Who Are Ocean Wildlife Encounters ?
Ocean Wildlife Encounters, which launched in early 2021, is the concept of a group of like-minded and highly experienced, cruise wildlife speakers. So often during our various cruise speaker engagements we have all felt the frustration of knowing, that the potential of the cruise route is barely being realised with regard to the marine wildlife possibilities. So many times, we would wish for additional experienced watchers to be on board, to help us cover the big blue, or the ship would nudge its route just a fraction to put us over the best oceanic locations. By bringing together our collective knowledge and understanding of the ecology of the oceans we are able to work with the various cruise lines and help them give their passengers the best possible wildlife encounters during sea days and beyond. We are trying to change the mindset of operators and passengers by making sure that the wildlife potential of the cruise routes is uppermost in their minds right from the planning stage to ensure that passengers get the exceptional opportunities to encounter spellbinding marine wildlife. When a team from Ocean Wildlife Encounters is aboard your ship you can be reassured that they will be working tirelessly to provide the passengers with an exceptional wildlife experience.
Our Aims and Objectives are…;
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To encourage cruise line operators to maximise the marine wildlife opportunities on sea days.
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To provide cruise passengers with exceptional marine wildlife experiences by working with the cruise line operators to put their ship in the best possible locations to maximise encounters.
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To provide professional standard guiding on spotting marine wildlife, including marine mammals, seabirds, marine reptiles, sharks, flying fish and more.
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To enthuse and encourage passengers to participate in spotting and enjoying the wealth of marine wildlife during their cruise.
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To entertain the passengers with dedicated wildlife deck watches, talks, workshops, daily log of sightings, blogs etc. All delivered with the humour and enthusiasm for which all the team members are renowned.
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To have fun, whilst making sea days sensational.
The Story Of Our Logo
"We need a logo and we want it to reflect the fact that we are covering seabirds as well as whales and dolphins, well all marine wildlife really. Anybody got any ideas?" Within minutes Russ had sketched out a basic idea of an albatross-like seabird arched over a cruise ship and a fluking whale arching under the ship. Encompassing the lot ran the group name, like a circular ticker-tape. Anno sent the concept to a designer who produced numerous iterations of the basic design while we debated the points of the size of the bird, the postition of the bird, where the kink in the wing should be. Should the whale tail be inside the ship outline, or outside. How about this colour, that colour, is it reproducable in different formats. In the end we all agreed we loved the design. Which as it happens was almost exactly, bar a wavelet swoosh or two, exactly what Russ had concieved in the first place. Many thanks to Greg Oldfield for his patience and hard work on our behalf.
The Evolution Of Our Name
Choosing the right name for our project was an interesting exercise. We chucked all kinds of ideas into the mix and distilled it down to a few favoured options. No singular name stood out for all four of us in the founding group, some would favour one over another, but there was no general consensus. After a lengthy period we decided the best option was to market-test the name. Find a group of individuals who might just be the kind of folks that could be tempted by a wildlife oriented cruise. Send them the long-list of favoured options and give them a free unbiased vote. In the end the vote wasn't even close. The unequivocal winner was Ocean Wildlife Encounters. We OWE it to the voting public to give them what they want and who are we to disagree.
You can also follow Ocean Wildlife Encounters on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.