Here’s a video I made with Ria Mishaal at the Biodiversity Institue, Oxford University earlier this year.
Just a minnow
Here are some highlight’s from Just a Minnow at the Festival of Ideas in Cambridge’s Zoology Museum last year.
David Attenborough launches Cambridge Conservation Campus
I produced this short film for the Cambridge Conservation Initiative to mark Sir David Attenborough’s launch of the Conservation Campus in Cambridge.
Oceans got talent
For this year’s Cambridge Science Festival I’ll be trying to persuade you to like fish and other ocean critters as much as we do whales.
Book collaboration with underwater sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor
I’m writing about the the plight of the oceans and the science behind artificial reefs for Jason deCaires Taylor’s upcoming book that will feature his beautiful and thought-provoking underwater sculptures.
In my latest story for National Geographic News I report for a second time on glowing deep sea sharks – this time about how they warn off predators using light sabers…
Columbia University expedition to Fiji
I’m thrilled to announce that in June 2013 I will be joining Dr Joshua Drew from Columbia University on a research expedition to Fiji.
In March I will be collaborating with photographer Ria Mishaal to document the Rachel Carson and Ruth Harrison Conference at the Biodiversity Institute at Oxford University.
Into the oyster forest
My latest report for BBC World Service’s Outlook features the incredible women who gather oysters from the mangrove forests around the River Gambia.
I was thrilled to get invited to speak at TEDx at LSE. It’s on 9 March and I think the tickets are nearly sold out already. The theme is Redfining Your Boundaries.
I’m science advisor to Sea-Changers, a fantastic new charity that funds marine conservation projects (mainly in UK waters). If you have an idea for a conservation project that could benefit from a small grant do get in touch with Sea-Changers…
Here’s the video of the time I got lost at sea at the Lost Lectures.
Strange fossils
In my latest story for National Geographic News I introduce the world to the first found fossil of a pygmy pipehorse. These wierd-looking animals are close relatives of seahorses and look something like a cross between a seahorse and a pipefish
For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), It's always our self we find in the sea.
Along with my colleagues John Bruno and Emmett Duffy, I’m a contributor at the Seamonster Blog. It’s a blog about the oceans. We cover news in ocean sciences and the environment, oceans sports, the amazing plants, animals, and people that inhabit the oceans, ocean policy and conservation, and the funny, cute, crazy, scary and weird. We …
5 things everyone should know about lionfish
In National Geographic News I report on sharks that glow in the dark.
5 things everyone should know about ancient oceans
I worked with researchers from the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at Cardiff University on a climate change outreach project called “Five things everyone should know about ancient oceans”.
Seamonster Blog
http://theseamonster.net/
Naked Oceans finale
It’s the last day of 2012 and I’ve just finished making the last episode of the Naked Oceans podcast. In it, I catch up with a bunch of the folks who’ve appeared on the show over the last two series, and chat with them about the future of the oceans. This whole Naked Oceans thing …
A narrated slide show I made with photographer Ria Mishaal at the Biodiversity Technologies symposium held by the Biodiversity Institute at Oxford University in September 2012.
Ocean escapism for the new year
January in Cambridge might not seem like the most obvious time and place to think about the wonders of exotic ocean life but what better way to fend off the winter blues and start the new year than a bit of ocean escapism? So why not join me for a weekend lecture series at Cambridge …
Meeting the goliaths
In my latest report for BBC Radio 4′s Saving Species I go to Florida to meet Dr Sarah Frias Torres and the enormous fish she studies in the deep waters on the fringes of the Gulf Stream.
Academic publications
Scales, H. (2010). Advances in the ecology, biogeography and conservation of seahorses (genus Hippocampus). Progress in Physical Geography. 34(4): 443-458.
Scales, H. (2010). Co-author of IUCN/TRAFFIC Analyses of the Proposals to Amend the CITES Appendices…
Getting lost at sea
A little while ago I got lost at sea and washed up in a disused lighthouse in London’s docklands. As luck would have it I found myself in a room full of people sitting in life rings on the floor. When the shout went out ‘is there a marine biologist in the house?’, naturally I stepped up and volunteered …
I recorded and produced the audio for this World Resources Institute video introducing Reefs at Risk on Google Earth.
The whale who learned to talk
This week I wrote a piece for National Geographic News about a beluga whale who is sadly no-longer with us. Five years after he passed away, NOC the whale has hit the headlines with a study just out describing how he learned to mimic a human voice. Have a listen to the sounds he made. Photo by Mike Johnston.
Tortoises on the radio
Tortoises are not well known for being noisy. They are in fact pretty much silent creatures and perhaps not great on radio. But I still managed to catch them making sounds on tape for my latest BBC broadcast, on Radio 4′s Saving Species this week. Listen here to a clip from the programme. During my trip …
Finding fish in the wrong places
I just got back from a trip to America and a quick jaunt to Abaco Island in the Bahamas to visit John Bruno and his team at work in the field. One of their projects is looking at the lionfish invasion in the Caribbean, something I’ve heard and read and talked a lot about. But …
Are the oceans dying?
I reviewed Callum Roberts’ latest book Ocean of Life (How our seas are changing) for the Globe and Mail. Callum’s book gives an excellent and immensely readable account of the problematic relationship between humans and the oceans. As you might expect, it’s not exactly a cheery read, although he does somehow manage to maintain a …
Twenty years later
It’s 20 years since the first Rio Earth Summit. God that makes me feel old. But it also reminds me of the time when I first started paying attention to the state of the planet. And oh boy, was I full of hope then.
Rain
Yesterday I saw rain for the second time in 2 months. The first time was 6 weeks ago when there was a strange shower that lasted thirty seconds as we ate dinner outside at our guest house. We heard an unfamiliar noise and looked across to see the swimming pool jumping with raindrops. The second …
The accidental birdwatcher
As a marine biologist I consider myself to be a fish-watcher. Obviously it’s not the sort of thing you can do all the time; it generally requires a certain amount of being underwater to really work well. But for bird-watchers it’s a different matter. Theirs is a pastime that can happen at any moment and …
My fabric obsession
I’ve tried to resist but it’s no use. When we leave West Africa in two weeks my bags will be laden with fabric. I should have guessed that I’d develop an unhealthy obsession with the printed fabrics out here in West Africa. I suffered a similar affliction in Malaysia, coming home with masses of sarongs …
Dakar made mini
I’ve been in Dakar for a week now and believe me, this is a city of contrasts. I’ve driven along smooth motorways with blue French signs and brand new peage tollbooths and seen young kids begging by the roadside for food and coins. I’ve watched shiny new buses that wouldn’t look out of place in …
Dust
Philip Pulman had a lot to say about dust in his His Dark Materials trilogy but I suspect it’s not the same variety of dust that I’ve been getting to know lately. Last weekend the Sahara blew in. We woke up to find the world around us covered in a fine layer of orange dust. …
Happy Birthday Genie!
Today is Eugenie Clark’s 90th birthday. To celebrate here is my blog post from last year, after I had the immense pleasure of meeting Genie at Mote Marine Labs in Florida… They say never meet your heroes. But I did. I sat in a diner and ate junk food with her and it was perfect. …
Dead fish mystery solved
Remember those dead fish on the beach getting munched by vultures that appeared in my first Gambian post? (some without heads?) Well, I’ve found out where they’re coming from. I met Chris, a fisheries biologist visiting from the US who’s working with a local project called Ba Nafaa. He’s out here helping local fishermen find …
Sahelian riches
For the past few days I’ve been paying my first visits to fishing communities here in the Gambia. I’ve met and chatted with my first fishermen; I’ve seen baskets of fish being pulled from the sea and balanced on the heads of young Ghanaian men who run up the beach to waiting traders, little kids …