Wesley (Wes) Franklin created Aquatic Arizona in 2024 after working as several years and in different environments as a fish biologist. He has a B.Sc. in Marine Biology from Southern Arkansas University and an M.Sc. in Ocean, Coastal & Earth Sciences from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. He began his research career as a research assistant at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley researching microplastic pollution in the guts of fishes. He then was employed as a fisheries biologist on catcher vessels and factory trawling fishing vessels in the Bering Sea of Alaska. After this he moved to Arizona where he worked as a fish scientist with Marsh & Associates, a private contractor for the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service, and a volunteer for the Arizona Game & Fish Department. While working in Arizona, he created the non-profit 'Aquatic Arizona' to address the lack of education of Arizonan's about the beautiful and endangered fish species in their state.