Rona Sinclair

I work in the Marine Monitoring and Evidence team as a Mobile Species Monitoring Adviser.

I coordinate delivery of NatureScot's non-avian mobile species (mammals and fish / elasmobranchs) monitoring and surveillance programmes, contributing to delivery of the Scottish MPA monitoring strategy. I am also responsible for coordinating our assessment and reporting for cetacean, seal and fish species.

I work closely with the team of marine ecologists in the Sustainable Coasts and Seas activity team.

I work closely with external partner organisations (NGOs, academia, other UK SNCBs and government) including the JNCC, Marine Directorate, Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, SMRU / University of St Andrews, SAMS, and University of Aberdeen to develop and deliver our monitoring programme.

I also coordinate marine and coastal PhD studentships and internships, including managing the budgets, collating staff input for collaborative project ideas with universities and MASTS CDT as well as other CDT programmes (inc. SuMMeR).

I co-supervise two PhD projects - one on Risso's dolphin acoustic monitoring with a student at SAMS and another on Bottlenose dolphin range expansion with a student at SMRU.

I previously worked as a marine data advisor in this team and have skills in GIS and a good knowledge of data management practices and standards.