A marine biologist just reached 50,000 students with an ocean conservation campaign, and she's never done this work full time. Rebecca Daniel runs The Marine Diaries, an ocean storytelling nonprofit, entirely as a side hustle alongside her day job in climate communications. This clip is pulled from Andrew's Ocean People Profile segment on the September 16, 2026 episode of Ocean Decoded Live.
Daniel learned to dive at age 10 (her mother is a technical diver), volunteered with Wildlife Sense in Greece and the Ocean & Climate Platform in Paris during university, and earned a BSc in Biological Sciences at Durham followed by an MSc in Tropical Marine Biology at the University of Essex. In December 2017, while finishing her studies, she co-founded The Marine Diaries with two fellow marine biology graduates, on the belief that stories reach people that facts alone don't. She still directs the organization today, leading roughly 50 volunteer storytellers, while working her day job as Digital Marketing Manager at Carbon Brief, a climate journalism outlet.
The results speak for the side-hustle model: the 2019 "Plastic NOT Fantastic" campaign pulled in more than 35 collaborators, and the 2021 "Marine Ecosystem Diaries" series reached over 50,000 students globally. The organization has since won the EU4Ocean Award for Community Engagement, been named Best Online Ocean Communication Experts UK at the European Enterprise Awards, made the Ocean Awards Young Initiative finalist list, and reached Commonwealth Youth Awards regional finalist status. She hasn't left the fieldwork behind either. In 2025 she was one of five people selected for a research expedition to Vava'u, Tonga, collecting eDNA samples to study cetacean genetic diversity, among the first studies of its kind in the Pacific.
Chapters:
0:00 - You Don't Need a Science Degree to Have an Ocean Impact
3:36 - You Don't Have to Be an Ocean Scientist to Do This
7:39 - December 2017: Co-Founding The Marine Diaries
11:07 - The Case for Incentivizing Scientists to Communicate
Takeaways:
Rebecca Daniel directs The Marine Diaries, an ocean storytelling nonprofit, as a side commitment alongside her full-time job as Digital Marketing Manager at Carbon Brief.
She co-founded The Marine Diaries in December 2017 with two fellow marine biology graduates, holds a BSc in Biological Sciences from Durham and an MSc in Tropical Marine Biology from the University of Essex, and now leads roughly 50 volunteer storytellers.
The 2019 "Plastic NOT Fantastic" campaign drew 35+ collaborators; the 2021 "Marine Ecosystem Diaries" series reached over 50,000 students globally.
The organization has won the EU4Ocean Award for Community Engagement and been named Best Online Ocean Communication Experts UK, among other honors.
In 2025, Daniel was one of five people selected for a research expedition to Vava'u, Tonga, collecting eDNA samples to study cetacean genetic diversity.
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