Tiffany Rogerson- Marine Mammal Medic

Tiff is a Landscape Conservation Assistant in Essex and also volunteers as a Marine Mammal Medic for BDMLR! Tiff has worked for ORCA to educate people all about amazing marine mammals and has seen some beautiful creatures during her time at sea!

Short bio about yourself and your career:

I am 33, have lived in Essex all my life and am now currently working for Essex Wildlife Trust as a Landscape Conservation Assistant for the South East of Essex. I have done quite a lot of travelling around Asia, Australia & New Zealand and this was when I discovered my passion for wildlife conservation. I graduated from University with a psychology degree and after travelling decided that I wanted to get more involved in conservation. I worked in my local aquarium as a Talks Host which was great fun, before undertaking a Marine Mammal Surveyor course with ORCA (Whale & dolphin conservation charity based in Portsmouth). When a Wildlife Office job came up with ORCA, I jumped at the chance. This job gave me the opportunity to show people whales and dolphins on board a ferry and to engage with both adults and children about conservation through talks and activities. I then joined EWT as an Administrator at Head Office, which helped give me a solid understanding of the Trust and also allowed me to help the conservation team with projects also. I then landed my current role within EWT and am still here over 2 years later!

How did you become a marine medic?

I have a huge passion for marine life and wanted to get involved with as many marine related organisations as possible. I heard about British Divers Marine Life Rescue whilst working for ORCA and immediately signed up for their Marine Mammal Medic course. This is a one day course with both a theory and a practical session, where you learn how to undertake a rescue of a seal, whale and dolphin using inflatable life-like models, which is great fun! The courses run each year in Essex and costs £90. From this, I became the Assistant Co-ordinator in Essex for BDMLR (voluntarily) and help to deliver training courses for new medics, as well as raising funds for equipment and running stalls at events to raise awareness of the work that BDMLR does.

What does being a marine medic entail?

You can be as involved as much or as little as you want as a medic and there is no pressure to attend a rescue call out if you are unable to. There are around 900+ trained medics now around the UK and you don`t have to be a diver to get involved. The training course provides all the knowledge and rescue techniques that you need to become a medic and to confidentially help a marine mammal in distress. Once you have done the course, a handbook is provided which has a list of recommended equipment to keep in you car, in a grab bag so that you are fully prepared to attend a call out. You are then added to the medic database and will receive a text message if there is a rescue needed in your local area. If you are able to attend, the hotline coordinator will give you more information and will guide you through the rescue. It is a great way to meet new people and a fantastic community of passionate volunteers.

Please highlight a conservation issue you are particularly involved in:

Seal disturbance is a significant issue that BDMLR faces throughout the UK and one of the biggest threats that seals in this country face. With more and more people using the sea for recreational purposes and more people visiting our coastlines, this can have a detrimental impact on seals that are hauled out and resting. Seals look very cute and friendly which can lead to people getting too close and therefore scaring the seal back into the sea. Seals haul out as they need to rest, regulate their body temperature, socialise, digest their food or suckle their young. If seals are scared into the sea, this can cause huge amounts of stress, wasted energy and also injuries, as well as potentially leading to a mum abandoning her pup. Repeated disturbance can also lead the seal/s abandoning the area completely and finding a new haul out spot. Dog attacks on seals is also becoming more and more common as seals are incredibly vulnerable when hauled out on land, especially in places that easily accessible by the public. Although they may look cute and friendly, seals are wild animals and have a nasty bite which can easily lead to infection!

What can people do you help with this issue?

There are lots of things you can do to help with this issue:

• Keep dogs under control or on a lead when near to resting seals

• Take litter home and dispose of fishing gear carefully- to stop ingestion or entanglement

• Keep a distance from seals

• Call the BDMLR hotline if a seal is in distress or injured- 01825 765546

• Take photos from a distance

• Don`t feed the seal

• Tell other people how they can help protect our beautiful seals

What is your greatest achievement?

My greatest achievement would have to be gaining a first class honours in my degree and then working hard to change my career path and become involved in wildlife conservation and to be in a job that I love.

What is your favourite species?

My favourite species would have to be the beaked whales. There are approximately 22 species of beaked whales and there is still a lot to learn about this species as they are very elusive, deep divers and spend little time at the surface. Not a lot of people have even heard of them and they are very peculiar looking! The Cuvier’s beaked whale can dive down to a staggering 3,000 metres and stay under water for over 3 hours! They are the deepest diving marine mammal in the world and as a diver, I find it incredible how well their bodies are adapted to diving that deep! I had some fantastic sightings of these squid-eating species in the Bay of Biscay whilst working as a Wildlife Officer and they will always hold a special place in my heart!

What advice do you have for people wanting to become a marine medic or working with marine species?

I would say that going on courses and volunteering is a great way to show that you are keen and passionate to get involved with marine species. You will also enhance your knowledge and skills and make connections with lots of people and who knows what exciting opportunities that could lead to!

Find out more about how to become a marine mammal medic below:

Macbradan Bones- Working With Trees

Bones is a super cool Landscape Conservationist, who has a passion for woodland conservation and working with trees!

Short bio about yourself and your career so far:

I’m a landscape conservation area officer for Essex Wildlife Trust, which involves working on nature reserves all over the county to plan, deliver and monitor conservation management and improvement. I get involved in everything, from writing plans and project management down to picking up a chainsaw and grafting. I’ve been lucky enough to do this sort of work for the past 20 years or so, so I must enjoy it!

How did you get into practical conservation?

I’ve always had an interest in nature and trees, but growing up in London, career advice wasn’t great for a budding conservationist! I spent 12 years as a furniture restorer before I finally took the plunge and enrolled on a course to study practical habitat management in 1998. I left college and went straight into conservation work and I’ve been lucky enough to work in the industry almost continuously since then on some fantastic projects and sites.

What work do you do with trees, and how does this benefit woodland conservation?

I assess woodlands to ensure they are in a condition to support as much wildlife as possible- the type and ages of the trees, where they are and how the woodland has been managed has a big impact on the wildlife living there. If a wood hasn’t been managed in a long time it might be too shady for smaller plants to grow so it might need thinning, or I might decide that big, old, dying and dead trees will be better for wildlife- it all varies depending on the individual wood. I also work on very old individual ‘veteran’ trees, aiming to keep them going for as long as possible and ensuring a new generation of veterans is following on. Britain has more of these veteran trees than anywhere else in Europe and they support some species which live nowhere else so they are hugely important not to mention awe-inspiring.

What skills/ qualifications would someone need to work with trees?

To begin with they would need to be able to identify our native species of tree- there are only 35 so it’s not too difficult! For more involved work a chainsaw qualification is useful for day-to day management. Much of the rest is just down to experience and practice which can be gained by volunteering or a forestry or arboriculture course.

Please describe in your own words the difference between traditional forestry and woodland conservation?

Forestry is a modern technique which started after the first World War to enable the UK to produce lots of straight timber quickly so non-native fast-growing conifers were planted in dense, straight rows and all cut down at the same time- not many species can live in the dense shade and when the trees are felled they lose their habitats; forestry is akin to agriculture in that the trees are just a crop. Woodland management was traditionally far less intensive- native trees were used and trees were felled for specific uses sporadically- this left lots of habitat untouched and had the benefit of creating little glades in the wood where sunlight-loving wildlife like butterflies and flowers could flourish. Woodland conservation is either more like traditional management; gentler, slower and timber production isn’t the aim, so we leave more deadwood on the ground as habitat, or very ‘hands -off’ where we allow natural processes to govern what happens much more.

Please highlight a conservation issue you are particularly interested in:

A lot of the work we do in woodlands would once have been done by animals- trees felled by wild cattle, the ground rooted up by boar, ponds and wet areas created by beavers and deer (which eat trees) numbers controlled by wolves, bears and lynxes. There’s a big movement worldwide to bring some of these animals back as they do a far better job than we do. I’d love to see beavers, lynxes and boar (maybe not bears and wolves yet!) back in our woodlands and for the first time in my life it actually looks possible!

What can people do you help with this issue?

Help raise awareness of the importance of these missing key species, particularly their role in a natural ecosystem and that they pose no danger to people and their pets or to the wider landscape.

What is your greatest achievement?

I suppose making the leap in changing career at 29 to do something I love and meeting my future wife at work!

What is your favourite tree and why?

Ooh, tricky one. I love hornbeams, they’re one of the first trees I learned as a boy and the quintessential SE England tree. There’s also a fantastic old oak by the Whalebone pub in Fingringhoe that I love, sometimes called the Pirate’s oak or the Smuggler’s oak; it’s supposed to be the biggest in Essex. If I’m honest though, my favourite kind of tree isn’t even a native or found in our woodlands- I do love cedar trees; they’re so stately!

What advice do you have for people wanting to pursue a career in woodland conservation?

Getting as many qualifications, both theoretical and practical, as you can will help enormously, but practical experience and getting to know the woodlands and the people who look after them is priceless. Start by volunteering with a local work party to learn the basics and try to get involved with every aspect of the work. Then when a job comes up you’ll know how to do it!

Finally, don’t be afraid to ask questions- pick the brain of everyone you can- you can’t know too much.

Lizzie Barker- Founder of Creature Candy

Lizzie created Creature Candy back in 2015, a business with the aim to raise awareness of wildlife conservation and raising funds for many wildlife charities! Amazing!

Short bio about yourself and your career so far:

I was a bit of a late starter with my career and until the age of 28 I had no idea what I wanted to do. After I dropped out of a business studies course at Uni, I just kind of drifted from job to job (I’ve literally tried everything from shoe shop manger to estate agent) and then decided to go back to my first love - ballet! I trained as a ballet, tap and modern dance teacher and taught young children for a number of years. But it wasn’t the right career for me and I felt unhappy and unfulfilled.

At the age of 28, I decided to go to Aberystwyth University to study a degree in Zoology, as wildlife and nature had always interested me and given me a sense of calm and also a thirst to learn! 3 years later, I was awarded with a first class honours degree and left hand in hand with my future husband Sam! I was certainly on the right path now.

After graduating, my first job was on a bat survey, assisting a senior ecologist with a dusk emergence survey, where I needed to watch a derelict building for a couple of hours to see if any bats flew out. That was my first encounter with bats and I was immediately hooked! I then went on to work freelance with several different consultancies, building my knowledge and experience all the time. I was given my bat licence about two years later. I worked as an ecologist for 5 years before setting up Creature Candy in 2015.

How did you start ‘Creature Candy’?

In 2014 I started to feel like I wanted to do more for wildlife conservation and support the wildlife charities I had been working so closely with for the past 4 years. Whilst working as an ecologist, I was stunned by many peoples view on bats, and their descriptions of them as vermin or flying rats! I needed to do something about this and education is the only way forward.

I did some research and realised there was a big gap in the market for products that not only raise awareness of declining wildlife, but also depicted real life hand drawn images of the species on the products, so people can see just how beautiful they are. I also realised this was a perfect opportunity to raise funds for the wildlife charities that work so hard to conserve and protect our wildlife. So I started working on a bat design with my illustrator Jo Medlicott (who I met at Uni), and the brown long-eared bat became our first design, with all proceeds going to the Bat Conservation Trust. We soon had many requests for other species, so we also designed a moth and bumblebee to sit alongside our bat. Our website and the brand launched in Jan 2015.

Please highlight a conservation issue you are particularly interested in:

Due to the nature of my business, I don’t have one specific issue I’m interested in but a whole range. Bat conservation, red squirrel conservation, wildcat conservation - we do our best to highlight as many as possible. That's what we are all about!

What can people do you help with this issue?

We simple ask people to read our blog and social media posts and learn a little but more about these issues. I'm learning every day myself, so there is always something else to find out! Education is the key and a core value of our business. We aim to inspire and encourage others to help out with wildlife conservation in some way, even if it’s just reposting our social media posts to tell their friends about wildlife issues. I think we have achieved this but there is always more we can all do.

How does ‘Creature Candy’ contribute to wildlife conservation?

The primary aims of our business are to help raise awareness of declining wildlife species and to raise funds for wildlife charities. All our products feature these wildlife species and we donate 10% from the sale of all our products to the charities we support. We currently have 20 designs, support 15 charities and have donated almost £15,000!

What is your greatest achievement with your business?

Last year we had our best year ever, despite the difficulties we all faced with coronavirus. I took on my first two members of staff and increased our turnover by 300%. We added more charities to our list, created more new designs and were able to donate more funds than we have ever done. In June, we also launched a very successful crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for The Scottish Seabird Centre, which was in danger of closure. We raised £6666 for them, which was well over our expected target. At the end of the year, we also had some very big orders from new stockists, including the RHS. What a year it was!

What is your favourite species?

It has to be the brown long-eared bat as this was our first design and I have a little soft spot for him. It remains to this day our best seller! Plus I’ve worked with bats for several years and had many close encounters with them. They are just amazing creatures!

What advice do you have for people wanting to pursue a career in business and linking it with wildlife conservation?

Find an area you are passionate about and the rest will just fall into place. That’s exactly how it worked for me. I knew nothing about business when I started Creature Candy but my passion for wildlife, conservation and fundraising kept me motivated and gave me the drive to want to learn new things all the time. I’m a completely self taught business woman and I love going to work everyday!

Check out the amazing Creature Candy website below!

www.creaturecandy.co.uk