Kara Johanssen has always been in step with nature. She was raised in Temperance, Mich., a rural area 20 miles south of Detroit.

“My parents are avid outdoorspeople, so we lived in the woods near a pond,” she said. “They, my two younger sisters and I fished, camped, hiked and hunted for berries and mushrooms all the time. We also had fun in Lake Erie and the Au Sable River with our canoes and little sailboat.”

The family frequently visited her paternal grandparents, who live near Clearwater, Fla., on the Gulf Coast; one trip was especially memorable. On a walk on the beach, Johanssen, who was then about 14 years old, saw a turtle that had died from red tide, a bloom of toxic algae marked by the discoloration of seawater, often red.

“The toxin harms everyone and everything,” Johanssen said. “That really hit me — our health depends on the health of our oceans!”

She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in ecology and evolutionary biology in 2000 from the University of Colorado Boulder. Over the next seven years, jobs in tourism and environmental education took her to exotic locales, including Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands and the Florida Keys. She’s now a naturalist with Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ambassadors of the Environment at The Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua on Maui.

Available at only three other Ritz-Carlton resorts in Puerto Rico, the Cayman Islands and Santa Barbara, Calif., this hands-on, outdoor education program was developed by Cousteau’s nonprofit Ocean Futures Society “to connect people of all ages with nature and inspire them to protect it … and promote sustainable living in their communities.”

Snorkeling excursions for adults and families among the coral reefs in Kapalua Bay rank among Johanssen’s favorite Ambassadors programs. “Many people don’t know that coral itself is a living animal,” she said. “We also see turtles, urchins, sea cucumbers and lots of fish, including Hawaii’s state fish, the humuhumunukunukuapuaa, or triggerfish. There might even be a whitetip reef shark sleeping in an underwater cave.”

Most sharks have to keep moving to breathe, but the nocturnal whitetip reef shark can pump water over its gills and rest for hours during the day. It might look scary, but, according to Johanssen, that particular shark species is usually not aggressive toward humans.

One children’s program, Shark Discovery, focuses on sharks. Among other games and activities, keiki aged 5 through 14 can touch a real tooth from a megalodon, an extinct species that lived 2 million to 16 million years ago. Scientists estimate it grew 60 to 70 feet long, weighed 50 to 70 tons and had 276 serrated teeth.

During Creatures of the Night, another offering for children, Johanssen explains adaptations that certain animals have made to survive at night, including developing night vision, sharp hearing and a keen sense of smell.

“We do activities that relate to all of those senses,” she said. “For example, I’ll put a little lemon essential oil on a toothpick and ask the kids to sniff it and guess what the aroma is.”

After the sun sets, she leads the group, flashlights in hand, to the beach where they keep their eyes peeled for critters like ghost crabs and bufo toads.

Ambassadors of the Environment’s learning center at the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua is furnished with books, games, displays, videos, a compost bin and various samples, including items removed from the stomach of a dead Laysan albatross found in Papa­hanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.

“There are bottle caps, a screw, a toothbrush and lots of small pieces of plastic and fishing net and line,” Johanssen said. “The albatross thought it was eating food; instead, it eventually died because it couldn’t digest those things, which had been improperly discarded by people, wound up in the ocean and carried far away by currents.”

She considers raising awareness about such concerns as an important part of her job. “Nature is a great teacher,” she said. “We use our beautiful setting as a classroom where people can learn about ecology, biodiversity, conservation and sustainability. Our hope is that they will realize humans depend on the land and sea to survive, and we have an impact on our surroundings, which can be good or bad. We want to inspire people to do their part to keep Earth healthy.”

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PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Here’s a sampling of Ambassadors of the Environment’s programs. All are 2-1/2 hours, and reservations are required at least 24 hours in advance. Arrangements can be made for private programs.

Children’s programs (for kids aged 5-14)

Cost: $84.95 for each program

>> Creatures of the Night. Experience heightened sensory awareness while observing nocturnal wildlife and participating in classroom activities.

>> Life at the Edge of the Sea. Explore tide pools and their fascinating inhabitants, including urchins, snails and hermit crabs.

>> Marine Debris to Artistry. Create jewelry and art with shells, coral, driftwood and other items you’ve collected on the beach.

>> Shark Discovery. Hawaiians regard the shark with great respect; it is an aumakua or family god. Through interactive games, learn about these sophisticated marine animals, which have seven senses.

>> Turtle Tracks. Search for honu (green sea turtles), find out where they nest and gain insights about roles they play in Hawaiian culture.

>> Whale Wonders. Discover what it’s like to have blubber and how these giant mammals use sound to communicate and how they eat if they don’t have teeth. From November through May, catch a glimpse of humpbacks cavorting in the ocean.

Adult and family programs

>> Cities Under the Sea ($119.95 for adults, $99.95 for kids). Snorkel in a “city under the sea,” a Hawaiian coral reef. You’ll have the use of an underwater digital camera to snap photos of fish, eels and other amazing animals who live below the waves.

>> Coastal Hike and Tide Pool Exploration ($99.95 for adults, $89.95 for kids). Walk 1.7 miles along Kapalua’s magnificent coastal trail, which borders pretty bays and ancient lava fields. Be on the lookout for birds, sea turtles and tide pool residents.

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Hono­lulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.