Hello! We're Abi and Alex, the new Marine Futures Interns at the North West Wildlife Trusts. Over the next 6 months, we'll be working with the partner organisations, The Crown Estate, Orsted, Natural England, and Cumbria Wildlife Trust, on a variety of marine projects, and keeping you updated through our blogs.
Our first month as Marine Futures Interns
In this blog, our recently appointed Marine Futures Interns share their stories of the paths that led them to their Internships and what they've been up to in their new roles so far.
Let us introduce ourselves and tell you what we’ve been up to during the first month…
Hi, I’m Abi and I am one of the new Marine Futures Interns!
I have always loved being in and on the water, growing up by the sea in Devon installed a deep appreciation for all things marine.
I’ve always been interested in how we interact with the Earth’s systems, especially in terms of sustainability and conservation, which led me to complete an MSc in Global Sustainability Solutions at Exeter University.
This involved working with the Galapagos Conservation Trust on an assessment of risk of plastic pollution to species project, and then I moved to the Isles of Scilly for 6 months to work on a seabird conservation project with the Scilly Wildlife Trust.
Being immersed in this amazing environment showed me that our marine ecosystems can exist in a more pristine condition even with us living and working within it.
I have also worked for environmental education charity Another Way as a campaign assistant and developing and delivering workshops focussing on sustainable living to schools and universities.
I was delighted to be offered the Marine Futures Intern position so I could learn more about different careers in the sector, gain more practical restoration and conservation skills, and meet so many amazing people all working towards restoring and maintaining our amazing ocean and coastal habitats. I cannot wait to get stuck in!
Hi, I’m Alex and I’m the other Marine Futures Intern!
I’d always enjoyed the sea but my interest and passion really kicked-off while at university; I was always adamant I didn’t have any interest in anything marine but it got to me in the end!
My interest and background are mainly in marine conservation; so looking at why our marine species are declining and figuring out what we can do about it.
This gave me the opportunity to spend two summers in North Cyprus working with nesting sea turtles and more recently I got to spend a month on Skomer Island in Wales working with seabirds.
Alongside these, I also spent some time running a marine biology student society where I got to run training and engagement events for members, meeting some amazing people and learning lots along the way.
Having just finished with my MSci Zoology degree (also from Exeter University) I couldn’t believe my luck at being accepted onto the Marine Futures Internship.
Coming straight out of university it’s great to engage with other sectors and see all the different viewpoints. I can’t wait to see what we get up to over our 6 months and look forward to updating you all as we go.
Weeks 1 and 2
We spent the first two weeks having inductions from all the partner organisations, starting at Cumbria Wildlife Trust where we are based.
A visit to South Walney nature reserve was the highlight of the first week, with Alex and I unable to believe that we would be spending some working days in this beautiful ‘office’ looking at seabirds and cetaceans (a mutual hobby… and now our work?!).
We attended the North West Marine Ecosystem (NWME) conference in Lancaster which was invaluable in educating us about the types of marine habitats and conservation work which happen within the North West.
We then travelled down to London for a week to spend some time in The Crown Estate offices and meet the other interns from around the country.
We were introduced to our programme leads, community leads, and then all the sector leads spoke to us about their work which gave us an idea of how The Crown Estate operates, and their role in nature recovery and reaching Net Zero targets.
The Crown Estate offices were very impressive with the most amazing views of London, lots of plants everywhere, and really nice workspaces. Everyone who works there is really welcoming and friendly and put us at ease instantly.
Weeks 3 and 4
We then travelled back up to Cumbria and headed out with the Marine team from Cumbria Wildlife Trust for a team day along the North West coast of Cumbria to see Allonby Bay (the newly designated HPMA), St Bees, and the Maryport aquarium.
It was great for us to see some of the places around Cumbria which we had heard or read about, and I'm certainly building up an image of the conservation network within the North West.
Scarborough, England
We then travelled over to Scarborough for the Restoring Meadows Marshes and Reefs (ReMeMaRe) conference for a few days and met up with the other interns from around the country again.
Kittiwake © Adam Jones
We were both delighted to see kittiwakes nesting on our hotel, as these are the focus of our main project and we both love seabirds!! We both learnt so much about marine conservation and restoration and spoke to lots of interesting people in different sectors and made some links to help us out with some of our projects.
A massive thank you to Emma from Orsted for taking us under her wing and making some great introductions! I found it particularly interesting learning about the ways in which restoration is governed and looking at the benefits of nature as an asset.
It was very reassuring to see so many communities as well as practitioners getting involved in restoration and seeing how so many individual projects can scale up the collective effort and have a large impact.
Back in Cumbria, we had our Orsted and Natural England inductions and were introduced to our main project for the internship.
We'll be looking at nesting kittiwakes on an offshore windfarm substation, building on the work of previous interns.
This will involve travelling out to the windfarms to survey the birds, installing trail cameras to assess productivity, and then analysing these results.
We'll be identifying some nature inclusive design opportunities for offshore windfarms, and proposing future monitoring techniques for kittiwakes on the windfarms.
We'll also be looking at the new Marine Net Gain consultations to see where nature inclusive design might fit in with compensation contributions for offshore wind.
Both Alex and I are really excited about this project and our contribution to it, and we’ve started planning our surveys and already had two cameras installed on one of the offshore substations!
Attending the quarterly marine steering group for the North West Wildlife Trusts allowed us to gain a further idea of the marine conservation work happening in our area and make some contacts within the Trust who might be able to help us with our projects.
As well as our main project, Alex and I also have two individual projects which we are starting to look at… but more on those in the next update!
We're excited to be visiting the windfarm over the next few weeks, working more on our individual projects, and starting to do some seabird and seagrass surveys.
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