Karen Daglish

Delivery Manager

Karen Daglish is the Stronger Shores Delivery Manager based at South Tyneside Council. With a background in project and fund management, Karen has worked across the public, private, and charitable sectors in North England on landscape and seascape scale partnership schemes and community benefit funds. 

It is Karen’s job to bring the partnership together and make sure collectively we are achieving the project aims. This includes reporting to the main funder, the Environment Agency, managing the budgets, overseeing the monitoring and evaluation, and keeping the project Board up to date with progress. 

Keen to still get her feet wet, this role has inspired Karen to further her marine knowledge through distance learning and becoming a qualified scuba diver. 

Emily Ross

Project Delivery Officer

Emily Ross is the Stronger Shores Delivery Project Officer at South Tyneside Council. Emily works with Delivery Partners across the North East region to help restore our oceans and precious coastline. 

Passionate about marine conservation and climate change, Emily has a background in community engagement. As a Project Delivery Officer, Emily covers all areas of the project with a focus on community participation. She has experience working with young people and in community-facing roles and has a degree in BSc Environmental Geography from the University of York.

Emily’s role is vital in raising project awareness and getting people involved in tackling coastal erosion- something that is vital to protect natural habitats, and revive ocean health using nature-based solutions. Her work will help ensure that the project’s aims and objectives are met. 

Nicholas Holt

Graduate Environmental Protection Officer

Nicholas Holt is a Graduate Environmental Protection Officer at South Tyneside Council.

Nicholas has a background in environmental project delivery including emergency planning, environmental sustainability, urban planning and environmental enforcement. Nicholas also has a Master’s degree in Physics from the University of Leicester. 

Nicholas will support project partners with gathering evidence to help us learn more about how seagrass, kelp and native oysters help with coastal management. Having grown up on the North East coast, Nicholas is keen to use his skills and knowledge to protect the valuable habitats found there. 

Bethany Handson

Project Officer

Bethany Handson is the Stronger Shores Project Officer, supporting with events, meetings, partner engagement, social media and website communications. Bethany helped facilitate the Stronger Shores Launch Event and Stronger Shores First Annual Conference.

Bethany has been attending engagement events within coastal communities across the North East and representing Stronger Shores at conferences using the project's engagement resources. This work helps engage communities and raise awareness of Stronger Shores. 

Bethany has experience of working with a number of coastal groups and organisations, including external partners such as the Marine Management Organization, the Environment Agency, Natural England and the RNLI. She lives in South Tyneside and is passionate about nature-based solutions which she believes are important for the future of our coastal communities. Her background is in ensuring the democratic processes in Local Government run smoothly, and in collaboration with Elected Members, bringing a different but useful perspective in supporting a project such as Stronger Shores for the region and wider Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme.

Blair Watson

Engagement Officer

Blair Watson is the Stronger Shores Marine Engagement Officer at Durham Wildlife Trust. Blair engages communities with the project, highlighting the importance of kelp, oyster reefs, and sea grass and how they help to protect the North East's coastline.

Blair has a degree in Marine Science, and a Master's in Science Communication. Blair is passionate about working with local people, helping to build a stronger relationship between those he works with and the marine environment, thus helping to protect coastal habitats and build ocean literacy amongst the groups he engages with. He has previously worked at Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh’s Science Centre, where he engaged communities across Scotland with deep-sea natural and historical heritage, and at the Marine Conservation Society, where he engaged local communities with the nearby native oyster restoration project, the Dornoch Environmental Enhancement Project (DEEP).

His work will support communities to be stronger in the face of flooding, erosion and the impacts of climate change.

The Wild Oysters Project

The Wild Oysters Project: Tyne and Wear are working to restore self-sustaining populations of native oysters locally in the North East region. The project is delivered in partnership between the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Groundwork North East and Cumbria, and is a delivery partner for the Stronger Shores Project.

Healthy oyster reefs are capable of cleaning our coastal waters and providing important habitat for marine life. The Wild Oysters Project aims to restore these essential habitats, to help create a resilient marine environment for people and wildlife, and improve understanding of native oyster restoration methods and broader ecosystem recovery.

Key aspects of the Wild Oysters Project's work includes an initial oyster reef deployed off the coast
of Whitburn in October 2023, and continued monitoring of this reef to understand its effectiveness and inform the future development of the project. Along with oyster nurseries in Sunderland Marina, which are monitored monthly with help of volunteers, and the delivery of the Project's large outreach and engagement programme. 

The Tees Rivers Trust

The Tees Rivers Trust is a charitable organisation and one of the Stronger Shores Project Delivery Partners, working to restore the River Tees from source to sea. Their aims are to improve and conserve the water quality and habitat of the Tees, and its tributaries through education, the reduction of invasive species, practical habitat restoration and engagement with all stakeholders.

Key aspects of the Tees Rivers Trust's work includes a seagrass nursery located on the Tees Estuary, providing a location to grow seagrass plants from seed in controlled and monitored conditions. The plants are grown in sediment and water from the estuary so are accustomed to natural conditions. Some of these plants will be transplanted to suitable sites within the estuary along with planted seeds and others will be kept to produce seeds for the future, creating a self-sustaining population that can be used to supplement others.

Two oyster nurseries have been created in Hartlepool Marina and Hartlepool Dock, with volunteers assisting monthly monitoring sessions. A spatting pond has also been set up where it is hoped oysters will reproduce and produce young on cultch which can eventually be deployed to create a reef in the Tees Estuary or surrounding coast.

Martina Bristow

Seagrass and Seaweed Research Officer

Martina Bristow is the Stronger Shores Seagrass and Seaweed Research Officer at Durham Wildlife Trust. Martina will be monitoring seagrass at eight sites across the Northumberland and Tyne and Wear coast, as well as deploying and monitoring a small-scale seaweed growing research facility at sea off the Durham coast. Martina will be exploring first-hand the potential difference that seagrass habitat restoration can make across our coastline. Monitoring data will be collected over the next few years and Martina is keen to understand how her findings will fit into the wider Stronger Shores Project and how the knowledge gathered can be best used to support efforts to reduce coastal erosion and improve local marine biodiversity in future.

Robyn Mastin-Wynne

PhD Student at Newcastle University

PhD Student at Newcastle University.

Robyn's PhD focuses on in-situ experiments to establish the role that UK kelp forests play in reducing wave energy. She will also be trialling techniques for kelp restoration on exposed coastlines, where the role of these habitats in wave attenuation (slowing down waves) is most required. 

Robyn has a BSc in Marine Biology from the University of Hull and a MRes from Newcastle University. She is excited to continue her studies at Newcastle University, and is looking forward to learning new skills, getting involved in the wider Stronger Shores project, and interacting with the wide range of stakeholders involved.  

Alex Wickenden

PhD student at Newcastle University

PhD student at Newcastle University.

Alex’s PhD focuses on the uses of remote sensing to monitor the restoration of seagrass, kelp, and oysters. To do this he will be evaluating existing techniques of monitoring with drones, satellites, and echosounders, to produce low-cost and accessible monitoring strategies for use by restoration projects.

Alex has an MSc in GIS from the University of Edinburgh and a BSc in Marine Biology from the University of Exeter, having returned to academia to do a PhD after several years working in spatial ecology. He is looking forward to expanding his remote sensing skill set, exploring the North East, and getting involved in some of the exciting projects linked with Stronger Shores.

Jack Duffy

PhD student at Newcastle University

Jack Duffy is a marine science PhD student from Ireland studying a PhD at Newcastle University. His work looks at protecting shorelines by reducing incoming wave heights and energy using natural habitats such as kelp forests, seagrass meadows and oyster reefs. He will be designing artificial structures that mimic the properties of natural habitats and testing their effects on wave energy in laboratory wave tanks.

Jack has a BSc in physics and a MSc in marine science, both from University College Cork and is looking forward to continuing his studies as part of the Stronger Shores project.

Jack is delighted to be working in Newcastle and to be part of a project that aims to protect the beautiful coastlines and marine habitats of the North East.

Helen Agosti

PhD Student at University of Plymouth

PhD student at University of Plymouth.

Helen's PhD focuses on using a Natural Capital framework to calculate the value of restoring coastal habitats for flood mitigation. She will also be researching what other socio-economic benefits might arise as a result of habitat restoration. 

Helen has a MSc in Marine Conservation from the University of Plymouth and is excited to continue her studies at the University. She is also looking forward to learning more about the local communities, coastline and marine habitats along the beautiful North East coast.