Andrew has headed up the strandings team since 2009. As a veterinary pathologist he undertakes most of the post mortem examinations and has oversight for data collection, management and reporting. He has a background in veterinary epidemiology, provides scientific direction to the project and will likely be the face you see wielding a scalpel on our training and outreach courses.
Andrew graduated as a vet from the University of Edinburgh in 2000 and completed a PhD in veterinary epidemiology in 2007. Andrew holds a lot of expertise in the field of wildlife disease and is interested in the cumulative effects of disease, physiology and environmental stressors on wild populations.
Nick is the strandings coordinator, responsible for the collection of stranding reports and carcases for necropsy. He also carries out and assists with post-mortem examinations and contributes to the production of scientific and governmental publications and reports. Nick manages our volunteer network and will most likely be the person answering the phone when you report in a stranding. He is also a highly experienced bacteriologist, and performs determinative bacteriology on all cases that are necropsied.
Nick was involved with the development of the UK post-mortem protocols for cetaceans and pinnipeds in the early 1990’s, and brings a lot of expertise to the project, having previously worked on stranded marine mammals and as a microbiologist for the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) in Cornwall for nearly 27 years.
Mariel joined the team in September 2014, after finishing her MSc in Applied Marine and Fisheries Ecology from the University of Aberdeen. Before that she worked for the strandings networks in the Netherlands, which started her interest in strandings and their use for population monitoring. She is our resident data specialist and will be responsible for most of the graphs, charts and statistics we put in our reports. Mariel manages the database and sample archives and provides administrative and coordination support as well as assistance with the post-mortem examinations.
As of 2022 she will be reducing her hours on the SMASS programme, to work on her PhD project which will focus on improving methods to analyse (marine) wildlife surveillance data for population level inferences.
