Q&A: Brandi Mueller Pt I – Wrecks, Wanderlust and Life at the Helm

We chat to acclaimed underwater photographer, liveaboard captain and World War Two wreck aficionado Brandi Mueller about her love of traveling, the lure of sunken wrecks, and what it is like to spend six months a year in the diving Mecca of Truk Lagoon

Photographs by Brandi Mueller

How Brandi Mueller’s Diving Journey Began 

Q: As we always do with these Questions and Answer sessions, how did you first get into scuba diving?

A: I started diving when I was 15 years old in New Zealand. I grew up in Northern Wisconsin, USA, but was a foreign exchange student in high school and my host family were divers. After a very expensive international call to my parents, they agreed to loan me the money to get certified and the experience changed my life.

Q: You have built up an amazing collection of underwater photographs over the years, which have been published in all manner of magazines, books and online. When did you first get into underwater photography, and what are your favorite subjects?

A: I worked for Aggressor Fleet in Hawaii, Turks and Caicos, Dominican Republic and Papua New Guinea. During those years I met many amazing underwater photographers and photojournalists. I would chat endlessly (and probably a bit annoyingly) with them about their gear and how they got their images. In the beginning I had a small point and shoot and started building a bigger system piece by piece, starting with a Nikon and Ikelite. Taking in all the advice, I eventually becoming a Photo Pro on the liveaboards. Meeting editors and others in the industry led to connections that developed into contributions to other people’s stories and eventually my own stories.

I love all the subjects. I think wrecks have been my most-popular subjects as far as books and media are concerned, and I love telling the stories of ships and airplanes. I love animal behaviors and macro photography too. I find shooting a macro to be an almost zen-like experience. I can spend an entire dive on one anemone trying to capture a fish tending to its eggs and wonder where an hour went (and 1500psi). Big animals are also an exciting challenge and awe-inspiring subjects to see and photograph.

Brandi’s Top Dive Destinations Around the Globe

Q: You are certainly well-traveled, which have been some of your favorite locations around our planet, and why?

A: This question is always so hard because, honestly, I love every place I go for different reasons. If I have to narrow it down, my top three are Truk Lagoon (Chuuk), Galapagos and Komodo, Indonesia. I also started to cave dive during Covid and that quickly became the most-challenging favorite location on my list.

Truk Lagoon – this location changed me and my diving. Having no interest in wreck diving before arriving, I became fascinated with the stories one could tell about what remains below. What the ships or plane did before it ended up underwater, how it ended up on the seafloor and the new story of how the ocean has changed these man-made objects into homes for marine life. It also changed the way I dived. You can have an incredible experience as a recreational diver in Chuuk, but it gives you a taste of wanting to go just a little deeper and stay just a little longer, and that’s what started me down the tech diving path.

Galapagos – there is so much life and diversity in the Galapagos Islands, it’s tough for any other location to compete. I love that you can be shooting seahorses and batfish in one area of the islands and hundreds of hammerheads and whale sharks a relatively small distance away. Plus, there’s penguins, sea lions, turtles and more. The topside life is incredible: rare birds and marine iguanas. I remember walking down the streets on San Cristobal with sea lions laying in the sidewalk and pelicans taking up more space than humans. It’s a destination everyone should experience at least once.

Komodo – I love the biodiversity of Komodo. Being within the Coral Triangle there is the muck diving critters but also big stuff like mantas. Volcanic activity causes bubbles to rise from the seafloor in some areas and seeing the rugged topside landscape with island hikes and Komodo dragons makes in an all-around incredible trip.

Life as Captain of the MV Truk Odyssey

Q: You are currently spending six months as the Captain of the MV Truk Odyssey, leaving the other six months free to travel, run workshops, etc. When did you head down that route, and what is it like to be at the helm of a vessel such as this, in such an amazing dive destination?

A: This question has multiple parts to it. I have made most of my life’s decisions based on doing whatever it takes to spend more time underwater. Plus, the dive industry is small and most of my life’s trajectory has come from meeting people and re-meeting them later on. My undergraduate degree was in marine science and I became a Divemaster and instructor when I was working on that degree. My first job after that was a summer camp-style program where kids spent three weeks living on a sailboat in the British Virgin Islands and learning about marine science and to dive and sail. After that I moved to Hawaii and started working for Aggressor Fleet, eventually moving to Oahu to attend graduate school and work at a land-based dive shop. I got my captain’s license there when I was 24 and went back to Aggressor Liveaboards after my Master’s degree.

One of the owners of the Odyssey was a guest onboard and having heard of Truk, but not been there yet, he inspired me to go. I went as a guest and loved the diving, the boat and everything about it. Later, while working as a captain on Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, I was close to Chuuk and took several of my vacations on the Odyssey. As I was leaving Kwajalein, the Odyssey reached out to me to ‘fill in’ for two months. After two amazing months both dive guiding and driving the boat, they asked me if I wanted to come back for ‘two more months’. I kept doing this for eight years (minus when we were closed due to Covid).

Being captain of the Odyssey is/was the coolest job I’ve ever had in my life. There is nothing more rewarding than having people spend their time and money to travel to a far-flung destination and be able to absolutely blow their minds. I love it when people who show up, “not really interested in wrecks or penetrations” and by the end of the week they are reading the history books and asking questions about what that thing they saw deep in the engine room was.

Or having people who have had the destination on their bucket list for years, finally make it out and it meets all their expectations. There is also fantastic marine life and I feel that people don’t expect that. It’s fun to talk about the turtle they just saw and nudibranchs on the hull of a World War Two ship.

Leading Dive Travel and Inspiring Divers Worldwide

The travel leading side of things started I was working land based on Oahu during grad school. The shop had a large military customer base. We would train them, get them in gear and take them diving on the island.

Often, they were only staying in Hawaii for a short time and wanted to explore the other islands. I started organizing and running weekend dive trips to Maui, Kauai and the Big Island and then adding international trips to Fiji, Palau and the Philippines into our travel schedule. I loved being able to show people amazing places underwater. Now I do it on my own terms and it’s so much fun to take others to my favorite places and explore some new ones that have been on my bucket list.

Read part II of this interview here.

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