The Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre staff
Dr. Sarah Perry, Marine Conservation and Research Manager
Dr Sarah Perry heads up the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales’ Marine Conservation Team based at the Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre (CBMWC). She is responsible for managing the team, the CBMWC itself, managing and delivering the scientific research and supervising University students as well as training volunteer and developing and managing other projects undertaken by the team at CBMWC.
Sarah has been involved with CBMWC since 2003 when she first came to New Quay as a volunteer and has been involved ever since! Sarah studied Zoology at the University of Liverpool and has a PhD on developing predictive habitat models of megafauna distribution from Aberystwyth University.
Sarah is a marine scientist with a passion for the marine environment, in particular marine mammals and has played a major role in the development of the CBMWC over the last 20 years as well as studying the Cardigan Bay bottlenose dolphins. Her work is varied and has previously included redeveloping the CBMWC visitor centre, managing the research as well as the day to day operations and development of the CBMWC as well as coordinating all the fantastic volunteers involved in the project. Sarah has been involved in studying the bottlenose dolphins and other marine megafauna in Cardigan Bay for over 20 years and has previously worked for Wildlife Trusts Wales as Marine Campaigns and Advocacy Officer, her work there focusing on Marine Act implementation alongside other well known eNGO’s.
Laura Evans, Marine Conservation Project Officer
As Marine Conservation Project Officer Laura has been delivering the Stand For Nature Wales project since 2021. She works alongside our Living Seas Youth Forum to deliver a range of coastal community outreach activities focused on inspiring climate action for the marine environment. Laura also provides training and support and helps to empower the young people involved with the project.
Laura first joined the CBMWC, marine conservation team as a volunteer in March 2015, before becoming the Living Seas Volunteer Coordinator later the same year. Her work has included training, coordinating and supporting our amazing team of volunteers as well as working on the Living Seas Wales project in collaboration with North Wales Wildlife Trust.
Laura has always been passionate about marine mammals and the marine environment. She studied Zoology with Marine Zoology at Bangor University, graduating in 2012. After leaving university she spent time as an intern studying bottlenose dolphin behaviour at the BDRI in Sardinia. She returned to university in 2013 to study Animal Behaviour at the University of Exeter, graduating in 2014.
Grace Macmillan, Marine Conservation Assistant
Grace Macmillan is the Marine Conservation Assistant based at the Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre (CBMWC). Grace’s primary responsibilities include the day-to-day operation of the CBMWC visitor centre, management and coordination of our large team of volunteers, and general office administration.
Grace first came to CBMWC during the summer of 2018 as a Living Seas Volunteer, while on her industrial year break from university, and returned to CBMWC to work as a member of staff in June 2023. Grace studied Environmental Science with an industrial year at the University of Manchester.
After university Grace spent 6 months working in a range of roles at Sydney Aquarium. Having to leave Australia due to Covid-19, she then joined the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) as a public engagement programme manager. At NERC, Grace was responsible for awarding public engagement grants to a variety of people, including researchers, public engagement professional and community organisations, as well as planning and running public engagement capacity training for researchers and staff. She also has a wide, varied experience as a volunteer for organisations including Manchester Museum, RSPB and the Field Studies Council.
Maddy De Marchis, Marine Conservation Intern
As a Marine Conservation Intern at CBMWC, Maddy works with other CBMWC staff members and alongside CBMWC's other Marine Conservation Intern. She is involved in a variety of marine conservation activities including our scientific research, collecting valuable evidence to help tackle the effects of climate change within the marine environment. Her role is also to assist with the delivery of environmental community outreach and education activities focused on inspiring climate action for the marine environment.
Maddy joined CBMWC in 2022 as a Seasonal Volunteer, looking to gain knowledge and experience in marine conservation research and outreach and get to know the wildlife of Cardigan Bay. Having been inspired by the research and outreach efforts of CBMWC, she returned in January 2023 as an intern.
Whilst working at CBMWC Maddy is studying Environmental Science at the Open University, gaining experience in wildlife conservation alongside her education. As a passionate environmentalist, she is keen to use her excitement about the natural world to engage the public in conservation and gain further experience in marine mammal research.
Our Marine Conservation Intern roles are funded as part of our Stand for Nature Wales Project.
Lydia Rose Williams, Marine Conservation Intern
As a Marine Conservation Intern at CBMWC, Lydia works with other staff and interns to contribute to our crucial marine conservation projects. This includes collecting and processing scientific marine data, which aims to provide valuable evidence for addressing climate change impacts on marine ecosystems. Additionally, she aids in facilitating environmental outreach and educational initiatives, dedicated to motivating climate action, and inspiring the youth of Wales.
Lydia graduated with a Bachelors in Zoology in June 2023, which included a Professional Placement Year in Sweden working with population genetics of the seagrass, Zostera marina. Looking to gain more experience in marine conservation, Lydia began volunteering at CBMWC and, after ten months of regular involvement at the Centre, started as the team’s newest Intern in 2024.
Lydia is a keen environmentalist who intends to continue her academic development with a masters in marine research, and views this internship as a valuable opportunity for paving a way for her future career in conservation.
Our Marine Conservation Intern roles are funded as part of our Stand for Nature Wales Project.
Collaborators
Steve Hartley, CBMWC Founder & volunteer
As founder of the Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre Steve Hartley has been involved since its conception in 1996. Alongside assisting with the management of the CBMWC as a volunteer, Steve makes a living running the original eco-tourism operation in New Quay, Dolphin Survey Boat Trips that he set up in 1994. He is an experienced skipper with over 35 years experience and is also second coxwain of New Quay Lifeboat.
Steve is a former fisherman and over the years has been involved with numerous research projects focused on the marine life in Cardigan Bay both as a charter skipper and researcher and was involved with the original bottlenose dolphin photo-identification research projects that most of today’s photo-identification work in Cardigan Bay stems from. Steve was involved in helping initiate the designation of the Cardigan Bay Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and has carried out a great deal of work over the years to raise awareness of the importance of the marine environment in Wales and the conservation of the species and habitats found within it.
Laura Palmer, PhD Researcher
Laura Palmer is currently a PhD student at the University of Bristol where she studies bottlenose dolphin vocal communication alongside her supervisors Dr Stephanie King and Dr Simon Allen. Laura is working in collaboration with Dr Sarah Perry from CBMWC on our bottlenose dolphin acoustics research. She is analysing dolphin vocalisations collected using towed hydrophones during CBMWC's research surveys and data obtained from static hydrophones deployed throughout Cardigan Bay.
Laura was a volunteer at Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre in 2015 where she assisted the CBMWC with our research and outreach activities. She previously worked at Gardline where she attained her Marine Mammal Observer, Protected Species Observer and Passive Acoustic Monitoring accreditation and carried out seismic survey mitigation work in the USA. She was also a Research Assistant at the Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St Andrews, where she conducted acoustic monitoring of harbour porpoises around tidal turbines to detect behavioural responses to turbine operation. Laura has a wide range of experience working with marine mammals and has spent time conducting visual and acoustic surveys of cetaceans in Wales, Scotland, Italy, Antarctica and Australia.
Dr. Stephanie King, Marine Mammal Acoustician
Stephanie is a behavioural biologist with a primary focus on animal communication systems and how these systems have evolved to help mediate complex social behaviours. She currently works as an Associate Professor at the University of Bristol. Stephanie originally volunteered at CBMWC in 2006, assisting with CBMWC’s bottlenose dolphin photo-identification.
Stephanie completed her PhD at the University of St Andrews on dolphin communication in 2012, and then worked as a Principal Scientist at an environmental consultancy, wholly owned by the University of St Andrews, on projects assessing the impacts of anthropogenic noise on marine mammals. In 2014 she returned to full time research with a post-doc at the Dolphin Research Center (USA), and in 2015 was awarded a five-year Swiss grant (Branco Weiss Fellowship) to investigate the role vocal communication plays in mediating complex social behaviours. Stephanie joined the University of Western Australia as a Research Fellow (2015) before taking up her lectureship at the University of Bristol 2019.
Current projects include a long-term study of the male alliances found in the Shark Bay dolphin population, providing a unique opportunity to understand how vocal communication strategies may have evolved to facilitate male cooperation. Stephanie is a PI of the Shark Bay Dolphin Research.
Dr. Simon Allen, Senior Lecturer
Simon is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Bristol and the University of Zurich, and an Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia. His interests lie in studying the complex social and foraging behaviours of dolphins, and assessing the impacts of human activities (fisheries, tourism and climate change) on marine fauna in general. Improved wildlife conservation and better management of the ways in which humans interact with wildlife is the end goal.
Simon has a Masters degree on the impact of wildlife tourism on dolphins, and a PhD on abundance, population structure and bycatch of dolphins in commercial fisheries. Simon has an interest in improving transparency and coverage of fishing effort and bycatch in UK waters, improve baseline knowledge of lesser known cetacean populations and move toward innovative solutions to reduce interaction with/bycatch in commercial fisheries.
Simon has thus far published over 50 scientific articles, book chapters and species accounts on dolphins, whales, reptiles and other fauna in journals and texts ranging from the taxon- and issue-specific to the broad (Current Biology, Proceedings of the Royal Society B and Molecular Ecology). Simon is a PI of the Shark Bay Dolphin Research, a keen field biologist, photographer and drone pilot, and holds a general interest in the behaviour, ecology and conservation of wildlife.