Elisa Allione

  • allionelisa@gmail.com
  • United Kingdom
  • 28/02/2024
Office work Climate change Conservation and ecology Environmental education Management and consultancy Marine policy Marine research Marine renewable energy

Personal Summary

I am a marine biologist and my area of expertise are marine mammals. After working in the field for many years I am now looking more an office-based role.

I have worked for four years in the offshore industry as Marine Mammal Observer, PAM Operator and Environmental Project Manager. Before that, I have worked with many research groups and a citizen science project experiencing different methods to study cetaceans such as visual and acoustic monitoring.

I am knowledgeable about environmental permits and mitigation guidelines for marine mammals’ protection, assessing data quality and writing reports.

During my offshore career I also learned about benthic surveys through seabed sampling and camera operations.

As Environmental Project Manager I assisted my colleagues planning offshore projects, preparing tenders, managing invoices, advising the clients on how to be compliant with mitigation guidelines.

 

Becoming an IEMA member I broadened my knowledge about Sustainability, Circular Economy, Environmental Legislation and Environmental Impact Assessment.

I have recently completed EIIS Executive Programme on Innovation for Ecological Transition.

 

I am used to sudden scope and deadlines changes, to speaking to a big and varied audience adapting the topics complexity accordingly and I easily adapt to different working environments and schedules.

Working offshore I improved my analytical skills to quickly assess and react to different situations.

I am keen to accept new challenges, eager to learn and resourceful.

Work Experience

Naturalistic guide and coordinator
Jun 2024 - Sep 2023 Hvalsafari AS

Provide guided whale watching and marine biology/ecology museum tours in English, Italian and Spanish, and organize the daily guides schedule.

Delfini del Ponente APS logo Co-founder, Researcher, Blogger
Feb 2020 - Feb 2024 Delfini del Ponente APS

Nowadays I only help remotely with the blog.

Research Project based in Imperia focusing on monitoring the bottlenose dolphin population in Western Liguria.

The project was developed to understand how many Tursiops truncatus use the area, what is the groups' composition, what are the threats and interactions with human activities.

Interns are involved in the data collection and elaboration supervised by experienced researchers.

Delfini del Ponente also organizes activities aimed to spread awareness and knowledge about the marine ecosystem such as: guided snorkeling and bird watching tours, educational events and photographic exhibits.

Environmental Project Manager
Nov 2022 - Apr 2023 Gardline Limited

Planning and managing a project form the early steps until it starts and throughout its duration providing support to the environmental team onboard.
Analysing the environmental permits outlining to the client potential commercial implication and advising on the best way to implement mitigation actions, on the most suitable equipment that enables to adhere to the guidelines and legislation.
Assisting my colleagues planning offshore projects, preparing tenders, managing invoices.

Marine Mammal Observer
Mar 2019 - Nov 2022 Gardline Limited

Marine Mammal Observers (MMOs) monitor the presence of marine mammals while Protected Species Observers (PSOs) also monitor the presence sea turtles during geophysical surveys in the US Gulf of Mexico during activities such as geophysical surveys (e.g. seismic surveys used in the exploration for oil and gas) and construction projects (e.g. offshore wind farms, harbours, bridges, etc.). I provided advice to ensure that operations comply with relevant guidelines to reduce the risk of injury or disturbance to marine mammals.
Back on land I performed Quality Check of data collected offshore and produced reports with monitoring and mitigation data,implemented throughout the projector, for the client.
I also have experience of benthic surveys (sampling and camera operations).

Assistant Research Scientist
Sep 2018 - Oct 2018 Tethys Research Institute

I took part in the Cetacean Sanctuary Research project open to the participation of the public. As research assistant I had to support my colleagues fulfilling all duties required onboard: sighting cetaceans, collecting sighting and marine litter data, recording cetacean vocalizations, taking the respiration pattern, collecting feces samples, documenting our research activities taking photographs, giving information about cetaceans and our research to involve participants, helping with the day to day running of the vessel, cooking and cleaning.

Marine Biologist
Apr 2018 - Oct 2018 Costa Balenae Whale and Nature Watching

I gave environmental education lectures to school students aiming at increasing their knowledge, awareness and sensitivity towards nature and its communities. We mainly focus on the marine environment, fishing activities and the 8 cetaceans species living in the Pelagos Sanctuary.

I’m part of the research team of Delfini del Ponente, the first research project on the common bottlenose dolphin in the western Ligurian Sea where they seem to be much more regular in the last years. We aim to assess their distribution, abundance and behavior using the photo-ID. This missing information, are essential to make conservation plans to protect these dolphins that, living close to the coast, are very susceptible to the human presence.

Whale watching guide
Apr 2018 - Oct 2018 Consorzio Liguria Via Mare

Our whale watching tours aim is to spot the 8 cetaceans species living in the Pelagos Sanctuary as well as Ocean Sun fish, Devil Rays and sea turtles. As MMO I search for the animals and as marine biologist I give participants information about the marine environment, the Pelagos Sanctuary, sighted species biology and characteristics. Any information is given both in Italian and English.

Birdwatcher
Nov 2017 - Feb 2018 LIPU

I took the course on the identification and survey of wintering waterfowl. I joined experienced birdwatcher in the survey which took place in the district of Asti participating to the annual IWC (International Waterbird Census).

International Volunteer
Aug 2016 - Aug 2016 Cetacean Research & Rescue Unit (CRRU)

I joined the CRRU, a research group which focuses on the coastal cetacean species located in the outer Moray Firth (Scotland) and on marine wildlife rescue. Gained experience: power boat handling; cetacean identification; photo-identification procedures; mark-recapture technique; computer-assisted matching software; relational databases; first aid administration, methods used in the care, transport and rescue of stranded cetaceans; methods for the reflotation of live stranded cetaceans.

Education

Biological Science
Sep 2009 - Oct 2012 Università del Piemonte Orientale
Marine Biology
Oct 2012 - Mar 2016 Università di Pisa

Name and surname

Elisa Allione

Nationality

Italian

Years of experience

4-6 years

Are you looking for a job in:

In my country of residence

Additional training

Becoming an IEMA member I broadened my knowledge about Sustainability, Circular Economy, Environmental Legislation and Environmental Impact Assessment.

I obtained the IEMA Foundation Certificate Environmental Management and IEMA_Advanced EIA Training Certificate.

I have recently completed EIIS Executive Programme on Innovation for Ecological Transition.

I have the PADI Advanced Open Water and PADI Enriched Air diving licences.

Language (indicate level)

Italian: Native Speaker

English: Fluent

Spanish: Fluent

Digital competences (indicate level)

I am familiar with the Microsoft Office packet icluding Access, QGIS,MARK, Net Draw, QGIS, PAM Guard, Microsoft Office Packet, SocPorg. I have basic knowledge of Relational Databases creating and data extrapolation.

Personal website / LinkedIN

https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisa-allione-83340a112/?locale=en_US