2024 Marine Futures Interns
Ellena and Alice started their Marine Futures Internship, based with Cumbria Wildlife Trust, in June. Here's a first look at what they have been up to.
Introductions:
Ellena Consadine
Hi I’m Ellena, one half of this years' Marine Futures Interns duo! I’m originally from the Morecambe Bay area and have a BSc degree in Marine Biology from Bangor University. I've always loved the sea and can spend hours on the shore exploring the different species in rockpools. I'm particularly interested in seaweed and think it's a seriously underrated organism- it's not a plant or an animal! I spend a lot of my free time out on walks with a pair of binoculars around my neck looking for birds, either along the coast or further inland.
Alice Parker
Hi, Alice here. I guess if you’re reading this, we share a real affinity for our seas and coasts. Growing up on the Solway, I was raised on swimming, sailing and exploring its glorious muddy coastline. Here, I volunteered with the RNLI and at my local RSPB reserve. So, now fresh out of studying Environmental Science and Sustainability (BSc) at Glasgow University, I’m starting this internship to learn more about how I can make a positive contribution for our seas, its peoples and nature.
We want this blog to be a space where we can update you on everything we’ve been doing and learning. For this first month, Ellena will bring you an overview of what’s happened so far, then we will take it in turns to keep you updated.
We’re both so excited for the opportunities within this internship, with our partners at Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Ørsted, Natural England and The Crown Estate. It is going to be a fantastic 6 months learning more about our amazing marine environment and gaining experience working in this sector.
Our first month as Marine Futures Interns flew by, so here is a look back at what we got up to.
Alice observing the drone a student from Lancaster University is using to map the seagrass bed.
Week 1:
Week 1 involved lots of introductions with our partners, learning about the structures of their organisations and how we fit into their aims and projects.
Our first fieldwork excursion took us to the Cumbrian coast, where we got stuck in with the monitoring process of a local seagrass restoration project.
We spent time familiarising ourselves with our main project: a follow up study from last years’ interns about the productivity of a kittiwake colony on the offshore substation at Walney 2 Windfarm! We hope to gain a better understanding of how and why kittiwakes are using this artificial nesting site and what this means for people and biodiversity at this site and further afield. We will also be undertaking some smaller, individual projects looking at a range of things including: investigating the possibility of seal tagging, public perceptions of offshore wind farms, water quality testing and creating content for The Crown Estate's Marine Data Exchange- so watch this space to keep up with us on those!
All 9 interns based at different locations, together for the first time at The Crown Estate office in London.
Week 2:
Our second week brought us down to London for an exciting few days with The Crown Estate. Here we met the other marine interns based around the UK, and we all got on really well. At The Crown Estate we had Q&A sessions with Dan Labbad (CEO), Olivia Thomas (Head of Marine Planning & Technical) and Gus Jaspert (Director of Marine). It was fantastic getting to hear about their roles and responsibilities and we really appreciated them taking time out of very busy work schedules to meet with us interns. We also had a workshop on business style writing, and a session called "insights training", to better understand how our personalities inform our work. On the Wednesday we enjoyed a very fun trip to the Windsor Estate with the rest of The Crown Estate staff for some entertainment and networking with others in the marine team. This trip was a great experience and gave us a better understanding of how The Crown Estate operates and makes decisions around marine spatial planning- which involves many different industries and sectors.
Alice enjoying her survey day counting kittiwakes on the offshore substation.
Week 3:
In week 3 we got to grips with our projects more, as Alice ventured out on the boat to conduct the first kittiwake survey at the offshore wind substation. This survey involved motoring around the substation and taking photographs of each side, from on board the vessel. She got some great pictures for analysis and had excellent conditions for the survey- fingers crossed my trip at the end of July goes just as smoothly!
We also had another trip, this time to Scarborough for a conference called ReMeMaRe. This was all about restoring (Re) seagrass meadows (Me), salt marsh (Ma) and biogenic reefs (Re) and it was a truly informative two days. We made lots of summary notes and met some very inspiring people who are leading the way in coastal restoration. We came away with our heads full of ideas and feeling very inspired to be ambitious in our projects. The main point that stood out to us was the need for large scale, ambitious restoration projects that are working in collaboration around our coasts.
Group of interns and The Crown Estate team at the ReMeMaRe conference
Cumbria Wildlife Trust staff exploring the limestone pavement habitat of Hutton Roof.
On the Friday we were back in Cumbria and had a lovely induction day with Cumbria Wildlife Trust CEO Steve Trotter where we heard more about the history, structure and function of The Wildlife Trust. We also got to visit one of the Cumbria reserves, Hutton Roof, where the limestone pavement habitat blew us away and gave us a moment to pause and reflect on the intricate details of our local wildlife. It was great to meet other members of the Cumbria Wildlife Trust team who we don't often cross paths with, and to learn from each other, as we all have such varied, specific areas of expertise.
Week 4:
During week 4, we were back in Cumbria and busy working on our projects. Alice was diligently counting kittiwakes (and nests) in the photos she took at the substation, and we both started working on writing up different aspects of what will eventually become the final report. We fed back our notes from ReMeMaRe and generally cracked on with lots of desk-based work, putting together project kick-off documents and nailing down the aims and objectives of all we’ve got coming up.
We had the opportunity to be part of a Marine Steering Group meeting with Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire and Merseyside Wildlife Trusts. This was a great chance to hear what is going on in the North West area and to hear the progress of various projects. We were also able to introduce ourselves to the wider team and update them all on what we have been involved with so far.
The first month of our internship has really flown by! We will keep you updated here on what else we get up to but for now
Best fishes!
Ellena
Lunch break walk through a meadow, near to the Cumbria office.
Ellena trying out falconry at The Crown Estate's summer celebration at Windsor
Smiles in Scarborough after a very cold morning swim in the sea