The desire to help people connect to marine environments drives Dr Vanessa Pirotta – as a researcher, presenter, author and educator – to bring diverse audiences on board.
Today, Pirotta is a wildlife scientist, globally renowned for taking whale research to a new level, harnessing technology including drones to investigate natural and human-induced threats to whales. Her remarkable career as a scientist and communicator, however, did not start where you would expect. She grew up three hours away from the closest beach on a 40-acre farm outside Canberra, with cows the largest mammals around.
Pirotta’s fascination with whales was sparked when her mother bought her a video of the movie Free Willy. To a five-year-old girl from the country, seeing whales, dolphins and orcas for the first time was mesmerising. Her childhood fascination with these breathtaking creatures evolved into ambitions to be a dolphin trainer and set her STEM journey in motion.
While studying a Bachelor of Science majoring in Zoology, Evolution and Ecology at Australian National University in Canberra, Pirotta gained practical skills with the wildlife keeper and education team at the National Aquarium and Zoo. After graduation, she moved to Coffs Harbour to train sea lions and dolphins at a marine facility, and says the experience rescuing and rehabilitating sea turtles and other marine life with the veterinary team was extremely rewarding.
Following a brief time as an environmental assessment officer in the public service, she began a Masters of Research at Macquarie University. It was here that her work with whales began. Her research, conducted in Australia and the Kingdom of Tonga, investigated how sound devices might be used to prevent whale entanglement in fishing gear and whale swimming and watching interactions.
For her PhD, Pirotta found herself navigating the tricky job of collecting the visible plume of spray exhaled through the blowhole of a humpback whale when it surfaces. The plume, known as the ‘blow’, looks like sea water but also contains bacteria, hormones, and DNA from the lungs of the whale. When you consider an adult humpback whale grows to the size of a bus (between 14 and 17 m in length) and can weigh up to 40 tonnes, its natural breaching and tail slapping behaviours can make collecting samples on a small boat challenging at best and dangerous at worst. So Pirotta decided to tackle the task from above instead.
In a collaborative project with Macquarie University and Heliguy Scientific in 2015, Pirotta helped build a waterproof drone or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to collect samples from the plume. As the whale surfaces, the drone (fitted with a petri dish) is flown through the plume. The petri dish lid opens up to capture the blow then closes. This method of sampling reduces the chances of sea water contamination and captures enough biological material for scientists to analyse and assess the health of the whales and marine environment. In addition, the drone technology has dramatically advanced researchers’ ability to access and study these spectacular sea creatures throughout their migrations, which can see them travel up to 8200 km per year.
In addition to ongoing whale research, Pirotta is now also helping create new technological solutions to a problem that is, she says, “threatening the survival and existence of some species”. She is leading a project on behalf of Rapiscan Systems in collaboration with the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (formerly with Environment) and the Taronga Conservation Society Australia, to develop a software program that identifies illegal trafficking of wild animals using computer algorithms: “It’s using innovative technologies in the fight against illegal wildlife crime,” she told The Brilliant.
Spreading the word
From the start, communicating science effectively has been the mainstay of Pirotta’s career. In 2018, she represented Australia at FameLab, a science communication event involving 22 countries. The event identifies early career researchers who can persuade others to see the world from a new perspective – all in the space of a three-minute talk. Pirotta’s talk on the drone technology from her PhD research won the Australian competition and scored her second place overall.
Despite her accomplishments, Pirotta says she found presenting intimidating at the start of her career. Advice from more experienced colleagues early on was instrumental in developing her confidence in promoting her whale research. Appearances on television and podcasts, at events like TedEx in Melbourne and the annual Cheltenham Science Festival in the UK, and as co-host of web series, The Breach, were all fantastic opportunities to flex her scientific muscle as a presenter and expert consultant. These days she’s often called on for in-studio appearances as a wildlife expert on Australian TV.
Her charismatic edge and eloquence has helped her reach a wide range of audiences in Australia and around the world, from presenting to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome, Italy in 2019 to skyping with schoolchildren in Bangkok and speaking at the Global Biodiversity Festival (a virtual event) in May 2022. And in June 2022, on ABC TV’s Southern Ocean Live, a spectacular live event featuring Pirotta’s close-up encounters with humpback whales and her drone team.
A passionate advocate of citizen science, Pirotta founded the Wild Sydney Harbour program invites the general public to contribute their sightings of fur seals, penguins, sharks, dolphins and whales using the #wildsydneyharbour hashtag on social media. Pirotta is also an ambassador with the Antarctic Science Foundation, a program that is advancing our knowledge about the world’s southernmost continent by supporting early career researchers. Her role is to promote Antarctica’s role as Earth’s natural laboratory for understanding our environment and the scientific research underway.
Reaching the next generation
With the Skype a Scientist, Deadly Science, and #WithSTEMYouCan (CSIRO) programs, Pirotta brings her real-world science experiences to the classroom, in the hopes of inspiring the scientists of tomorrow and to support the science teachers educating those students. “We need to reflect more on just how important teachers are because they do amazing things for these students,” she says.
Pirotta uses the power of social media to reach educators worldwide, with content they can share with students to ignite their curiosity about science. “I posted a photo of a shark egg the other day and so many people commented on it,” she says. “And they’re just like: Wow! I did not know that some sharks lay eggs. Simple but fun! All things that help inspire and motivate.”
Raising awareness about the ocean and its wildlife has resulted in the fulfillment of another long-time dream, having a children’s book, The Voyage of Whale and Calf, published. “Working with children has been incredibly rewarding,” says Pirotta. “The idea of getting knowledge and content to inspire the next generation is what really drives me.” She hopes the children’s book and a planned documentary will encourage people to become more inquisitive about the marine environment. “To bring science into the everyday and promote an understanding of it is really key to what I do, and something I’m really passionate about,” she says.
Article by Gabrielle Ahern
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