A very warm welcome to Whale space. The space where I am going to blog about my current and extremely exciting research and its impacts to help conserve the largest creatures on our planet, the great whales.
So how did I get to where I am and more importantly where is that exactly… well I’ve always been obsessed by the outdoors, wildlife and most importantly the marine environment. As a young teenager I trained as a marine mammal medic with the BDMLR and whenever possible I accepted educational positions at companies wanting to spread the word about ocean conservation.
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However, it wasn’t until I joined the Marine Strandings Network during my 5-year cornish adventure that I began to wonder about the real benefits of these poor stranded and often deceased individuals.
I began to exhaust the internet and contact various research associates for known research positions that may utilise the database of stranded marine mammals across the globe for the benefit of conservation research for the great whales. It wasn’t until a good friend of mine forwarded me a twitter link titled “PhD Position – Whale population structuring in the polar south Atlantic at the University of Cambridge, British Antarctic Survey and the Natural History Museum” that I shrieked with excitement and then I peed my pants at the thought of ever applying for a PhD position at Cambridge… no way would they ever accept me, I am no Einstein, Hawking or Newton. Surely I would embarrass myself and my application would get laughed at… after much deliberation I decided to apply with the hope that even if I failed, the experience would help me get closer to my goal. I have never learnt such an invaluable fact…
IF YOU WANT TO SUCCEED AT SOMETHING, TRY HARD ENOUGH AND YOU WILL SUCCEED
4 months, 1 painful interview and some extremely solid dedication to learn later… I began my PhD at the University of Cambridge and British Antarctic Survey studying Whale Bones in an extremely powerful and unknown field to me – HISTORICAL ECOLOGY
More on historical ecology to come …
PS. I love my dog (Please click here to learn how awesome my dog is)
Whale Space 