For anyone who’s interested in the applied science aspects of my work, here are details of my employment, research, public speaking & publications.

Conservation consulting

Since finishing my PhD in 2006, I’ve worked as a freelance consultant for various conservation organisations, including the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), TRAFFIC (both the International and Europe offices), and Natural England. I specialise in the international trade in endangered wildlife – aquatic species in particular – as well as marine habitat protection.

Dec 09 – July 2010 Natural England, marine conservation expert. Writing plain English reviews and summary document of Ecological Network Guidance and Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) guidance documents.

Nov 09 – Jan 2010 IUCN/TRAFFIC, wildlife trade expert. Wrote technical reviews of proposals to list 7 shark species on the CITES appendices.

July 09 – Feb 2010 TRAFFIC, wildlife trade expert. Wrote a briefing report on the trade in caviar for the EU.

Dec 08 – Feb 09 Natural England, Marine Protected Area specialist. Wrote report on impacts of human activities in Marine Conservation Zones planned for the UK under the Marine & Coastal Access Act.

Oct 07 TRAFFIC Europe, fisheries specialist. Co-wrote report on the links between wildlife trade management & sustainable livelihoods.

May 07 TRAFFIC Europe, wildlife trading expert. Conducted research for a briefing document on the international trade in caviar and sturgeon for use at the CITES CoP14.

Jan – April 07 International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), wildlife trading expert. Wrote reports assessing the proposals to list fish and marine invertebrate species in the CITES Appendices at CoP14.

Dec 06  TRAFFIC Europe, wildlife trading expert. Conducted research for report to CITES Secretariat on the implementation of recommendations following the Significant Trade Process.

Sept – Nov 06 IUCN Shark Specialist Group, marine fish specialist. Wrote report on the conservation of migratory elasmobranch species and worked on shark Red List assessments.

April – Sept 06  English Nature (now Natural England), Maritime Officer. Worked on range of national fisheries conservation issues including a proposed closure of a controversial scallop dredge fishery on England’s southern coast.

Field-based Research

Aug – Dec 05  Field researcher on deforestation project in dry deciduous forests of western Madagascar.

Sept 01 – July 05  PhD, University of Cambridge (St John’s College). Exploitation of coral reef fish for the live reef fish trade. Conducted field research in Malaysia (Sabah and Layang Layang, in the Spratly Islands)

Sept 2000 – 01 World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Malaysia, marine expert. Co-leader of a research project surveying coastal biodiversity of the Langkawi archipelago.

April – Aug 2000   MSc, University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Dissertation research investigating management of the Pulau Tioman marine park.

Public speaking

In March 2010 I returned to the Cambridge Science Festival to give a talk on biodiversity in the oceans. In January 2010 I gave a Monday night lecture at the Royal Geographical Society entitled ‘Searching for Poseidon’s Steed’. In August 2009 I was an assistant guest lecturer on a Cambridge Alumni tour of Madagascar, talking about baobab trees & marine life of the island. I gave a talk entitled ‘The Secret Lives of Seahorses’ at the 2009 Cambridge Science Festival. I have also spoken about my PhD research at the Royal Geographical Society & won the award for 2nd best student presentation at the Cambridge Student Conservation Conference in 2003. Since 2004 I have been a speaker & marine specialist at the Royal Geographical Society’s annual Explore weekend.

Publications

  • Scales, H. (2010). Advances in the ecology, biogeography and conservation of seahorses (genus Hippocampus). Progress in Physical Geography.
  • Scales, H. (2010). Co-author of IUCN/TRAFFIC Analyses of the Proposals to Amend the CITES Appendices at the 15th Meeting of the Conference of Parties, Doha, Qatar, March 2010.
  • Scales, H., Kecse-Nagy, K. (2010). An assessment of the implementation of the CITES caviar labelling and licensing provisions in three sturgeon range States in the Caspian region. A TRAFFIC briefing paper for the European Commission, Brussels, Belgium.
  • Scales, H. (2009). Compatibility of activities in UK Marine Conservation Zones. Natural England, Peterborough.
  • Scales, H. (2008). Trade in Asian coastal fisheries products. In: Roe, D. (Ed) Trading Nature. A report, with case studies, on the contribution of wildlife trade management to sustainable livelihoods and the Millennium Development Goals. TRAFFIC International and WWF International.
  • Scales, H., Balmford, A., Manica, A. (2007). Monitoring the life reef food fish trade: lesson learned from local and global perspectives. SPC Live Reef Fish Information Bulletin. 17:36-42
  • Scales, H., Balmford, A., Manica, A. (2007). The impacts of the Live Reef Fish Trade on populations of coral reef fish off Northern Borneo, Proc. Roy. Soc. B. 274:989-994
  • Scales, H., Balmford, A., Liu, M., Sadovy, Y., Manica, A. (2006). Keeping bandits at bay? Science. 313:612:613.
  • Hendry, H, McWilliams, J (2001). An inventory of the diversity and abundance of reef building corals, other coral reef invertebrates and coral reef fish in the Langkawi archipelago. WWF Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, 185p.
  • Hendry, HJ (2000). Update of the ecological status of the coral reefs of the Pulau Tioman Marine Park, Peninsular Malaysia. Report produced under project MYS 447. Petaling Jaya, Malaysia: WWF Malaysia, 45p.
  • Green, EP, Hendry, H (1999). Is CITES an effective tool for monitoring trade in corals? Coral Reefs. 18:403-407.