Mark Simmonds OBE
Mark grew up by the sea on the Isle of Wight and this is where his fascination with marine animals began. He has spent most of his career investigating,
highlighting and campaigning to address threats to marine wildlife. He has worked in both the higher education and charity/nongovernmental organisation sectors, including working for Greenpeace
International, Whale and Dolphin Conservation and the Humane Society International. He is currently the Director of Science for the international marine environmental organisation OceanCare. Since
2015 he has been a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Bristol where he contributes to the Master’s programme in Global Wildlife Health and Conservation. He also regularly acts as a guest
contributor at the University of St Andrews. Mark is a Churchill Fellow.
Much of his work has been focused on whales, dolphins and porpoises and the challenges that their populations face, including whaling and other hunting. Since
1994 he has been a member of the Scientific Committee (SC) of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and, in recent years, he has been part of the UK delegation to these meetings. He has attended
every meeting of the SC and every Commission meeting for the last 30 years. At the IWC, Mark has helped instigate and lead work on the effects of climate change, marine debris, bycatch and other
topics. This has included convening and chairing numerous international workshops.
Mark has also taken part in many meetings of the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) and the UN Convention on
the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS). In 2020, he was appointed to a new role as the Scientific Councillor for Marine Pollution at CMS. He has recently been involved in the development of a
novel workstream at CMS on the conservation of animal cultures.
In 2013, his work was recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours with an OBE for marine mammal conservation and environmental sciences.
His research interests are both national and international. For example, in the early 1990s, he worked with Spanish colleagues to examine unusual strandings of
beaked whales in the Canary Islands. These were found to be caused by military exercises that were subsequently banned. More recently, he helped to develop a novel welfare assessment tool for whales
in the wild. Fieldwork has included taking part in ship-based surveys in Cardigan Bay, the Moray Firth and in the Atlantic Frontier (the area to the north and west of Scotland). For many years he has
also been involved in the systematic monitoring of marine mammals from Bardsey Island in northwest Wales using photo-ID techniques. Since 1992, he has chaired the UK’s Marine Animal Rescue Coalition
(a forum where rescue organisations meet to discuss rescue strategies and related matters). His more than 200 scientific publications cover many issues, including chemical and noise pollution, marine
debris and climate change. (Most of his publications are available via Researchgate.) He has several books to his name, including Whales and Dolphins of the World, published in 2007 by Bloomsbury and
Whales and Dolphins. Cognition, Culture, Conservation and Human Perceptions, co-edited with Philippa Brakes and published by Earthscan in 2011.
When he has time, he draws and paints – mainly marine wildlife!
ATOM Lecture on Tuesday 25th March: The Whale-Human Interface
Whales are remarkable. Not only are some species gigantic but many are great travellers, regularly migrating across more than half of our planet. They mainly
perceive their world through sound and hearing, and we are still discovering more about them, including finding new species!
The histories of human and whale populations have long been intertwined and in this presentation Mark will reflect on the extent of our current knowledge and how
the nature of our inter-species interactions have changed overtime. Across the centuries cetaceans have morphed from dreadful sea monsters into a prized resource that humans have risked their
lives to harvest because of the high value oil that could be extracted from them. Human eagerness for their exploitation led to crashes in one population after another, peaking in the 20th century,
when whaling became highly industrialised. Mark will consider where we are now in terms of understanding their biology, their psychology and the ongoing, and still heated, debates over their
exploitation.
In the 21st century several populations and species remain endangered, others have shown good recovery after whaling pressure was removed. Some of their key
habitats are changing fast and their futures now again lie entirely in our hands.
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