About

“From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free.”

- Jacques Cousteau, Oceanographer & Explorer

Hailing from the rugged Pembrokeshire coastline, Charlie’s childhood was shaped by water. Forced to grow up in a wetsuit, her summers were spent camping, rock pooling and coasteering where her fascination for the natural world took hold. At the age of eleven her family relocated to the sub-tropical archipelago of The Canary Islands where she spent a decade immersed in the rich waters of these volcanic islands and learnt to scuba dive.

This deep rooted love for the natural world led Charlie down the path of studying Conservation Biology (BSc), before continuing on to complete her masters (MRes) in marine science where she studied carbon exchanges in coral reef habitats. Since then Charlie’s work has taken her around the globe, from Saudi Arabia to Australia, to investigate anthropogenic stressors such as marine plastic pollution and climate change, with her first academic paper now published.

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A skilled field scientist and communicator, Charlie has led and joined several conservation-focused ocean expeditions to remote corners of the globe, bringing the plight of the ocean to mainstream audiences. Her work has seen her invited to speak at events such as COP26 and The Blue Earth Summit, and her campaigning saw her awarded Glasgow University’s prestigious Future World Changer Award in 2019.

Charlie is also an accomplished presenter, having presented and narrated a wealth of short films and documentaries advocating for greater marine protection. Passionate about connecting audiences to the natural world, she regularly teams up with charities and organisations to educate, inspire and drive positive action for nature.

You can find a selection of Charlie’s past and present work on her portfolio page.

“It is not that life ashore is distasteful to me. But life at sea is better.”

- Francis Drake, Explorer

Unable to survive away from water for too long, Charlie now lives full-time at sea on her self-renovated wooden catamaran “Feral” where at present she is exploring the Eastern Atlantic, documenting wildlife, investigating human abuses and reporting from the frontlines of this under-documented frontier.

Taking her work to new depths, Charlie is set on dedicating her life afloat to diving deeper than before into the challenges facing the ocean and is in the process of organising a number of scientific and film focussed expeditions for 2023/24.

You can follow her work on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and YouTube. Or catch her speaking person at these events.

Core Skills

  • Charlie holds a first class degree in Conservation Biology (BSc Hons) from the University of the West of England and an MRes in Life Sciences from the University of Glasgow. Over the last five years she has specialised in the marine sphere working as a research assistant at internationally recognised institutions, from Saudi Arabia to Australia. As such she has gained extensive field work experience, skills in academic writing and analysis, with her first paper now published.

  • In 2022 Charlie learnt to freedive and has since become hooked on this underwater sport. Her current PB is 35m and static 3.5 minutes.

  • Charlie is a certified PADI Rescue Diver with over 200 logged dives in both cold-water and tropical environments. This includes over 100 scientific dives where she conducted coral transects, fish counts, coral coring and sample collection.

  • Charlie’s photography career started at the age of six with a Fisher Price film camera. Since then she has upgraded to a mirrorless set-up and is an accomplished creative, and currently sponsored by GoPro.