Tag Archive for: Marine Conservation

5 Tips to Kick-Start your Marine Conservation Career

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Getting a head start in your marine conservation career is not easy, but that does NOT mean it is impossible! Read on for a few of my top tips to help kick-start your career in marine conservation.

1. Volunteer

Get involved with a local clean up, citizen science or environmental organisation that will allow you to build essential skills and connections.

Whilst at university, I was part of the UQ Geography Society and in my last year was elected president by my peers. This not only strengthened my social and leadership skills, it also allowed me to build my abilities in logistics, event management and networking. We successfully organised camping trips, fundraisers, market stalls, plus social and professional networking events. We took the initiative to pull together (with the help of a wonderful team of course!) the society’s first ever industry night where university students had the chance to connect with industry

UQ Geography Society Camping Trip

professionals. It included a panel of speakers, career speed dating and social drinks and canapés. The entire event was sponsored by the attending companies, all made possible by the efforts of the wonderful volunteer team I was leading.

In addition, I was volunteering with Seagrass Watch Moreton Bay and the local community bushcare nursery. I was quite the busy bee, but this all meant I left university with not just a piece of paper, but a bunch of complimentary skills that prepared me well for my career.

2. Get an Internship

“How do I get experience if nobody will give me experience?“

When I finished university, every job I was applying for asked for experience. I didnt have any, so how was I meant to get any?
Internships – especially unpaid ones – can be a source of debate. From the employer’s perspective, it takes a lot of time and resources to train students. From the intern’s perspective, getting a feel for what it’s like to work in the “real world” can be extremely valuable, but is it worth giving your time for free? I am in two minds about this. I personally disagree with paying to volunteer, but trading time for new skills, industry experience, contacts and knowledge you didnt previously have is a huge gain (maybe even more so than financial compensation).

I believe your time, skills and knowledge should always be fairly compensated and I wasn’t quite priviledged enough to be able to support myself during an unpaid internship. I was lucky to (after a lot of hard work, persistence and thinking outside the box) find a paid internship position. It was a 6 month contract, after which the NGO I was working for offered me a full time contract as an employee!

3. Network

This one is HUGE! Not only in gaining possible career leads or jobs, but it is also a great way to meet a mentor or coach who can help guide and encourage you on your way.

Don’t ever underestimate the value of knowing someone who knows someone whose aunty’s grandma knows a friend whose distant cousin could help with a lead! For me, networking is something that I never really intentionally set out to do. I love people, so that certainly helped it happen naturally. My network was created through my volunteer positions, getting involved in other peoples projects, going to social events, joining dive clubs and just chatting to people and putting yourself out there as a friendly and enthusiastic human.

I spent about 3 months – almost full time- job searching when I finished university, to no avail. I was living in Switzerland at the time, where I did my last semester of university. Whilst job searching, I saw a conference about seagrass that was happening in the south of Spain, put on by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). My rental agreement was soon coming to an end and given that I hadnt yet found a job, I registered for the seagrass conference, booked a train and packed all of my things.

I spent 2 full days at the seagrass conference, where most presentations were in Spanish (I spoke very very basic Spanish at this time!). On one of the tea breaks, I was relieved to overhear someone speaking French, so I went and introduced myself for a chat. This man just happened to be the head of the Marine Conservation department at IUCN Malaga. He asked me what I was doing there and I told him the truth – I just finished university, love seagrass and was looking for a job, so decided to come and see what it was all about. He was impressed with my genuine eagerness and suggested I send my CV through… a few days later I went in for an interview and a month later I started my internship at the IUCN Mediterranean. I really do love seagrass!

4. Get an Edge

When I reflect back on the jobs I have had since graduating, I scored most of them not only thanks to my Marine

Science degree, but also my languages and additional skills. For my first job at the IUCN, as well as being a native english speaker, it was essential that I had some knowledge of Spanish and French, as these were the three official languages of the IUCN. My next job was in Tahiti – a French speaking territory of France, where I also did my professional diving qualifications (Divemaster and Instructor).

When I came back to work on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, I got a job as a Dive Instructor and Marine Biologist – a job I may not have secured with the Marine Science qualification alone. Languages, dive instructing, driving a boat, IT skills and first aid qualifications are all huge value ads that can set you apart when you are up against so many other candidates.

Travel has also been extremely valuable in building skills related to my lanuages, alternative thinking, problem solving and a greater awareness and understanding of diverse socio-cultural-political contexts.

5. Persist

Whats the number one piece of advice I give anyone considering a career in Marine Science?

Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t!!!

“It’s a hard field to get into, there are not many jobs, it’s not well paid, so many people want to do it“. My whole life I have been presented with reasons why I can’t or shouldn’t. The best thing you can do is use these doubts as fuel to drive your determination to succeed. Follow up on emails, call and call again, make yourself present, and keep trying until you get where you want to go.

Just because it’s hard, doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Always believe in yourself!

Feel free to send me a message or leave a comment if you have any questions or would like to chat about a career in Marine Science.

Interview with Kaushman: Careers in conservation

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Written by: Bennath Chillingworth

From July-September 2022, I spent 6 weeks living in Mozambique while volunteering as a field assistant with Love the Oceans (LTO). LTO is a non-profit organisation that works tirelessly to support the community in Jangamo Bay in establishing a Marine Protected Area for the Inhamabane province in Mozambique. While I was there, I was lucky to have met some incredibly interesting, and boundlessly inspiring people who are exceptionally good at what they do, having made huge contributions to the industry. One of these people is @Kausman, who I was fortunate enough to cross paths with during my time in Mozambique.

Interview with Kaushman: Careers in conservation

Instagram: @kaushman

Kaush is a wildlife conservation biologist (MSc), having conducted fieldwork projects in several diverse environments ranging from South African scrubland to Maldivian coral reefs. Additionally, as a camera operator and award-nominated photographer, Kaush has worked with conservation organisation outlets such as the BBC to shed light on conservation efforts worldwide. You can find out more about Kaush on his website at https://kaush.net/. Read my interview with Kaush below where we talk about his career and achievements to give a flavour of, and insight into the world of marine conservation, and hopefully provide advice to aspiring marine biologists and conservationists of any age! And stay tuned for the sequel blog where Kaush talks about his new film ‘Peixinho’ which
was filmed while I was also out in Mozambique!

How did you get to where you are now?

“I’ve always known that I’ve wanted to work with wildlife since I was a child, I just didn’t always know in what capacity. After I finished my BSc, I went straight into doing a master’s degree in wildlife conservation. It made sense to do that in order to learn more about the techniques and practices used in the field to carry out conservation in different scenarios around the world. For my thesis, I arranged to go and research whale shark eco-tourism in the Maldives with a charity that was carrying out some amazing work. After I came back from that experience, I finished my MSc and the charity asked me back the following year to be their research assistant in the field. I spent three months studying whale sharks that year and adding to my data set from the previous year, as well as getting more into underwater photography and videography. Shortly after I returned home from that stint, the world was thrown into a pandemic, and I had a lot of time to work on my photo and video editing skills as well as to write up the data that I had collected. My initial BBC job came after applying for a few jobs and one BBC producer looked at my research background and recommended me to another producer for an upcoming documentary series that was in the works. I started as a researcher, using my science background and research skills to contact scientists and find potential stories to film.”

 

Instagram: @kaushman

What interested you most/ what did you most enjoy about your master’s course?

“The thing that interested me most was the module that we had on “Conservation Communication”.
It taught us a lot about how amazing conservation efforts in the past had gone unheard of by the masses and how important consideration messages had been missed due to them being poorly communicated and broadcast to the vast majority of people. It also underlined the importance of social media and photos/images in the present day, as tools for communicating conservation efforts and this really resonated with me as someone who already had a passion for this kind of media.”

What was your master’s thesis on?

“My thesis research focused on whale shark eco-tourism in the Maldives and the impact that it has on whale shark health. The area of the Maldives that I did my research in is one of the only places in the world where there is a year-round population of whale sharks, and this drives a huge demand for tourist excursions to swim with them. My research focused on the impacts of breaking the code of conduct rules for whale shark encounters on the sharks.

What was it like working for the BBC?

“Working for the BBC was amazing and in many ways, a dream come true. I worked as a researcher on a documentary series that is in the works at the moment. Using my science background to read papers, search for interesting animal behaviours and to talk to scientists about potentially interesting stories that we could go out and film. After a potential story was found and talked through with the team, I’d then lease with my producer and start the process of organising the shoot and the logistics of it all. It was an incredible experience and a huge learning curve about the industry. I was really lucky to have an amazingly supportive team who helped me every step of the way as I was thrown into the deep end a bit with it being my first job in the industry, but the team was just amazing.”

What are some of the proudest moments from your career so far/ moments that remind you how
much you have achieved?

“Landing a job at the BBC is definitely up there as that is something that I had been working at for so long. Having two of my images shortlisted in the upcoming Wildlife Photographer Of The Year was a special moment for me as well. Being an amateur photographer when I took the selected images, and it being the most prestigious wildlife photography competition in the world, I really hope that my nominations for the award can inspire others to go out and pursue their passion for photography. The other stand-out moment of the last year has to be screening of my short film about coral reefs in the cinema room of the BBC for my friends and colleagues. It was amazing to showcase my work to people who are at the top of the natural history filming industry and to get such great feedback from
them, and it really served to highlight how much progress I’d made in terms of my editing during the months and months of pandemic lockdowns.”

Interview with Kaushman: Careers in conservation

Instagram: @kaushman

I felt very inspired by the people I met in Mozambique, including Madeline StClair, Francesca Trotman, and Ines Costa, my program leader. What is it like being in such a close group of friends that are all such amazing, high-achieving marine biologists?

“It really is amazing having such talented friends like Chess and Mads, who are also incredibly supportive. Being able to collaborate so seamlessly and then also be a part of each other’s personal lives after long days at work is such a help in a field that can be extremely stressful at times. Meeting someone as passionate about the field and so accomplished at such a young age as Ines was incredible and great to meet such a nice person. The marine sector is so small, and we are all trying to achieve the same goal in conserving the oceans, it is amazing when we can work together and support each other’s projects.”

What advice do you have for young aspiring marine biologists/ conservationists such as myself wanting to get into the field when there is so much competition?

“It is a very hard industry to break into, especially at the new grad/early careers stage so you’re going to get a lot of rejections for jobs but that is just part of the process, and you can’t take it to heart. Keep applying for jobs/internships etc and try to gain as much valuable experience as you can until someone takes a chance on you. In the meantime, work on your current skillset so that you’re sharp and work on learning new skills that will make you stand out above the rest. We live in the age of the internet, where learning a new skill is just a few clicks away.”

 

Visit https://kaush.net/ for more information, and make sure you give @kaushman a follow on socials.

Why are Master Reef Guides so passionate about the Great Barrier Reef?

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A little while ago, I had the pleasure of joining Donna and Matt at 3CR to share my experience as a Master Reef Guide with Lady Musgrave Experience. We spoke about my experiences on the Great Barrier Reef and why I’m so passionate about marine conservation. Listen in to learn more about the importance of these guides, how they are influencing positive tourism on the Great Barrier Reef, and how you can get involved!

Here’s how you can protect the Great Barrier Reef

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Our national wonder, the Great Barrier Reef is as large as Italy, seen from space, and is home to many thousands of coral and marine life species. No action is too small to become a good friend to the Reef.