Why Marine Environment with Adam Evans?

Currently based in York, England, Adam has been Diving since he was 16. His introduction to ocean conservation came in Barbados in 2015, where he worked with Barbados Blue in saving coral reefs from invasive lion fish species. With no natural predators in this environment the alien species were growing fast in number, consuming a threatening amount of smaller fish. The aim of the project was to encourage sceptical locals to choose to eat lion fish over other fish, to reduce their dominance over reef.

After getting a taste of what lies below the surface, in 2016 Adam lived out his dream of completing his SSI Divemaster and Dive Control Specialist training. Using this he was able to take clients to dive with black tip reef sharks daily in Thailand. He took this as an opportunity to show people the excitement of finding sharks on a dive and help break irrational fears of sharks that clients may have. Here he was also able to get involved in conservation projects such as waste clean-up dives around the pier and Trash Hero Thailand, a project aimed at reducing plastic waste, focusing on cutting down on the use of plastic bottles.

Adam is an Ocean Quest/Sea Shepard Coral Propagation Diver, using these skills in Thailand to build a coral nursery, made using coral fragments recovered from dying coral. This coral is taken from heavily accessed dive sites to more remote locations where the coral can recover and grow into a new healthy reef. A method which may prove key in recovering dying coral reefs.

Adam then received training from scientist and shark specialist Pascal Gospodinov after becoming a shark diver in the Azores. Here he was able to expand his knowledge and experience with pelagic sharks and learn key skills in observing shark behaviour, as well as shark-human interaction.

Through his diving experience and scientific knowledge through his Chemistry undergraduate degree, Adam is keen to dive with purpose and help educate people on sharks and the intricate ecosystem of the ocean. Adam is currently studying for his master’s degree in Marine Environmental Management at the University of York and hopes to use this as a platform to help protect sharks and rejuvenate the health of our ocean.

In 2017 Adam moved to Indonesia to work with Gili Shark Conservation completing fish identification training and becoming a PADI AWARE Shark Conservation Diver. Adam gathered important data as a research diver to be put forward to argue for a marine park around the all Gili islands, as well as getting involved in beach clean-up operations to help raise awareness of the huge amount of plastic waste in the area.

Marine protected areas and waste management are crucial to preserving valuable and fragile shark populations, as well as all endangered marine life. Main reasons why, integrated Sharks Educational Institute, Adam has become one of ours Marine Environmental Advisor.