Marine biologist Lisanne Aerts works and plays in the love of her life, the sea

BY LIZ BESTIC FOR GREENING OF OIL

Had it not been for family holidays and a chance encounter at university, Dutch born marine biologist Lisanne Aerts may never have fallen in love with the sea.

“A friend at college invited me to go diving with him one weekend. In the Netherlands there are these rather unexciting old sand gravel pits which are the remains of sand mining activities. They are very dark with hardly any visibility but that really didn’t matter—I was totally hooked. I just loved the whole experience of being underwater,” she told Greening of Oil in a recent interview.

The Netherlands is not a country usually associated with deep sea diving and Lisanne’s parents were not happy about her new found interest. “If you don’t know exactly what diving involves it can seem a very dangerous hobby. Every time I went on a dive they never believed I would resurface!”

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By this time Lisanne had realised that the whole course of her life had been changed. “Originally I had set my heart on being a pharmacist or a medical biologist but when I discovered that the University of Groningen in the North of Holland was actually offering courses in marine biology I knew that was what I wanted to do,” she said.

Studies interspersed with dike and coral reef diving

Lisanne’s biology study took six years during which time she conducted a year of diving research along the dikes in Holland and on coral reefs in the Caribbean. After she had finished her studies she continued with diving research on nudibranches in the North Sea. “These are often called sea slugs but are actually shelless molluscs noted for their extraordinary colours and striking forms,” she explained.

Lisanne then took a PhD in coral reef biology and currently works as an environmental consultant for Anchorage, Alaska-based Oasis Environmental, a company specialising in site remediation, water resources and ecological sciences.

Lisanne must have been one of the luckiest PhD students ever. She was based at the Marine Biological Institute in Colombia, which sat on a huge rock at sea” “It meant I could go diving every day. I even had my own boat and boatman to take me to inaccessible places and each day I was dropped off at a particular diving spot. After the dive I would lie on a deserted beach whilst decompressing whilst the boatman would catch a fish for our dinner! We would then cook it on the beach over a little wood fire.”

At that time, she said, there was a lot of drug trafficking going on in those remote beaches. “One day I was lying on a beach decompressing in between dives and the boatman had gone fishing. Suddenly, this huge helicopter full of narco-police was flying overhead with massive guns pointing straight down at me! Luckily the boatman came back waving his arms and shouting at them not to shoot!”

From Columbia to the Caribbean’ Dutch Antilles

After three years in South America Lisanne moved to the Dutch Antilles in the Caribbean Sea to continue her research.

“I was based on the island of Curacao about 60 kilometres north of Venezuela and at the time I was married to a graphic designer and illustrator who found a job working for the National Park there. After a year of finalising my PhD field research we both decided to stay on. The National Park asked us to work for them and hired me as a biologist to take care of the captive local animals that they used for educational purposes,” Lisanne said.

“We were also asked to set up a Bird of Prey Centre where, using falconry techniques, we could rehabilitate birds that were caught by local people. I also took care of a range of animals from snakes and feral pigs to iguanas and donkeys. One time we found a young skittish little deer that had lost its mother and we had to hand rear it for several weeks.”

Back to the Netherlands, dispatched to spots around the world

After finishing her PhD Lisanne returned to the Netherlands where she found work with Dutch consultancy firm Royal Haskoning.

“A large part of my work consisted of conducting feasibility studies or writing environmental impact assessments. There are lots of companies all over the world that want to conduct projects with the potential to impact the environment. Part of my job was to assess what that impact would be—wherever that was in the world,” she said.

And so she found herself being dispatched to Benin in West Africa for the Ministry of Transport to conduct an assessment into the possible impact of the construction of a dyke with a highway situated between a huge lake and the sea.

“The plans could have impacted on the livelihoods of the local fishermen and so part of my job was to talk to them and find out how the plans could be adapted. In Africa I discovered how much of a luxury this type of environmental work really is when for many of these people the only thing that matters is surviving from day to day,” she said.

Projects on Sakhalin Island, Croatia

Through the same Dutch consultancy company Lisanne was seconded to the Sakhalin Energy Investment Company, an oil and gas company operating in Far East Russia.

“They wanted to have an in-house marine biologist to help them manage their marine mammal programme and develop a protection plan in partnership with project engineers. This included the setting up, training and management of a marine mammal observers program,” she explained.

Next stop was Croatia where Lisanne was project manager for a Partners for Water Program. “This was a feasibility study to assess water quality issues. It involved bringing together geological, ground water and biological experts and organise site visits. I then had to communicate and coordinate efforts with the Croatian Ministries of Water and Environment and review the final report,” she said.

Sadly for Lisanne diving is not always a major part of this type of work and, on top of that, many companies have begun to cut back on diving because it is such a high risk activity: “The oil industry does not want to take the risk that goes with diving and so their Health and Safety policies often do not allow diving any more unless there are a lot more safeguards in place.”

Based in Alaska

Lisanne now works in Alaska as a senior marine biologist.

“There are days when I sit behind a computer and only talk to two people all day, whereas other times I am busy conducting measurements out in the fields. Part of my work for LGL Alaska Research Associates (employer before Oasis Environmental) was to manage the BP Northstar acoustic and marine mammal monitoring project in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea. That involved observing marine mammals such as bowhead whales or deploying acoustic equipment to record whale calls,” she said.

In the Arctic and elsewhere in the world there are very specific measures that oil and gas companies have to comply with, she said. “For example when marine mammals come within a certain radius of their activities operations have to be suspended or even shut down for some time until the marine mammals move away.”

Diving still her passion

So when she is not travelling the world what does Lisanne like to do in her down time?

“In my spare time I go diving of course! The best diving in Anchorage is in Prince William Sound about an hour’s drive away. Even when I am diving for fun I am never really off duty! I have invested in an expensive underwater camera and take literally hundreds of underwater pictures. I then log and every marine animal I come in to contact with.

“In the summer I love to go hiking with my dog, Lucky. He is a stray Husky-German Shepherd cross breed which I rescued in Russia along with two cats. If I had a choice of what to do in my spare time though it would always be diving. Diving really is my passion and I have been fortunate enough for it to earn me a living too,” said Lisanne.

Links of interest

University of Groningen www.rug.nl

Marine Biological Institute in Colombia

Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research

Caribbean Research and Management of Biodiversity

Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Inc. is a consortium for developing the Sakhalin-II oil and gas project with corporate head office in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in Eastern Russia

Royal Haskoning was founded in 1881 in the Netherlands and runs consulting services which focus on the broad field of interaction between people and their environment. Working with clients their aim is to find sustainable solutions in an increasingly complex society. 

About Liz Bestic

Liz Bestic, the writer of Greening of Oil’s energy career pieces, lives in Woodbridge on the Suffolk coast and is both a wonderful writer and artist. Liz trained at West Surrey College of Art and Design and Exeter College of Art in the mid seventies before switching careers to become a journalist for the Sunday Times. 

Contact Liz Bestic at liz@bestic.co.uk or visit her website.