Alyx Elliott

What inspired you to pursue a career in marine conservation?

I learnt to swim at a young age and was lucky enough to learn to snorkel on Maui when I was just 6. On my first trip out from the beach, I grazed my foot on some coral - I remember being so awe inspired by the hidden world beneath the surface that I instantly knew it deserved our respect as well as our protection. My love of the ocean began then, and I've since spent as much time exploring it as I can. I'm an Advanced Open Water diver - I trained on the Great Barrier Reef and have been able to dive off Bali, Fiji, and even through WWII wrecks off Malta.

I've also found the ocean to be a very healing space. Being in it, or close to it, gives me time to think, and to breathe. Even during the hardest times of my life, it has helped me to find some peace.

When I became a campaigner 18 years ago, I knew that one day I would focus on protecting the ocean and marine wildlife. I'm very lucky to be able to do that every day now.

How do you think increasing diversity in marine-related careers could impact the future of this feild?

I think that our current understanding of people's connections to the ocean is skewed by the limited range of views currently being heard. If we can better understand the multitude of ways people value the ocean, we will get better at protecting it.

We need people from everywhere and every background to be part of this work, because it affects us all; the ocean belongs to nobody, but looking after it will benefit everybody.

Within your professional career, what work are you most proud of?

As a campaigner, I work every day to make things better - not just for us, but for all life on earth. There are a million different ways to create change, and a million different ways that people try to stop you. But the times I've been proudest are when you see that change playing out in front of you. It could be one person you speak to, realising the truth about an injustice, or it could be thousands, joining you in solidarity through protest. Either way, witnessing the fact that change is possible, and that moral progress is happening (despite it often feeling the opposite!), makes the hard days worthwhile. That's what campaigning is all about.

What are some of the most exciting innovations or breakthroughs happening in your area of work right now?

Some of the work I'm most excited about right now links to our ability, through technology, to see what's really happening out there in the ocean.

At Oceana, we've been working closely with SkyTruth - a satellite imagery company - to monitor oil spills in UK seas: so-called 'smaller', daily spills that aren't really known about outside of the industry. We're finding more and more evidence of this devastating pollution all the time.

It's really important, particularly with ocean issues, that we're able to visualise what's happening in some way, to bring it to life for people. For many, the ocean feels so far away that what's happening and the impacts of what's happening feels too distant or unknown. As a campaigning organisation, we're determined not to let these harms go unnoticed, and partnerships like this one are really crucial - they can turn indifference into action.

If you could have a conversation with the ocean, what would you ask it?

To forgive us, for everything we've done to exploit it. And to promise it that we are working hard to do better.

Imagine a future where our relationship with the ocean is completely transformed. What does that look like?

This can be summed up in one word: respect.

We would all understand that the ocean is not ours; that we are privileged to live on this planet alongside everything beneath the waves (and on the land!). With that in mind, we would not pollute it, we would not exploit it, we would live harmoniously alongside it, and be grateful for the wonderful things it brings us every day.