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It is amazing the breadth that marine science covers. People think it鈥檚 all about talking to dolphins and spending your life on a boat. I also thought that until I started uni, but I quickly discovered there鈥檚 a lot more to it!听

I come from a background of working with fish and marine reptiles. At the moment I鈥檓 working on offshore wind projects, offshore oil and gas environmental approvals, and closer to home we鈥檝e got a long-term little penguin field study, so there is a lot of variety in my day-to-day work.

I was on holiday up in Shark Bay听in Western Australia (the most westerly point of mainland Australia)听and met some people who听were听amazingly passionate about marine education.听It was seeing听how they听helped听people to care about the environment through education听-听that's what made me want to do it.

Often there is little understanding of marine life in a particular place, so when offshore wind developers want to start a project, our team will survey the marine environment to understand what species are living there or are passing through, what the water quality is like, what benthic habitats are there.听听

Sometimes there will be previous studies to draw on, other times we鈥檒l be going into largely unknown territory, and we鈥檒l need to undertake long-term, extensive ecological studies to get a full picture of the environment. Then we can assess what will be affected and devise plans to reduce the impacts.听

For example,听some of our team members were just over in Victoria doing a survey for pelagic fish听- fish that live in the middle of the water column, like tuna and kingfish. The study gives us information about what types of fish are living in a specific zone 鈥� we study their habitat, how they interact with the area. This allows us to work with a developer to manage their project design so there鈥檚 as little impact from the project to the environment as possible.

It鈥檚 interesting to work in an emerging industry like offshore wind and to be part of the conversation about bringing renewable resources to Australia.听听

If you鈥檙e passionate about what you鈥檙e doing, it can be infectious. I enjoy getting emails from construction teams, telling me about the marine life they鈥檙e seeing. It鈥檚 great to support others to appreciate and care about the environment in which we live and work.

I鈥檓 fortunate to be working with little penguins on some of the islands south of Perth, monitoring them and their habitat. Some amazing researchers have dedicated their lives to little penguins. It鈥檚 been fantastic to learn from them.听听

Then there鈥檚听seagrass surveys. Understanding trends in the seagrass growth is important as it will allow for informed decisions on the environmental management of the area.

I鈥檝e had curious听sea snakes听wrap around me while diving, been attacked by territorial clownfish (funny) and triggerfish (not so funny)听and watched a vessel be scuttled to become a wreck dive site听鈥� we followed it down in the water and got to explore as soon it was on the sea floor.听