Marine Conservation Without Borders
Dr. Irina Trukhanova
Irina graduated from the Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Faculty of Biology and Soil Sciences of Saint-Petersburg State University. Range of her interests includes ecology and conservation of marine mammals, biotelemetry methods in marine research, PA network development.
Irina has been working in marine mammal research and conservation sphere since 2006 focusing on population monitoring of seals in Lake Ladoga and the Baltic and also in porpoises in the Baltic Sea. She is co-author of scientific publications on seal-fisheries conflict, distribution and abundance of ice-associated seals and walrus. She has worked with the Caspian seal icebreaker impact mitigation project since 2009, involved in both the research and the Seal Observer training programme. She collaborates closely with the Marine Mammal Rehabilitation Centre of the Leningrad region, Seal Conservation Society, UK, Marine mammal council of Russia and a broad range of professional organizations.
Personal views on the MCWB program
The study trip to Bahia, Brazil was enlightening for me in many ways. First of all, for me, big city inhabitant, it was extremely important to see how local communities can (and should!) be involved in nature areas management and protection. Seeing how local livelihood can be completely dependent on marine environment and natural resources made me think that in North-Western Russia region there are also small villages and indigenous people whom we should collaborate with if we want to ensure sustainable development of the areas.
Another great experience was related to interaction with school children. The lectures which we gave in a local school were motivating for me because they demonstrated that children were very much receptive to the information coming from their teachers and tutors. Active participation of students in the discussions and sincere interest to the nature conservation topics were a valuable outcome and let me hope that the next generation is not solely about the digital devices and technologies, but can also be interested in wildlife, research and taking care about the planet.
Numerous discussions with colleagues on marine mammal related issues as well as exciting field trips gave me an opportunity to get familiar to the research run in Brazil on estuarine dolphins and humpback whales. The approaches used for cetacean research in tropical areas are way different from the ones we used for ice-associated marine mammal research in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. That is why I was very happy to learn new facts and see these species in their natural habitat.