I've worked as a marine scientist in South Australia for 3 decades, and in marine education for 10+ of those years. I also work in primary-level special education. Previously, I worked on contract for fisheries and environment departments in SA, for 12 years. I established a sole trader consultancy in 2004, doing contracts for State and national government agencies, universities and NGOs.

Previous work includes fish population dynamics and mathematical modelling; fish biology (e.g. fish otolith ageing techniques); marine environmental impact work; marine reserve design; marine GIS mapping / spatial database, numerical ecology and multivariate statistics; biogeography of macroalgae; spatial surveys of common fishes; surveys of rare fishes and invertebrates; introduced marine species, and marine citizen science project management.

I founded and manage the marine citizen science group South Australian Conservation Research Divers (SACReD), which has been active in SA for 15 years so far. SACReD divers, snorkellers and rock pool searchers undertake periodic field work, to document the distributions and habitats of uncommonly known species; to discover previously unrecorded species, and to record introduced species in intertidal and subtidal habitats.

I've worked with colleagues in South Australia on the Dragon Search project since its inception in 1995, when hundreds of divers and beachcombers submitted sighting forms to the national project for analysis in each southern State. Since 2013, Dragon Search South Australia has been identifying seadragons using a suite of visual markers, observable in photographs provided by divers. More than a decade later, photos contributed to our long-term citizen science project have revealed significant new information about the life history and behaviour of leafy seadragons. We are grateful to all divers and photographers who contribute to the project. Every photo is important and valued.

For the past 8 years, I have also managed the Neville Coleman Memorial Nudibranch Dive Event, a community-based marine photography and citizen science event that occurs each summer in South Australia. We are currently writing a free, fully illustrated e-book for divers, snorkellers and rock poolers on the sea slug fauna of South Australia. Many marine photographers in southern Australia are contributing to the guide.

Sea slugs are my favourite marine animals. Pipefishes and leafy seadragons are a close second. Hard to pick faves though, because every living thing in the marine environment is interesting, and important in some way.