Bye Katie & Good Luck!

Today was a bit of a sad day for the whale shark monitoring team as Katie Brooks left us today to start her Masters course at York University. Katie has been one of our team leaders and the Intern Coordinator for the programme for the past three years and this was her fourth year working with the whale shark programme. She also survived team leading in Djibouti this year so has definitely earned her stripes!

After a fair bit of persuading she finally agreed that if she wanted to continue to do this sort of work she really needed to up-grade her scientific knowledge and credentials and so back to Uni she goes!

She will be attending an MSc course in Marine Environmental Management that is especially suited to people who don't have a "traditional" scientific degree but have relevant experience and a passion for marine conservation… she has plenty of that!

Katie and volunteer Mark Smith logging encounter photos on a wet and windy afternoon

She will be sorely missed by staff and interns alike and the contest is now on to see who will be the ‘Copepod Queen’ (or King?) to collect copepod samples for genetic analysis… She has however left a lasting legacy as she has already planned her birthday party in absentia where everyone is going to dress up as Katie for the evening… should be interesting!


So for now its no more big spotty sharks, no more flying and back to Uni you go!!!


Bon Voyage Katie!

Our very best wishes!

We know you will do well, but come back soon!!