JACK ELLIOT MARLEY

Jack is a marine biologist and writer from the North East of England. He recently graduated with a Master’s degree in International Marine Environmental Consultancy from Newcastle University.

Jack was originally inspired by the works of Carl Sagan to pursue a career in science communication and maintained a hobby of writing about the natural world throughout his early years in education, later becoming science editor of his university’s student paper. As a researcher, Jack has focused on the human aspects of biodiversity conservation. His undergraduate thesis studied the role of public engagement in the conservation of the Hawaiian monk seal, while he gathered the indigenous knowledge of former shark fishers in the Maldives to inform monitoring of elasmobranchs during his MSc. As an activist, Jack wrote about the financial ties of British universities to the fossil fuel sector and followed demonstrations on campuses and at the Paris Climate Talks in 2015. His investigative series “Degrees of Change” spanned his final year of study and culminated in his university’s decision to divest.

Jack’s work reflects a desire to sound out more socially just and ecologically harmonious models of coexisting with nature and to develop creative ways of communicating them to a mass audience. Jack is grateful for the opportunity to work with Mongabay and looks forward to developing his skills as an environmental journalist.