Salutations From the Sea, I’m Karenza Knightly (her/she/they)- marine scientist, diver, photographer, and creator of DiverCity Media & Education.

My story isn’t a straight line; it rises and falls in moments of impact, like tides that shaped and connected my life to water long before I understood the pull.

My first moment of impact came before I could even stand. As the story is told, I learned to swim before I learned to walk. Water was the first place my body felt natural, weightless, and safe- long before I had the words to recognize it.

The next moment came during one of the longest stretches I ever went without seeing my mom. She sent me gifts from Hawaii- a dolphin clock and a hibiscus flower clip. I held onto those objects like lifelines. To me, they were proof that she remembered me… and that somewhere out there, the ocean was real, waiting, calling.

Beneath the surface of a lake in Connecticut. I spent hours diving, holding my breath, disappearing into the calm, muffled world underwater. It was the only place that didn’t demand anything from me. Even back then, I instinctively knew: below the surface, I could finally breathe.

Every summer in South Dakota, leaping and doing flips from the diving board at the city pool you could find me grinning ear to ear. Those visits to my aunt and uncle’s house, where I spent entire days swimming and sinking under the water, gave me something I didn’t have anywhere else- pure, unfiltered joy.

Joining the Navy was another impact point. I wanted to turn the place that saved me into the place I could save others. During my years living on the ship I enjoyed countless underways a seven-month deployment, and more days at sea than I could ever track. There were stretches where all I saw for miles was open ocean: no land, no structures, just blue in every direction. It was the kind of view that changes you, that strips life down to its bones and shows you what’s real.

Becoming a marine biologist was the moment everything clicked. Learning to dive in Alaska felt like meeting the ocean with my eyes and heart open. That was the moment I realized I didn’t just love water… I belonged to it. Studying marine and environmental science gave me the language to understand what my body had always known.

Photography followed me everywhere. From my pink Walmart camera to my first DSLR to shooting underwater on a GoPro- the way I see the world has always been shaped by the need to capture it. When I take a photo, I’m not just documenting a moment; I’m holding onto it.

Photography is also one of the ways I manage PTSD. It helps me remember things when my brain goes blank. It helps me express feelings I can’t always name. It gives me a way to freeze a moment of peace, a moment of beauty, a moment of impact… so I can return to it when I need grounding.

These moments are my compass. They led me to the ocean, to science, to diving, to storytelling, and to building DiverCity- a space where I can blend all of these identities into something that invites others in.

Water raised me.
Photography reminds me.
Science guides me.
And DiverCity is where I get to share all of it with you.