Issy is a marine ecologist with a passion for community-led protection and restoration of coastal habitats. She joined Project Seagrass in April 2026, where she leads the organisation’s scientific research in Scotland. The team’s current work focuses on understanding the factors influencing seagrass flowering and investigating nutrient pollution as a driver of meadow decline.
Before joining Project Seagrass, Issy completed a PhD at the University of Edinburgh, exploring visual and acoustic approaches to assessing faunal biodiversity in Scottish seagrass meadows. During her PhD, Issy also interned with NatureScot, working towards alignment of seagrass monitoring approaches across Scotland. Issy has a broad interest in conservation, having worked on projects ranging from oak woodland decline to seabird monitoring, and aims to bridge gaps between marine and terrestrial conservation. Overall, Issy is driven by an ethos of nature conservation being essential for the wellbeing of people, a perspective shaped during two years working at the Nature-based Solutions Initiative, a research group at the University of Oxford.
Science communication is also of great importance to Issy, and has formed a central part of her work, complementing the science. One highlight has been working on a seagrass education programme for secondary schools in Jamaica, in collaboration with Discovery Bay Marine Lab and the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, connecting teenagers with local habitats whilst fulfilling curriculum requirements.