Conservation Chat UK LTD
Company Number 12390719
27 Shorton Valley Road
Paignton
TQ3 1RB
Conservation Chat UK LTD
Company Number 12390719
27 Shorton Valley Road
Paignton
TQ3 1RB
Conservation Chat UK LTD
Company Number 12390719
27 Shorton Valley Road
Paignton
TQ3 1RB
2025
South West Marine Fest
We invite you to join our Annual Summer Conference in Brixham this October, hosted by Conservation Chat UK LTD.
As specialists in organizing environmentally focused events, we’re dedicated to creating gatherings that place the natural world at the forefront, with a special focus on our local region, the Southwest of England.
This event will feature an inspiring lineup of guest speakers involved in species conservation. If you share our passion for the environment, don’t miss this opportunity! The day will be packed with insightful presentations, engaging discussions, and valuable networking, tailored for conservation professionals, students, early-career researchers, and anyone passionate about the natural world.
Light refreshments will be provided. To keep ticket costs affordable, we ask attendees to bring a packed lunch—and challenge you to make it plastic-free!
This will be an in-person event only, with a full refund policy in place if the event must be cancelled due to covid-19.
Speakers
Dr Marie Hale
Surfing identities in Newquay – evolutions and contemporary trajectories
This presentation explores the evolving identity and environmental consciousness of Newquay’s surfing community, examining surfers' deepening ethical and spiritual connections with the ocean. Using Newquay as a case study, researchers analyze how local surfers' identities reflect a blend of tradition and modern environmental awareness, influenced by a romantic view of nature and the ocean as blurred spaces between culture and nature. Guided by Bryce et al.’s framework—place-based identity, experiences, and capabilities—the study focuses on the surfers’ sense of belonging, responsibility toward the ocean, and their embodied environmental actions.
The research also considers the possibility of a World Surfing Reserve to protect the surf experience and its socio-economic and ecological contributions. Using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a lens, the study aims to understand how Newquay's surf culture intersects with broader environmental and social sustainability issues. Based on focus groups across age and gender, the study recognizes diversity within the surfing community and considers the intertidal zones as sites where politics, environment, and culture converge, particularly as surfers engage in activism, such as with Surfers Against Sewage. The presentation ultimately examines the evolving “blue” identity of Newquay surfers and how local practices resonate with global environmental values.
Cam Molland
AK Wildlife Cruises: Education, Conservation, Protection
AK Wildlife Cruises splits our goals into three key areas: education, conservation and protection.
Education through our wildlife-watching trips, conservation by encouraging people to act, and protection through the strategic deployment of the scientific data we collect. One thing that makes us fairly unique is that we combine guest experience with scientific research. Our boat (R/V Spirit of Our Seas) is a registered research and marine survey vessel and, as we like to say, we record everything from bumblebees to blue whales!
When guests step aboard, they become citizen scientists for the day, and just be being there to help us collect vital data. We have been collecting cetacean sightings and occurrence data for 26 years, giving us one of the longest boat-based survey datasets of this kind in the UK! We also run photo ID catalogues for minke whales and Risso’s dolphins, and over the years have recorded some incredible sightings; from a striped X common dolphin hybrid, to our annual fin whale visits, and even bow-riding pilot whales.
We like to think we are rather unique, and would be delighted if you would like to learn more about what we do at this talk!
