Hi, my name is Bea! I joined The Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales as the Marine Conservation Intern at Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre (CBMWC) in April. I was a seasonal volunteer with CBWMC for four months in 2024, and I am loving being back!

My role involves assisting collecting and processing of data, including photo identification and acoustic recordings. This means I am lucky enough to spend a lot of time out on our boats looking for dolphins and deploying/retrieving long term hydrophones which pick up dolphins clicks and whistles! My role is involves working with our Living Seas Youth Forum, running events and helping the volunteers in their day-to-day tasks.

I am looking forward to working more with the Youth Forum, and getting to attend events, where I can engage with people, tell them about our work and hopefully inspire them to spend more time outdoors in nature so they can understand why it is so important to help protect it.

My love of nature started from a young age. I always spent plenty of time outdoors with my family, going camping most years in Cornwall, which involved a lot of time on the beach and bodyboarding in the sea. I am also very fond of bird watching, which was also instilled in me from a young age, thanks to my dad. We still enjoy taking our binoculars on a dog walk and trying to spot new birds. Because of this I am passionate about trying to conserve the natural world around us.

Although I love all marine animals, I am particularly fond of sea slugs, especially Grey Sea Slugs. I love seeing species I haven’t come across before when rock pooling and taking part in Shoresearch surveys. I would love to see the Rainbow Sea Slugs that have been seen in Devon and Cornwall. I am also a big fan of birdwatching and am currently working towards getting my BTO bird ringing license.

I am very happy to be back working with WTSWW at CBMWC. I'm looking forward to meeting new people and having a positive impact on the local wildlife and environment.