Chantal Pagel

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marine-wildlife.org

Bio: Chantal Denise Pagel is a PhD candidate at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand, dealing with tourist experiences, risk and safety, and the role of social media within commercial in-water interactions with marine wildlife in the South Pacific. While becoming a conservation biologist, Chantal has worked with sustainable wildlife watching since 2010 by exploring the global whale-watching phenomenon and conducting research on swim encounters with Norwegian killer whales. She has volunteered with the Mauritius Marine Conservation Society (MMCS) helping to understand the local dolphin watching industry and gained valuable insights into the work of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Fiji and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) in Bonn, Germany. In 2019, Chantal joined the reviewing panel of the first global responsible whale-watching certification programme, initiated by World Cetacean Alliance (WCA), that seeks to identify best-practice operators in the sector. Alongside her doctorate programme, Chantal has launched a topical website on the marine wildlife tourism experience to educate wildlife enthusiasts about respectful animal encounters and what is possible in the world. To understand social media trends such as the wildlife selfie phenomenon, she started a complementary Instagram profile. To stand out from the myriads of ocean-themed pages on the platform, Chantal decided to get creative by designing comprehensive infographics for the wider public in which she has integrated her own artwork.