the moral direction of the universe — hangs in the balance.
Taken together, the Songs of the Universe trilogy forms a cohesive body of literary speculative fiction that blends epic space adventure with big philosophical questions about ecology, spirituality, responsibility, and the future of intelligent life. The books asks a single, enduring question: not how humanity might master the universe, but whether it can learn to belong within it—and what forms of love, song, and ethical restraint that belonging demands.
PHOTOGRAPHY
My interest in photography when I was twelve years old and received a Kodak Instamatic camera. What started as curiosity quickly became a lifelong passion. I built my own darkroom, developing film and making prints through junior high and into college. I served as the school photographer and on the high school newspaper, refining both my technical skills and my instinct for visual storytelling.
When I began surfing in 1970, my lens naturally turned toward the ocean—waves, light on water, and the culture surrounding the sea. In the early 1970s, while living in San Diego, I started borrowing my dad’s 8mm Minolta film camera and making surf movies. Filmmaking immediately clicked. Between 1972 and 1985, I created about twenty short films, inspired by the era of Endless Summer-style movies. These traveling surf films were cultural touchstones—crowded theaters, blaring rock soundtracks, and audiences erupting at every ride. My own films were a heartfelt attempt to recreate that energy in my living room at parties, carefully cutting each sequence (literally cutting strips of 8mm film and splicing them together) to specific soundtracks to capture the rhythm and spirit of the experience.
As my skills evolved, so did my equipment. I purchased a Sony Super 8 camera in 1978 and later an underwater housing in 1980, allowing me to film from within the waves themselves. My travels took me from the West Coast to the East Coast, and eventually to Hawaii, Bali, and Tahiti. In the 1980s, during graduate school, my focus expanded from surfing to marine life—filming coral reefs, kelp forests, and deep-sea explorations—deepening my relationship with the ocean through both science and art.
In 2009, I began digitizing and sharing these early films on YouTube. Viewers often speak of nostalgia: VW campers cruising the coast, simpler times, and the unmistakable look of film. The soft, wistful color palette, the grain, the dust and scratches, the occasional burnt frame and light leaks—all of it captures a bygone era that many people miss. I do too.
In 2024, I began experimenting with AI-driven filmmaking, opening an entirely new creative chapter. Since then, I have produced more than twenty short films focused on marine conservation, blending technology with my enduring love for the ocean. Many of these projects also serve to visualize and promote the worlds and themes of my science fiction books, allowing me to bring imagined futures, ecological challenges, and ocean-centered narratives to life in ways that were once impossible.
MARINE RESEARCH
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