Alannah Vellacott

Alannah Vellacott is a marine ecologist, science communicator and ocean advocate with 12 years of experience working in marine research, conservation and education in the Bahamas and the Caribbean. Alannah grew up with the ocean as the backdrop to her childhood. Exploring the mangroves, fishing with her neighbors, and learning the science behind it all from her father, a former biology teacher, formed the base of Alannah’s love for the ocean. A PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor, with 18 years of experience in diving, Alannah has traveled the Bahamas and the Caribbean working on a variety of marine research and outreach projects that include sharks, conch, reef health, shipwreck mapping, and blue hole ethnography. Alannah has realized how inaccessible marine science and research is to those who are not in the field, so using her skills in education and outreach, Alannah has taken up Science Communication as her new mission - to bring the ocean to everyone. Alannah received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences with emphasis in Ecology in 2017 at South Dakota State University and plans to pursue a graduate’s degree in Marine Ecology in the near future.

• A decade in marine research, conservation, education and outreach.
• Coral Restoration Specialist at Coral Vita - the world's first land-based, commercial coral farm
• Principal Diver in a 6-part documentary, 'Enslaved' starring Samuel L Jackson and Afua Hirsch, telling the untold stories of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade through diving shipwrecked slave ships around the world.
• Former Faculty for the pilot of OceanX Young Explorers Program
• An Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment coral and fish protocol surveyor and coral protocol trainer.
• Regular appearances in Discovery Channel's Shark Week shows as a marine ecologist.