Hi everyone 👋

I’m Amie, the creator of Beached and a wildlife and marine conservation campaigner. I am obsessed with whales but also terrified of the open ocean. I know it doesn’t make much sense! 🤷🏻‍♀️

After completing my masters in Global Environmental Politics and Policy at the University of London, I was mulling over the best way to have a positive impact on the environment. I considered joining academia to conduct research full time. I thought about joining a marine conservation non-profit (which I did anyway). I even thought about applying to the government to push for policy change from the inside. But on reflection, I realised there are already a lot of very talented people doing all these things - and still our oceans suffer. So what’s the missing link?

During my dissertation research, I spent months collecting data from disparate sources on cetacean* deaths from fishing gear entanglements. I engaged with governments, NGOs, international treaty organisations, think tanks, and conservation projects. What I found was that all of these organisations were recording and tracking different things. As I tried to compile this data into a standardised format, I realised that there is no overarching means for these organisations to speak to each other and coordinate action. 🗣️

I’ll illustrate with an example. A conservation charity will run a campaign to raise awareness of whale deaths by entanglement in fishing gear. A university team conducts research on the effectiveness of pingers** at preventing these entanglements. The government has one team pertaining to improving fishing regulations and another responsible for marine conservation. While fishermen follow whatever the current regulations are. How do all of these stakeholders become cohesive and aligned in their work? Well, at the moment, they don’t. 

Enter Beached. 

My aim is to create a single place where academics, governments, NGOs, activists, and anyone who cares about ocean life, can follow the development of marine conservation in real time. By providing all stakeholders an easy place to stay abreast of each other’s work, I hope we can foster improved collaboration and coordination and all pull in the same direction. Working together, we can reverse the degradation of our oceans.

As well as being a one-stop shop for all things marine conservation, I want to create a kick-ass community committed to effective action. If you’re a nature lover, an environmentalist, or you just love whales, Beached is for you. We can only effect change by working together. 🤝

So how are we going to do this? The Beached publication (hosted on this substack) will cover the latest conservation projects, academic research, environmental news, regulation changes, cutting edge technology, and more. We’ll feature writing from NGOs, activists, governments, and researchers. I will also probably write about whales quite a bit too 🐳.

All Beached posts will be free to access. However, those of you who can afford it, I’d ask you to support this work by purchasing the paid subscription. The whales appreciate it.

Now, let’s go save some ocean. 🌊

Amie 👩🏻‍💼