James Hawkey holds a BSc (Hons) in fisheries and aquaculture, and a BSc (Hons) in marine biology and coastal ecology, and has extensive knowledge and experience in the industry. Aqua Terrain was founded out of a passion for the freshwater environment, and the desire to improve habitats for fish, improve biodiversity, and maintain aquatic ecosystems for future generations to enjoy.
Alongside Aqua Terrain, James currently lectures part time in fisheries and countryside management at Hadlow College, delivering modules in fisheries science, aquaculture and ecology from level 3 through to level 6. His teaching covers the full practical syllabus: ecological surveys, seine netting, electrofishing, vegetation control, still water and river fishery management, and bioengineering.
Previous experience in fisheries management also includes work carried out at Aquamaintain Ltd, Aquascience Ltd, and Enviroaqua.
Other achievements include studies in passive acoustic monitoring and marine mammal observation: In 2018–19 James completed a marine mammal research internship with Sea Search in Cape Town, analysing acoustic recordings of humpback whale super-groups off the South African west coast. The work was published in the African Journal of Zoology in September 2020 — 'A First Look at the Humpback Whale Song Structure on the Western Coast of South Africa' (Hawkey et al. 2020) — the first catalogue of humpback song units recorded in that study area.
