Our youngest reporter, 13-year-old Nina Vennis, met Petersfield whale biologist Leigh Hickmott, who recalls a close encounter with a blue whale among other creatures.
Leigh studied zoology and marine biology at Aberdeen and St Andrew’s universities, beginning his career in 1998 studying bottle-nose dolphins in the Murray Firth, Scotland.
His research focuses on foraging ecology (studying how feeding behaviour is influenced by the environment) and the effects of man-made noise on marine mammals. His work takes him to all four corners of the planet and from pole to pole; collaborating on conservation-based projects studying beaked whales, blue whales and the world’s apex predator: the killer whale.
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