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Meet The Manx Basking Shark Watch Team.
Manx basking shark watch is run by volunteers with the exceptions of Duncan Bridges and Eleanor Stone who are employed by the Manx Wildlife Trust. There is a basking shark steering group and the indispensable public sighting scheme volunteers who help with the website sightings and public phoneline.
The Basking Shark Steering Committee: Jackie and Graham Hall, Duncan Bridges, Fiona Gell, Richard Hartnoll and Eleanor Stone.
Jackie Hall, the Manx Basking Shark Watch Coordinator is a Marine Biologist with an MSc in Tropical Coastal Management, a BSc (hons) in Marine Biology and a BA from the OU. She was at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne 1991-2000. Having been a keen diver for 20 years she is particularly fond of sharks, coral, intertidal rockpools and very big bits of kelp.
She has been the voluntary Marine officer for the Manx Wildlife Trust (MWLT) since 2001. She set up the MWLT’s Manx Basking Shark Watch in 2005. Having written the website and run the public sighting scheme by herself for the first two years she was extremely grateful when other volunteers and then the official Basking Shark Steering Group came on board.
As well as coordinating MBSW she and her husband Graham run their own small research boat ‘Happy Jack’ from where they tag basking sharks, study basking shark courtship behaviour and help other basking shark scientists and wildlife film crews to find the sharks.
Graham Hall has an MSc in Engineering. He is the secretary of the MBSW steering group as well as being the technical and boat officer. He was born in Northumberland and spent most of his working life in engineering and manufacturing in many places around the world. He moved to the Isle of Man 10 years ago in search of a less hectic and more rewarding lifestyle.
He has a long interest in basking sharks born from a few close encounters as a youth. Watching sharks breeching off Aran was particularly inspiring. On one occasion on Luce Bay he fell asleep in a small boat whilst fishing only to awake among a huge shoal of courting sharks. He is unlikely to forget the very close encounter whilst swimming in the Firth of Clyde (just after watching jaws in the seventies). He was unable to sleep for a week. Given this long association with basking sharks it was inevitable that when his wife Jackie took up an interest in the basking sharks he was drawn into working closely on the project.
His ability to spot a fin in impossible visibility won a place with the team and his skills in developing inexpensive solutions to very expensive problems dragged him into an almost full time engineering role with the project. Apart from being the Engineering Department (voluntary and unpaid) he is the secretary of the Steering Committee and the Manx Wildlife Trust’s Marine Committee and the co-organiser of the Queenie Festival, a week long celebration of the sea.
Given his excellent hand-eye coordination it is his responsibility to tag the sharks from the very small but wonderfully manoeuvrable Happy Jack for which he is the Skipper and Chief Engineer (especially when anything goes wrong).
He believes the sharks to be truly awesome (yes he has spent some time in New Zealand) and wonderful animals and is wholly committed to playing his small part in their global protection and management.
The photograph shows him rowing out to the MBSW research boat "Happy Jack".
Eleanor Stone Marine Officer Manx Wildlife Trust: Eleanor is a Biologist with a BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc in Marine Mammal Science from Bangor University. She has spent a lot of time doing whale and dolphin research over the last 5 years, before taking an interest in Basking Sharks when she moved to the Isle of Man in 2007 - with so many of these amazing creatures around they are pretty hard to ignore!
Having volunteered for the Manx Basking Shark Watch in 2008 she, along with her partner Tom, analysed all the public sightings data from the 4 years of Manx Basking Shark Watch. They plotted all the sightings to give a better idea of where the sharks are distributed around the island.
Eleanor has recently taken up the post of Marine Officer at the Manx Wildlife Trust, with one of her main responsibilities being the basking shark work. She is really looking forward to a busy shark season, with lots of exciting research going on to help us learn more about these fascinating creatures.
Richard Hartnoll, Chair of the Basking Shark Steering Committee, and of the Manx Wildlife Trust Marine Committee. A retired marine biologist, and a long-term staff member of the late Port Erin Marine Laboratory.
His research interests have included Crustacea (particularly crabs, where work is still proceeding), and shore ecology. Work in the tropics has become a major focus. However, marine environmental quality has been an ongoing concern, and the Basking Shark Project is a flagship programme which focuses public opinion on the seas of the Isle of Man.
He is involved in the management side of the Project, but enjoys the hands-on aspect of working with the website. That is the public face of the Project, and the public is what makes it all work. Through the project they can appreciate the problems facing our waters, and the benefits of protecting our marine heritage.
Dr Fiona Gell sits on the basking shark steering group and issues the scientific and filming licenses for all basking shark work on the Island.
Fiona is the Marine Wildlife and Conservation Officer with the Wildlife and Conservation Division of the Isle of Man Government. She did her PhD research on seagrass fish and fisheries in Northern Mozambique and has worked on fish ecology and fisheries projects in the Indian Ocean, Caribbean and Irish Sea. Much of her work has focussed on Marine Protected Areas and their role in protecting the marine environment and potential for fisheries management.
In 2003 Fiona returned to her native Isle of Man to work at the Port Erin Marine Laboratory and in 2004 she became the first Marine Conservation Officer with the Isle of Man Government. Since then she has been involved in a wide variety of marine conservation and management work, including setting up the Manx Marine Nature Reserve Project and having an active involvement in basking shark conservation and research with Manx Basking Shark Watch.
Fiona loves working with Manx Basking Shark Watch and really values her involvement in a project which combines community participation, exciting research, active conservation and the opportunity to work with the most amazing fish species in the world!
Please contact Fiona for information about licences for basking shark filming and research: fiona.gell@gov.im
Philip North, website and phoneline volunteer: has a 1st Class Honours degree in Marine Biology from the University of Liverpool, which is the reason he ended up on the Isle of Man.
It took only the mention of the word ‘shark’ down the pub to persuade him to take the Uni boat out during his first Basking Shark season on the island to watch them all day long (it’s a tough life being a student!)
His love of all things marine, especially lobsters and cetaceans, makes his volunteer work during the season one of the highlights of living on the island; even more so when he also gets to tie this in with his love of SCUBA diving and boating.
He hopes one day to be able to fulfil his dream of making Manx fisheries and conservation work his career, ideally in the lobster sector!
Until then he will continue with the volunteer work, both with MBSW and DAFF, and settle for taking his boat out on those summer days, recording sightings and topping up the sun-tan!
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Kim Kneen, website and phone line volunteer: works as a Product Development Executive at the Isle of Man Department of Tourism and Leisure.
Her interest in Manx marine wildlife was sparked when working alongside John Galpin (of the manx Whale and Dolphin Watch) and Jackie Hall (of Manx Basking Shark Watch) on a number of marine tourism initiatives. One of Kim's most vivid memories as a child is taking a trip to the Calf of Man and being amazed by an enormous basking shark swimming alongside the boat. As a mother of a young child she believes that the Isle of Man is a wonderful place to raise children to appreciate wildlife and the natural environment.
Kim hopes that the work of organisations such as the Manx Basking Shark Watch will help protect the Manx marine environment for the sake of future generations as well as the animals that live within it. Volunteering one night a week is a small contribution to securing the long term future of these strangely dignified but vulnerable animals.
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