What happens when the propellor engineer meets the coral scientist? Or when an aerospace engineer meets the ornithologist?

Ocean Ambassadors was born out of the notion that an idea shared is an idea multiplied.

We believe there is huge potential of connecting diverse disciplines to release new ideas, for the benefit of inspiring students and saving our oceans. 

We also believe that everyone has a role and that humblest ideas are often best.

Everyone is welcome to join our loose collective, to share ideas and be part of the bigger picture.

Friends of ocean ambassadors

We are grateful to the many people who have contributed to Ocean Ambassadors so far including the following who we are currently working with:

Prof Olivier Adam

Member of the Institute d'Alembert, Sorbonne University (Paris, France). Specialist in Signal Processing and Bioacoustics, he studies cetaceans species to better describe their behaviours, their interactions and the impacts of human marine activities on their societies. Currently, he is involved in 3 scientific projects: 1) study of mother-calf interactions in humpback whales, using underwater video cams, acousonde tags, aerial drones and genetics; 2) analysis of sperm whale codas, based on a big dataset of underwater audio-video recordings; 3) Acoustic characterization of underwater soundscapes in order to describe the biophony, the geophony and the anthropophagy parts.

Author and co-authors of 50 articles published in scientific revues and gave more than 100 talks in international conferences. He is one of the organisers of the Humpback Whale World Congress and of the DCLDE Conference. In 2019, he was the curator of the whale exhibition Baleinopolis in Paris (France) and in 2022, he organized the photo exhibition named "L'Océan c'est Vivant" (Paris). He participated in numerous radio and TV shows, and also was involved in documentary films.

Arzucan Askin FRGS

Geographer, political ecologist, conservationist, her most recent work has been on coastal climate change resilience and marine plastics as part of the World Bank’s West Africa Coastal Areas (WACA) Program, supported by a joint fellowship from the German Federal Foreign Office, the German Academic Exchange Service and the Mercator Foundation for International Affairs. Arzu is the 2021 European ROLEX Scholar of the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society®, a PADI Dive Master and Rescue Diver.
www.arzucan-askin.com

Oliver Beardon FRGS

Oliver is a professional skipper, oceans advocate, and environmentalist. Wildly passionate about sailing, he holds the RYA’s highly respected Yachtmaster Offshore Certificate commercially endorsed by the MCA. He is also a fully qualified architect with a particular interest in low energy buildings and sustainable communities. www.sailbritain.org

Dr Oscar Branson

Lecturer at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge. Oscar specialises in Biomineral formation and geochemistry, Climate Change and Earth-Ocean-Atmosphere Systems
www.esc.cam.ac.uk

Isabel Connell

Ecologist at the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.
Isabel Connell

Dr Jonathan Copley

Associate Professor in Ocean Exploration & Public Engagement (part-time) within Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre Southampton at the University of Southampton.
www.southampton.ac.uk

Dr Jamie Craggs

Aquarium Curator at the Horniman Museum, and specialist in Coral Reproduction. He is a Science Associate at the Natural History Museum, London, and in 2016 was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society of London.
www.horniman.ac.uk

Lorna Evans

COO of the charity Seaful. , Lorna is a surf & SUP instructor and Blue Health Coach Practitioner. She has over 20 years of experience in retail business and senior management. She is passionate about helping people find their connection to nature and experience the benefits of it.
www.timeandtidecoaching.co.uk

Henry Fletcher 

Facilitator, storyteller and guide, helping guide and re-imagine humanity's relationship to (our) shared ecology. Manager of projects that invite and facilitate collaborations with nature across different ecological zones: mountains, farmland and the oceans.
www.henryjf.xyz
www.wayfinding.guide

Oonagh Harpur

Independent Chair and Non-Executive Director of companies and Trusts: Love and Integrity in Business

Dr Brian Luckhurst

Former Senior Fisheries Officer for the Department of Environmental Protection

Dr Cal Major

Cal is a veterinary surgeon, world-record stand-up paddleboard adventurer and film producer and presenter. She is passionate about wildlife and biodiversity protection and reconnecting people to our amazing ocean. Founder of Paddle Against Plastic and the charity Seaful.
www.calmajor.com

Dr Charlotte de Mille 

Museums education, specialist in disseminating research to public audiences and facilitator of school programmes. A first mate for Sail Britain, Charlotte also teaches sailing for BigKid Foundation.
www.courtauld.academia.edu

Ffion Mitchell 

Postgraduate student in Applied Marine Science at the University of Plymouth.

Prof Madeleine van Oppen

Ecological geneticist working on microbial symbiosis and assisted evolution in coral at the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences.
www.aims.gov.au

Amy Shepheard 

Multi-disciplinary creative and digital product designer.

Prof Steve Simpson

Professor of Marine Biology and Global Change at Exeter University, with particular interests in the behaviour of coral reef fishes, bioacoustics, effects of climate change on marine ecosystems, fisheries, conservation and management.
www.biosciences.exeter.ac.uk