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2024 Marine Interns Blog Week 1: Welcoming the Marine Futures East Coast Interns

Les Binns

Welcome to the opening 2024 blog from the two new marine interns, Ed Kirby and Kiera Green.
Ed on boat

Ed Kirby

Hi there, I’m Ed, and I’ve just finished my BSc in Biology and Marine Biology at the University of Southampton. During my final year at university, I gained experience with a local marine surveying company carrying out work on the south coast, and also became a volunteer warden for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust at one of my local nature reserves, Swanwick Lakes. I feel very privileged to have been able to work with my own county’s Wildlife Trust and now with Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, it’s amazing to learn about the different projects going on up and down the country.

Studying marine biology, many people often assume that this involves a life of snorkelling on tropical reefs, and although it is amazing to experience this sort of thing, I have become increasingly passionate about the seas surrounding our small island nation. Obtaining this position within the Trust, based in an area where so much is happening involving the coast and the North Sea, really is the perfect first step in pursuing a career in this sector and hopefully in making a real difference.

I am especially excited to have the opportunity to work with the other partners involved in running this internship, including Natural England, Orsted and The Crown Estate. It will be such an interesting and useful experience to see firsthand how these different organisations work both individually and cooperatively to achieve their goals.

For all the reasons above, I am so grateful to have been given this opportunity and am so keen to get as much out of it as possible. I look forward to writing future blogs about all the exciting things we get up to!

Kiera

Kiera Green

Hello, I’m Kiera and to introduce myself I thought I’d start off by saying I’ve been set on working within the marine sector from the age of 9. This was after my first scuba diving experience in Cyprus where I absolutely fell in love with marine life. I studied for my BSc in Biology in Montpellier, after having spent nine years living in the south of France. This is where I made the most of being near the coast to get my Openwater scuba diving licence. After three years studying, I decided it was time to gain some practical experience in the marine environment to help build my Masters application. This took me on a volunteering adventure to Belize with Blue Ventures Expeditions where we lived on a UNESCO world heritage site and collected data via scuba diving transect surveys. During this time, I also obtained my next scuba diving qualification; the Advanced Openwater diver. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, I had four years working in the NHS before going back to study for my Masters in Marine Biology at Bangor University.

When I learnt that I had been given the opportunity of being a marine intern, I was elated. I’m very grateful to both the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust and The Crown Estate, as well as Orsted and Natural England, and am eager to learn and experience as much as possible across the wide variety of sectors involved in this internship!

Partnership logos for marine interns

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