Working with our partners, we send highly trained Marine Mammal Surveyors out on ferries and cruise ships to collect vital scientific data on the animals they see, and offer unforgettable wildlife experiences to passengers. ORCA has hired a brand new Conservation Monitoring Officer, who will be coordinating and facilitating ORCA’s volunteer monitoring programmes, overseeing the logistics of the Marine Mammal Surveyor network, and maintaining the highest standards of cetacean citizen science, safeguarding these animals for future generations.
Ellie Adams joined ORCA HQ at the beginning of August 2023, but has been involved with the charity since 2018; first as a Marine Mammal Surveyor, and more recently as an Ocean Conservationist. Ellie has a BSc (Hons) in Animal Science from Aberystwyth University and an MA in Anthrozoology from the University of Exeter. Anthrozoology is the study of the different relationships between humans and other animals. Ellie particularly enjoyed studying conservation monitoring, and the effects of eco-tourism on human-animal relationships during her degree.
Ellie’s love of cetaceans has taken her to Tenerife as a volunteer researcher, as well as Norway and Iceland in her role as an Ocean Conservationist, and she has recently qualified as an ORCA Team Leader on the ferry surveys around the UK. In 2021 Ellie cycled the length of the UK raising money for ORCA, and collecting valuable data on the cetaceans she saw along the way using ORCA’s OceanWatchers app.
We hope you will all join us in welcoming Ellie to the team and wish her the best of luck embarking on her new adventure in Portsmouth!