We love telling stories about the wonders of our underwater world and it's important that this is backed by credible science. It's why we're working with the best scientific minds who live, breathe and immerse themselves in study the Western Port's marine environment. Gosh they're a clever bunch. But don't take our word for it, check them out below.
Dr Adrian Flynn
Dr Stella Fulton
Dr Flynn is Director and Principal Consultant at Fathom Pacific who lead the Western Port Bryozoan Reef Research Project. He's skilled in marine ecological surveys in temperate and tropical environments, biomonitoring, biotope classification, habitat mapping, statistics, ecosystem modelling and biogeography. He has a technical speciality in deep-sea ecology and has published several scientific papers. Adrian is a qualified ADAS commercial diver and a Member of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand. He is an Honorary Research Associate of La Trobe University and Melbourne Museum.
Learn more about Adrian's work below:
Dr Fulton is a marine scientist and senior consultant with Fathom Pacific . Her experience lies in tropical and temperate reef ecosystem research, marine and coastal habitat restoration, commercial aquaculture and environmental education. Dr Fulton's Master of Philosophy thesis at James Cook University was focused on investigating the effect of removing macroalgae from degraded coral reef ecosystems and its potential to assist coral recovery. He current work includes researching the biota of Western Port's unique bryozoan reefs.​​​
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Learn more about Stella's work below:
https://fathompacific.com/our-team/
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Dr Lucille Chapuis
Dr Travis Dutka
Originally from Switzerland, Lucille has always been fascinated by the ocean and inspired by its wonders. She has a soft spot for tiny creatures like cleaner shrimps and for bigger things like ghost sharks. While her thesis focused on mutualism in the former, her PhD investigated the acoustic ecology of sharks. Since then, she’s been interested in underwater sound and concerned about the effect of the ever increasing human-made noise in aquatic environments. With a strong background in behavioural and evolutionary ecology, Lucille is broadening her horizons to include cutting edge technology at the frontier of different fields, such as biomechanics, 3D bioimaging and artificial intelligence.
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Learn more about Lucille's work below:
Travis’s research and teaching interests are quite eclectic but are primarily centred around, physiology, behaviour and conservation including Western Port’s elephant shark. After completing his PhD in 2004 on aspects of fatigue in skeletal muscle, he continued as a postdoctoral research fellow and associate lecturer before transitioning into a scholarly teaching fellow role for 3 years. After the scholarly teaching position, I became a lecturer and now promoted to a senior lecturer position. His research & teaching now also incorporates his life-long passion for marine environments and its inhabitants.
Learn more about Travis' work below:
https://scholars.latrobe.edu.au/tldutka
Dr Matt Edmunds
Dr Greg Parry
Dr Edmunds is a talented marine ecologist that provides scientific consulting services to government, industry, NGOs and community groups. His forte is in the design and implementation of quantitative, field-based studies and his scientific interests are strongest in community dynamics and ecosystem processes and functioning. His experience and expertise includes but is not limited to surveying, mapping and long-term monitoring of marine natural values and assets, including intertidal reef, subtidal reef, deep reef, seagrass, sediment infauna and sediment microalgal communities. Dr Edmund is currently involved in mapping Western Port's seagrass beds using ROV's and robots.
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Learn more about Dr Edmund's work below.
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Dr Parry is actively involved in mangrove restoration and seagrass monitoring in Western Port, drawing on decades of expertise in marine and estuarine ecology. He spent 25 years as a senior environmental scientist with Fisheries Victoria, leading major programs including the long-running Port Phillip Bay trawl fish survey and impact assessments of scallop dredging. His research has focused on invasive species, habitat restoration, and ecosystem health, with around 25 peer-reviewed publications and numerous technical reports. Dr Parry completed his PhD on rocky shore ecology at San Remo in 1977 and was Director of Marine Ecological Solutions from 2010 to 2023.
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