JESSICA: MARINE BIOLOGIST & TRAINEE MERMAID!

Jessica says: 
My passion to work with marine life has quite a funny origin! When I was eleven my Nan gave me a copy of Endless Ocean, a video game for the Nintendo Wii. In the game, you play as a scuba diver and learn about amazing animals and I knew from then on, what I wanted to do with my life! I'm now qualified with a BSc in Marine Vertebrate Zoology, but that's not currently my job title! I went into this line of study after working hard in school and then in college, studying biology, geography and art. I then applied to Bangor University and after repeatedly calling admissions and begging for them to give me a chance - I studied in the School of Ocean Sciences for 3 years! My current job is as a Guest Experience Team Member at Blue Planet Aquarium. I work day to day with an amazing team of hard working animal lovers, in which we teach the public about our amazing sea life. I do aqua-theatre shows, where I interact with our scuba divers, who do things such as feeding our Southern Atlantic stingrays by hand! I also work as an educator, were I help teach all different school levels, starting with ocean discovery and learning basic marine life anatomy, to teaching older children and teens about shark conservation and population decimation. It's never a dull day! I also help the dive team on weekends as a Dive Tender, were I assist the dive supervisor above our shark tank with tasks and health and safety for our customers who come to dive with our sharks!

In the future I hope to focus on Eco Tourism. Eco Tourism is the future of tourism, as so many people are desperate to see all of our natural world (myself included). I want to join, teaching people upfront and personal, in these amazing environments, what we can do to preserve and protect our planet. There is so much that we can do already, from coral reef propagation to wildlife animal tagging! While at Blue Planet Aquarium, on rare occasions we are joined by Perforance Mermaids trained by Steve Millard. I became enthralled by the sport, decoration and grace of these mermaids and instantly wanted to join! I'm currently still in training however, in the future, this would lead to teaching young children about conservation groups and beach cleans, working abroad and in general just a lot of fun! It's still early days, but I can't wait for the next chapter of my life to begin!

Cathy says:
Oh my days... being a mermaid is a job? How awesome is that! Actually, I think every bit of Jessica's varied work sounds amazing - from protecting marine wildlife to helping people look after our planet, it's so important. What's YOUR dream career? COMMENT BELOW to have your say!