What drives Sea Sense Marine Consulting?
The two interconnected questions that drive what I do at Sea Sense, are these:
Who needs to know what, why, when and how, so we can produce the right evidence at the right times to drive the right actions for our communities, coasts and seas?
and...
The purpose, value, coherence and flow of data, information and knowledge moving around the entire marine environmental management cycle is unclear and dysfunctional, so what shall we do about it?
If your answers to these questions are ‘who cares, let me get back to counting my worms!’, and/or ‘nothing, stop being so dramatic!’, I probably can’t help you. But, in the middle of a biodiversity, climate, pollution and social inequality emergency, decision-making in the marine environment is getting harder, and I think that evidence should be working harder for us.
We urgently need to better understand, predict and adapt to climate change impacts, cumulative pressure effects and multiple capital trade-offs, and we desperately need to communicate the amazing work that's being done to people outside the marine science, blue economy and ocean conservation bubble. So, if you’re trying to turn a sea of complexity into the right knowledge and action for our blue planet, I can help you.
Who am I?
Yep, that's me surfing (although most of what I do in the water does NOT look like that). I started learning in my late 30s and it's become a really big part of my life.
I've always loved the sea. When I was 9 years old growing up in the West Midlands, I drew a picture of myself with big hair, holding a surfboard, although I'd never touched one. It took me a while to get there, but I'm finally living the dream.
After spending much of the 90s addicted to Wildlife on One, I started off studying Biological Sciences at Oxford University and then did a Research Masters degree in marine biology at Plymouth University and Plymouth Marine Laboratory, studying the impact of ocean acidification on unsuspecting sea urchins.
Having realised academia wasn't quite for me, I managed to persuade the Joint Nature Conservation Committee to hire me and stayed for 14 years. During that time I learnt about biodiversity targets, ecosystem assessment processes, indicator development, monitoring programmes, offshore surveys, marine protected areas, seabed habitat mapping, human pressures data and most importantly, working collaboratively with others to turn evidence into advice into action.
An opportunity to work on a new programme dedicated to developing the evidence base for marine natural capital approaches led me to Defra. Taking a complex idea from concept to structure, governance and operational delivery can be a wild ride, and providing the scientific steer was a real challenge. I learnt a huge amount and our programme even got nominated for a civil service award (we didn't win, but we don't talk about that).
Then after several years in consultancy, I decided to branch out on my own. At Sea Sense I want to work with people on creating, understanding and translating the evidence we collect on our coastal and marine environments (and I don't just mean numbers of worms in mud) into better decisions for people and the planet.
I don't like needless jargon, corporate business nonsense or the word 'leverage'. But I do like surfing, learning and making sense of marine science so we can better manage our incredible blue planet. If you're into that too, let's have a chat!