The Centre for Environmental Management has two new staff members who have joined the Gladstone office recently.

Dr Peter Stratford started with CEM at the beginning of October and is in charge of the Marine Ecology Program.

Peter completed his doctoral degree on coral biology at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand in December 2001. Since then he has travelled internationally, spending time in South Africa, the United Kingdom and eventually Australia.

Prior to this position, Peter was working as an environmental scientist on the Gold Coast.

Peter has skills and experience in environmental monitoring, scuba diving, boating and general marine related research techniques.

Laura Bacon (pictured) has arrived from Manchester's Salford University where she is enrolled in a Bachelor of Science honours in wildlife and practical conservation. She is currently in her third year (of a four-year course), which is a placement year.

"I arrived in Gladstone during the second week in October and I will be here until the end of May 2005.

"Whilst I’m in Australia I hope to see quite a bit of the east coast, hopefully the Whitsundays and Fraser Island, and of course you can't come to Gladstone without going to Heron Island. I will be flying out of Sydney so I’ll see the sights there as well.

"The work which I am involved in at the CEM is very varied up until Christmas as I am helping on a number of projects as I shadow people around the centre.

"I am currently helping out on the mangrove survey project. I will be going up to Townsville with the team to participate in a mangrove survey.

"After Christmas I am setting up my own project on the resident Indo Pacific dolphins in the harbour mouth and will be doing a behavioural study on them and linking that with different issues facing the dolphins i.e. boat activity tide changes, the dredging of the harbour etc.

"I also hope to produce a photo identification board so the centre and the public can actively be a part of the monitoring the dolphin activities (hopefully encourage the Portwatch to start again).

"After my time in Australia I am traveling back via New Zealand, Fiji and New York."