What employment sector do you work in?

NGO Sector

How long have you had a green job for nature?

25 years

Salary Range

N/A

Please describe the work that you do.

I am a full-time volunteer Founder and Director of the Seal Research Trust. SRT’s philosophy is inspired by the Ecozoic and is all about ‘sharing our seas successfully’. SRT volunteers spend thousands of hours observing seals in the wild from land and at sea in the SW. To SRT there is no such thing as an average seal. Each one looks different, and has an individual personality, range of habits and migration route around the Celtic Sea! Our evidence is used to mitigate human impacts on seals UK-wide.

What do you most like about your job? Any dislikes?

I love SRT’s pioneering, long term, citizen science Photo ID work on individual seal fur patterns. This enables SRT’s volunteer team to build up stories about each seal’s unique life experience in the wild Atlantic Ocean. Seals that I first ID’d in 2000 are still alive in 2024, including ‘Zig Zag’ who is pupping in 2024. One mum ‘Ghost’ has had 19 pups in 20 years! I love sharing seal stories that inform us on the land about the state of our seas and inform marine conservation. After 25 years I am still learning new things from the twice-week seal surveys I do. I love doing online talks and training programmes to help others learn more about our native, heritage, speciality, and globally rare seals.

What inspired you into this career? 

That just like us seals are individuals with individual maps of their interactions with the world. They are highly intelligent marine mammals but a scapegoat and underdog of the sea that science know surprisingly little about. Seal society is very complex and female dominated and we have barely scratched the surface in terms of understanding their experience of the world. The next generation of seals and people need a thriving marine ecosystem for their ultimate survival.

Have you faced any challenges in progressing your career so far? 

Not enough hours in the day.
Effective communication is highly challenging. It is essential to understand that excellent people skills are vital to recruiting, training, upskilling and retaining volunteers.
Short-term political agendas and political personalities who can (and do) reject scientific research findings to ensure votes.
Global commercialism and a disconnect between people and nature.

What education/training did you have?

Marine conservation is my second career. I was a cleaner for the Field Studies Council in Somerset in my gap year before Uni (ironically this year I have become one of their lecturers – so gone full circle!)
I did a geography degree at Kings College London followed by a PGCE at Sussex Uni
I did some masters teaching modules.
I taught Geography, then GNVQ Leisure and Recreation / Travel and Tourism before becoming an Advanced Skills Teacher and being headhunted to run one of 15 Classrooms of the Future nationally.
All my skill sets are now utilised to better protect seals – an all consuming passion!
I have no formal qualifications in Marine Biology or Ecology, but have received an MBE from the Kind for services to wildlife protection and conservation

What advice would you give to someone coming into the profession? 

Find what you love doing, research careers linked with this and, if there aren’t any, set up an organisation to do what you love! Surround yourself with interesting, highly competent people who you can learn from lifelong and understand that people are always your most precious resource and that they all need handling with emotional intelligence. Aim to get good at everything, even the things you find hard!

Tags: England, NGO sector, Conservation worker, Marine/Coastal

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