Hello PWYL community! I’m Charlotte, and as Protect What You Love continues to grow in its mission to protect global wildlife, I’m excited to share that I will be joining the team in 2025!

I know it sounds cheesy, but I’ve allllways loved the ocean, and have been fascinated by all the secrets that it keeps for as long as I can remember. As a teenager, I would research marine conservation and marine biology careers, and did every project I could about killer whales, my favourite animal. I started my marine biology career in earnest at university when I volunteered at Archelon (link?) to help protect sea turtle nesting beaches and educate the public about their nesting habits and endangered species status. I then went on to do my MSc in Marine Environmental Management, going deeper on issues like fisheries management and coral reef conservation and was lucky enough to do my dissertation on sea turtle distribution and predation rates in the Bahamas. It was during my MSc that I started SCUBA diving, and was sooo excited to feel like a mermaid (for about an hour at a time).

Since then, I’ve worked in the aquaculture (fish farming) space, working on sustainable certification schemes to drive better industry standards globally. This spans from prawn farms in Thailand to seabass and seabream farms in the Mediterranean. I then focused on fish farms in Scotland and worked to protect the precious wild Atlantic salmon populations, a keystone species for Scotland’s ecosystems, from the impacts arising from local aquaculture. There has long been a fractured relationship between the fish farming industry and the wild fish advocates wherever finfish aquaculture takes place (even though the industry is relatively young). As with many environmental issues, it is not as black and white as it first might appear, and I advocated for better protection of our wild Atlantic salmon to the Scottish government.

Through all of my work in this space to date, the underlying threat of humanity and the pressure that we’re putting on our fragile ocean ecosystems is all too present. I’m sure you’ve heard of a lot of these threats before: ocean warming, ocean acidification, over-fishing, plastic pollution, and biodiversity loss to name just a few! I'm passionate about doing what I can to help others understand these issues, and want to inspire people to protect our precious wildlife in whatever way they can from the comfort of their very own home (hello, wherever you are!).

Meeting Tom was a serendipitous case of ‘right place, right time’, when we were both working for TRACC Borneo on the tiny Pom Pom Island in the middle of the Celebes Sea. After learning about Protect What You Love and the company’s mission, I knew our paths would cross again. A few short months later, after I’d found my feet back on solid ground (this time in Australia), I reached out, met the rest of the team, and am now a proud contributor to PWYL’s mission. I hope to bring a new focus on what we can all do at home to help conserve Mother Earth’s stunning wildlife and ecosystems, as well as inspire our community to learn more about the mysteries below the ocean’s waves. 

Parting fun fact: I have loved every wildlife interaction I’ve ever had, but still top of my underwater bucket list are whale sharks and hammerhead sharks!