Breaking waves: Expeditionist, Scientist, Reservist
Royal Navy Reservist, Dr Imogen Napper, is an Expedition scientist for National Geographic who has been called by school children the “plastic detective”.
Dr Imogen Napper is one person working towards a better future for oceans and the generations to come. She says:
“The ocean is what connects us all, in some way, so we need to make sure our decisions protect it.”
Dr Imogen Napper is an Expedition Scientist for National Geographic, who has travelled the Ganges doing important work on plastic pollution in India and Bangladesh. Her PhD research investigated the sources of plastic going into the marine environment. It fed into the changes in worldwide legislation banning microbeads in facial scrubs.
Nominated for a Sun Military Award, Imogen, a Lieutenant, has had a successful 5 years in the Royal Navy alongside her groundbreaking research. As a surfer, a sailor and a marine scientist, Dr Napper has a strong affinity with the sea, with her father serving in the Royal Navy as well.
As a Royal Navy Reservist, she went to the Caribbean to help the charity Team Rubicon, after Hurricane Irma:
“I thought I’d be helping to make shelters and delivering food supply on the front line, but the leaders of the disaster relief charity learnt I was in the Reserves, and sent me to the heart of the logistics chain.
Instead I was attending briefings and coordinating with lots of different organisations to make sure the right help got to the right place.”
UN World Oceans Day is an opportunity for NGO’s, research centres, communities and governments to showcase what they are doing for the health of the oceans, present and future. It has been going on since 1992, where it was declared at a Global Forum in Rio de Janeiro. The theme this year is: Innovation for a sustainable ocean.
