Hi everyone
 
Happy international women 
and girls in science day!
What a great day to celebrate
My name is Tooni
I work at the Australian Marine Conservation Society
and I work in a number of different campaigns across the organisation
mainly on protecting our threatened and endangered wildlife from fishing
from climate change, from threats around the country
and making sure that
they recover and improve
So my particular journey:
I was all set to go and start a degree
in ancient history and archaeology
and then I went diving in Thailand in my year off
and it was the experience of being under water
and just absolutely falling in love with the marine ecosystems
that I was witnessing and experiencing
and the opportunity to actually translate
that into a career and profession
and something longer term just
absolutely appealed to me
Since I've been working, so for about the past 20 years or so
what's always astounded me is the number of different people
who have degrees in science or experience in science
and the number of different avenues that can take you down
So I've met people in in government, in conservation, in academia, in childcare
You know all walks of life!
Science is relevant to every single part of
our existence
and the skills that you learn at university
are essential to every part of our existence
and can open doors that you simply
can't think of when you start your science education
So for me I have been lucky enough
to hold a variety of different jobs in my life
Part of that has been around communication
of the wonder of the underwater world
Through working with the BBC
and that has really taught me about
just the untapped passion there is out there
very much amongst young women
and girls for the ocean - a really deep
love of the ocean
that is international
It's like the ocean speaks to us
and speaks to many of us
in many different ways
So I would encourage any young people out there
who are thinking of a marine science career
or science career to take the jump basically
It provides great opportunities
You don't know where your career might take you
and you just never know until you start
and you'll invariably end up working on something that you absolutely love
So I also think we're at a moment in time where the world needs science
and people dedicated to science more than ever
We live in a post-truth world and I think is our world becomes
increasingly challenged by the effects of climate change
not only on land but also in the water
I really think that science is going to be the foundation
on which we build our laws and our policies to solve the challenges that we face
come up with complex and difficult solutions to the myriad of
challenges that are oceans and our wildlife and our lands face
So for me, I want to play a part in being part of the solution
That's why I work at AMCS
That's why I started off my career in marine science
and I think that if it's something you're contemplating
if it's something that you love doing
Then I would really strongly encourage you to take the jump and give it a go.
