Quick Take
Entrepreneurial scientist Wallace J. Nichols created the Blue Mind movement from his home on Santa Cruz County’s rugged North Coast. “I wish you water,” he offered the world, and gave away blue marbles to friends and fans as a keepsake as he plumbed the deep-seated human attraction to water.
Marine biologist, ecologist, writer and lecturer Wallace J. Nichols, author of “Blue Mind,” the 2014 bestseller about the therapeutic benefits of being near large bodies of water, has died, his family announced on Saturday. He died on June 10, but the family declined to comment on the cause of death. He was 56.
Nichols and his wife, Dana, lived for years on Santa Cruz County’s rugged North Coast and he was widely known for promoting the area as the “Slow Coast.” But in 2020, the family’s home for 20 years, just off Swanton Road, was destroyed in the CZU fires.
In “Blue Mind,” Nichols — who held a Ph.D. in wildlife ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Arizona — sought to make a link between neuroscience and oceanography, and give scientific authority to the deep-seated human attraction to water. He has lectured about what he called “The Blue Mind Movement” across the United States and in more than 30 countries. He called himself an “entrepreneurial scientist,” and was known for a catchphrase — “I wish you water” — and for giving away blue marbles to friends and fans as a keepsake.
He began his career as a defender and advocate of sea turtles. “I had this thing for turtles ever since I was a kid,” he said in a 2014 interview. “I didn’t realize that you could study turtles as an adult, and there was no clear road map to be a turtle guy.” Nevertheless, he worked as a marine biologist, tracking sea turtles.
Nichols was home alone when the CZU fires swept through his property in August 2020. He not only raised his daughters in the house, he hosted environmentalists, artists, writers and researchers from around the world. In an interview a few months after the fires, he said, “I have apologized to my family for kind of blowing it, for not thinking about all the other things I should have saved. But I’m sure the house was in serious flame within the hour.”
In a Patreon post dated the day before his death, Nichols pointed to a “few of the cool things coming up on the Blue Mind calendar,” and referenced the upcoming publication of the 10th-anniversary edition of the book. He was set to be keynote speaker at The Hope Summit in Charleston, South Carolina in September.
The family has set up a fund to “continue the work of one of the world’s most important environmentalists and change makers.”
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