James McNee

Environmental Scientist and Guide

James is an environmental consultant and is presently contracted as a consultant marine ecologist carrying out offshore benthic sampling, data interpretation and reporting for offshore oil exploration and production activities in the Caspian Sea, based in Baku, Azerbaijan.

His educational qualifications include a BSc (hons) Environmental Protection from Bournemouth University and an MSc Marine Resource Development and Protection from Heriot Watt University. His MSc thesis involved analysis of data from the UK Offshore Operators Association (UKOOA) and the latest offshore benthic surveys to investigate the long term effects and recovery of the marine environment associated with offshore drilling activities in the North Sea.

He is an experienced MMO and has worked extensively in the North Sea, Atlantic Margin and Mediterranean, where his role is to ensure compliance to relevant environmental guidelines, monitoring the effects of acoustic disturbance on marine life and implementing mitigation measures to minimise these effects.

James is also an experienced whale and wildlife guide working off the west coast of Scotland, where he crewed two vessels and presented information on the local marine biology and ecology and relevant/topical environmental issues. This whale-watching operation also runs a research programme and James played an important role in the collection and analysis of distribution and photographic data of Minke whales and other cetaceans. He has also conducted eco-tourism studies on the Isle of Islay with respect to bottlenose dolphins and worked with the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust, crewing and assisting in their scientific programme and being involved with their marine awareness programme. James has also been involved in the filming of several BBC wildlife documentaries, crewing on a number of vessels sailing throughout the Hebrides. 

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