By Lauren Giglio. Brian Skerry may be one of the most successful wildlife photographers of all time – the list of awards for his beautiful images grows with time as he continues to push photographic boundaries. While his images are what initially captured my fascination with Skerry, it was his undeniable dedication to marine conservation…
Category: People
Emily Cunningham – marine conservation consultant, researcher and educator working across the UK
By Hannah Schartmann. Hi Emily! What steps did you take to become a marine conservation specialist and which skills are important to pursue a career as a conservationist? I always knew I wanted to work in marine conservation but after graduating from my integrated master’s degree in marine biology, I had no idea how to…
Harry Baker, founder of Marine Madness: shining a light on the weird and wonderful world of our oceans
By Harry Baker. Marine Madness is an up and coming blog site focused on all types of marine life and the issues that affect them in a changing ocean. Creator and editor Harry Baker talks about the reasons behind it, the transition from researcher to writer and why it is so important to showcase the…
Interview: Climate Advocate and 5Gyres Ambassador Madeleine Wallace
By Nuri Max Steinmann. Madeleine Wallace is a 23-year old artist and climate advocate, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She is a visual artist, a multi-instrumentalist, and a spirited environmental activist. In 2018, she completed her undergraduate degree at Barnard College, pursuing an Environmental Policy major. As an ambassador and advisory board member of…
Interview with Neil Garrick-Maidment, Executive Director and Founder of „Seahorse Trust“
By Hannah Schartmann. A warm welcome to Neil Garrick-Maidment, Executive Director at the Seahorse Trust. The Seahorse Trust has the main aim to protect seahorses. Why is it important to protect them? Like so many species in our world, seahorses are going extinct at a very fast rate, which we estimate at approximately 150 million…
Marine biologist Jan Verbeek about the challenges in marine conservation
By Nuri Max Steinmann. Jan Verbeek is a marine biologist and scientific diver I met during the Erasmus Mundus master’s programme in marine biodiversity and conservation in Portugal. Since leaving Germany about 10 years ago, he spent the large majority of his time studying and working in the UK where he started his journey as…
First A Volunteer, Then A Team Member – Working with Whale Sharks on the Maldives
By Chloe Darwinn. Dhigurah, a narrow island in South Ari Atoll. At three kilometres long it is home to a community of just over six hundred people on land, as well as an abundance of life under the waves. From minuscule planktonic life, to the ocean giant and world’s biggest fish – the whale shark….
For Dr Louise Gentle, conservation is more than preservation
By Kaitlyn Elverson. Dr Louise Gentle is a well-loved wildlife conservation lecturer at the Brackenhurst Campus at Nottingham Trent University in Nottingham, UK. Her research and work at NTU has stretched over many topics, from why Wombats poop cubes to Yellowhammers, but for this interview, I asked Louise some things that targeted the bigger picture…
Interview with Zara – Fighting for the protection of sharks on the Gili Islands, Indonesia
By Hannah Schartmann. Zara is working for the Gili Shark Conservation Project, which is situated on the island Gili Air in Indonesia. This area is home of two threatened shark species, the Black Tip Reef Sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus) and the White Tip Reef Sharks (Triaenodon obesus). The aim of the project is to protect shark…
Thamarasi Aththanayaka: A conservation story from Sri Lanka
By Thamarasi Aththanayaka and Alyssa Robinson. Hello, I am Thamarasi Aththanayaka from Sri Lanka. I don’t know whether you have heard about my small country, which is actually an island in the Indian Ocean. We are lucky to have a beautiful ocean with sandy and rocky beaches, as well as coral reefs, mangroves and seagrass…
