Gene Helfman is an animal behaviorist turned conservation biologist turned novelist. With a PhD in Ecology from Cornell University, Gene was on the faculty of the University of Georgia for thirty years, authoring four books on fish and marine conservation and dozens of related scientific papers. He spent much of his professional career underwater demonstrating that fish are smarter than conventionally thought. In an effort to get the conservation message to a larger audience, he has turned to writing screenplays and novels, on the premise that more people read fiction than non-fiction.  He has published three novels: Beyond The Human Realm, about a captive orca released into the wild; and FINS, A Novel of Relentless Satire, about sentient sharks; and, just published, In the Realm of the Whales, about transition, tragedy, and triumph among killer whales. The first two novels have won national awards. Gene and his wife Dr. Judy Meyer, an aquatic ecologist, live on Lopez Island in Washington State.