MARINE BIOLOGIST / UNDERWATER VIDEOGRAPHER / HSE DIVER
Jake grew up on Pen Llŷn, North Wales and coming from a maritime family meant that from a young age the underwater world and marine life have played a major role in his life.
As a marine biologist Jake is the Project Coordinator for Project SIARC (Sharks Inspiring Action and Research with Communities) / Angel Shark Project: Wales. Project aims to better understand the Critically Endangered Angelshark and other are sharks, skates and rays off the Welsh coast.
As an underwater videographer he aims to share the the range of marine life and habitats found beneath the waves along the Welsh Coast and further afield. Footage has featured on BBC and Discovery Channels Shark Week.
Q: Can you tell us what a typical day is like.
“No two days are the same. As a diver it’s great to be able to work on a variety of different jobs that being media as a safety diver, scientific diving or light commercial work completing underwater surveys or maintenance work. It’s always exciting to have the variety, working in new locations and with different teams to complete the underwater tasks in hand.
Heading below the surface you never know what you’re going to see, as a marine biologist I’m always on the look out for different species and behaviours which can make good shots or better to complete different sequences which tells the story of the particular species or habitat. What’s really special is when both passions of diving and marine biology combine together to showcase the marine environment, particularly the Welsh coastline.”
“As a Project Coordinator a lot of my time is spent carrying out engagement work with fishers, communities to help better understand the focal shark species off the Welsh coast such Angelshark. Tope, Stingray and Spurdog. Fieldwork is mainly limited to the summer months due to unfavourable weather conditions in the winter. But, fieldwork does include completing exciting surveys such as deploying Baited Underwater Video System (BRUVs) to provide an insight to the species found below the surface. There is also lots of time infant of computer screens doing data management and analysis.”
Jake Davies - DeepSea MGZN contributor
Follow Jake on IG @jdscuba
