Skoven – meet the team
There are 14 people aboard the good ship Skoven for our section of the SCANS-III survey. The team comprises 10 scientists and 4 ship’s crew. Within the scientists, we are split into three teams: four tracker observers (who track cetaceans that are first seen more than 500m from the vessel); four primary observers (who focus on searching for cetaceans seen within 500m of the vessel); and two ornithologists.
The science team line-up is as follows:
Tracker platform:
Marijke de Boer is a marine mammal scientist and currently works as a freelance marine consultant. She recently completed her PhD on Marine Mammal Ecology at the University of Wageningen (NL) focusing on the abundance and distribution of cetaceans using (low-cost) seagoing vessels (‘Platforms of Opportunity’). She has participated in various ocean-crossing surveys: Indian Ocean, Davis Strait, South China Sea, Southern Ocean and Antarctica. Nowadays her research focuses on marine fauna within the Wider Caribbean Region and Cornwall (UK).
Claire Lacey is cruise leader for this survey team and works at the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) as coordinator for the SCANS-III project. She is looking forward to working with the data collected both on this vessel and the other SCANS-III platforms once field work is completed.
Susannah Calderan is a marine mammal scientist who lives and works on the west coast of Scotland. Susannah has conducted vessel-based research in all ocean basins. Much of this work has involved developing new visual and acoustic survey and analysis techniques for localising and tracking cetaceans at a range of spatial scales, from long-range blue whale acoustic tracking in the Antarctic to fine-scale localisation of porpoise species.
Conor Ryan is a zoologist hailing from Cobh in Ireland, but currently lives in the Hebrides. His area of expertise is in the feeding ecology and population structure of baleen whales. In recent years he has worked for the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust and on RV Song of the Whale conducting passive acoustic and visual surveys for cetacean from the Hebrides to the Mediterranean Sea.
Primary platform:
Darren Craig is a marine and freshwater ecologist from Donegal, Ireland. He graduated from Galway Mayo Institute of Galway and has been working with marine mammals since 2009. During the past 7 years Darren has worked on cetacean projects globally, including locations in Australia, Africa and Europe. In recent years Darren has been working as a MMO and PAM operator in marine mammal mitigation and has been conducting surveys with the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group.
Becci Jewell is a marine biologist based in Fife, Scotland. She has been working on marine mammal surveys since 2002, most recently working on dedicated cetacean surveys in Europe and New Zealand and providing mitigation monitoring during seismic surveys for oil and gas in Europe and Africa. An experienced MMO and PAM operator, Becci also provides MMO training. Her research background is in modelling the abundance and distribution of cetaceans, detecting trends in cetacean populations and relating trends to anthropogenic sound.
Laura Kavanagh is a marine biologist from Tipperary, Ireland. She has spent the past eight years working worldwide as a marine wildlife consultant, working in the fields of oil and gas, renewables and research as an MMO, PAM operator and ESAS surveyor. She has been involved in projects such as PReCAST in Ireland, BRAHSS in Australia and the Grey Whale Monitoring Project in Sakhalin, Russia. She is currently managing the Oiled Wildlife Response Network in Ireland.
Mark Tasker has worked on seabirds and marine mammals and their conservation for 38 years. He is the Head of Marine Species Advice at UK’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee and a vice-chair of the Advisory Committee for the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. He has observed on marine mammal surveys worldwide including the previous SCANS surveys. He is looking forward to making full use of the results of the SCANS-III survey but in the meantime is enjoying being at sea.
Ornithologists:
Paul French is a freelance ornithologist based in East Yorkshire. His background is in seabird monitoring and wetland creation and management with RSPB, before going freelance and contributing to many and various onshore and offshore bird surveys, mostly in relation to wind farm developments. When not out birding, Paul is Chairman of the British Birds Rarities Committee and a committee member for Spurn Bird Observatory.
Mark Lewis has been birding all of his life, and has been doing seabird and cetacean surveys with JNCC since 2006. As part of his job with JNCC he manages the European Seabirds at Sea (ESAS) database, and overseeing the UK ESAS training and accreditation scheme, but is much happier to be out at sea implementing the method and collecting data.
