Job summary and/or description of your work/research:
At Santa Barbara Channelkeeper our vision is for clean water, healthy habitats, abundant wildlife, and thriving communities. The main focus of my role is education, monitoring, and pollution reduction. I manage our community cleanup program which removes thousands of pounds of marine debris that can harm wildlife. I help educate local students about the importance of watersheds and clean water and help foster their connection to the marine environment. The monitoring programs I assist with include collecting human use data inside and outside of marine protected areas and collecting and processing plankton samples during Harmful Algal Blooms.
What do you enjoy most about your work/research:
I love that I get to spend a lot of time in my favorite place, the Santa Barbara Channel, doing work to help protect it. I get to play an active role in reducing the impact of pollution by conducting cleanups out on the Channel Islands to help remove lost fishing gear and trash that originates from the mainland. I often work aboard our boat the R/V Channelkeeper to collect data or to take students out on field trips to learn about marine conservation.
Inspiration:
I grew up in Santa Barbara and I have loved the ocean from a very young age. Kelp forests and the diversity of wildlife that lives in the Santa Barbara Channel amazed me. I always wanted to protect this beautiful area, but I thought it was too far out of my reach. In Junior High I volunteered for a marine science club and we went on a field trip to our local creek with Penny Owens from Channelkeeper. She taught us about water quality, the importance of healthy watersheds, and their connection to the ocean. That inspired me to work towards a career in protecting the place that I love, my local community, and the Santa Barbara Channel. And now I work with Penny taking students out on the same field trips that inspired me!