A passionate marine conservation champion, scuba diver, filmmaker, educator and children's author, whose mission is to help people of all ages understand the world of oceans.
I am a passionate and well-informed champion of marine conservation.
I worked for many years as a Head of Science in a UK Secondary school, teaching up to A-Level, before becoming an educational advisor -- which included writing educational materials and training science teachers.
I am now a scuba diver, film-maker, speaker and educator. My love of the sea comes from travelling around the world exploring our planet’s oceans. Diving with my video camera has brought me face to face with the underwater creatures I talk and write about. I have filmed in underwater areas around the world from the Caribbean to the Philippines, and Indonesia to Mexico.
My mission is to help people of all ages understand the amazing world of oceans.
I have developed a teaching resource, Ocean World Teacher's Resource, aimed at helping teachers in schools to teach 5-10-year-olds. This contains PowerPoints and activities which use original images and underwater film clips.
I recently turned my hand to writing books for children, young and old. These adventure stories have an ocean environmental theme and are focused on helping young people to understand the issues that threaten every one of us, as we all depend on an unpolluted ocean environment.
I have written fiction for 3-6-year olds in the Fishy Tales series, and the Lucy Morgan Adventure stories are aimed at 8-12-year olds. All of my books include 'science stuff' at the back of the books to encourage the readers to understand the underwater environment.
My non-fiction book The Amazing World Beneath the Waves is a guide to understanding the ocean. It is a science book written in everyday English -- so everyone can understand the amazing ocean world.
I visit primary schools as the ‘WeirdFish Lady’ where I run underwater adventure days (without getting wet), helping children to understand the importance of keeping the oceans healthy.
I speak at conferences and undertake Zoom talks worldwide. These talks include humour and original images -- both stills and film-clips -- and I encourage my audiences to ‘come diving with me’ -- allowing them to enjoy learning about the oceans. I also talk give the serious information about the state of our oceans, and how human activities are threatening life on Earth.
The climate change effects on oceans are so devastating, that I ensure my audiences receive the information they need to understand our possible future and hopefully they learn enough to begin the needed changes in their human activities.
I believe the most important things I say to my audiences (both young and old) are
- That ‘plankton and seagrass in the oceans make 80% of our oxygen for planet Earth. Yes - keep looking after the rain forests and plants on land - but have respect for our oceans - the 80% contribution of oxygen to our atmosphere is an astounding fact that very few people have understood. Give the title of ‘Lungs of the World’ to the oceans and let’s all help to keep oceans healthy!’; and
- That ‘excess fossil fuel use is creating vast quantities of carbon dioxide which is being absorbed by oceans. The carbon dioxide in oceans is now turning into carbonic acid and making our ocean waters acidic. The acid water will kill the plankton and seagrass which makes 80% oxygen of our atmospheric oxygen.’
I am a workaholic -- seven days a week of creating ideas to help everyone understand and love the ocean and its incredible life. But it isn’t work -- if you love your subject as much as I do.
Although my published work is presently all about conservation of oceans, I do have plans to broaden my ‘library’ to include books and educational materials on climate change and the need for humans to change to sustainable lifestyles.