Hugh Harrop

Hugh is the Company of Whales field director and is now firmly recognised as one of the leading authorities on marine life of Biscay He also founded the award-winning Scottish eco-tourism company Shetland Wildlife in 1992 after spells working for Fair Isle Bird Observatory, the Shetland Oil Terminal Environmental Advisory Group and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Although Hugh's main interests are cetaceans and their identification, he is a first-class naturalist with a passion for all other aspects of natural history, especially birds, wild flowers, seals, butterflies, dragonflies - and Polar Bears! Hugh is also a feature writer for several European natural history magazines, an award-winning professional photographer whose work is widely published in journals and newspapers across Europe and North America, author of several books, a former committee member of Scottish Wildlife Trust, a member of the Shetland Bird Club rarities and general committee and a founder member of, and county recorder for, the Shetland Sea Mammal Group! When not working at home in Shetland or travelling across the Bay of Biscay, he travels extensively with his wife Michelle and baby daughter Cerys, to exciting wildlife-filled and toddler-friendly destinations!

Nigel and Wendy Milius

Nigel and Wendy married after meeting at Fair Isle Bird Observatory in Shetland and now live in Wendy's home country, New Zealand where they guide wildlife-watching holidays. Wendy also works for charitable trust helping American university students to a greater understanding and appreciation of New Zealand's interesting and varied ecosystems. Nigel also spends the austral summer employed as a wildlife lecturer and guide on board small cruise ships exploring Antarctica. Both widely travelled, Chile, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Falkland Islands, the Bering Sea, South Africa, China and The Galapagos have featured in their journeys. They both have friendly outgoing personalities and look forward to sharing their knowledge of - and enthusiasm for - the Bay of Biscay with our guests.

Mike Weedon

Mike has been sub editor of Bird Watching magazine since May 2000. His role is to convert the unreadable into the palatable, while attempting to control editorial production of the UK's highest-selling bird magazine! He is also the co-ordinator of the unique site-by-site monthly UK Bird Sightings section of the magazine. After graduating from the University of Bristol with a PhD in Palaeontology, Mike worked for several years as a post-doctoral researcher. He was largely based at The Natural History Museum, London, but also had a spell in the School of Biology at the University of Hokkaido in Sapporo, Japan. Mike is a keen and active life-long birder and wildlife-watcher and has joined Company of Whales trips on the Bay of Biscay each year since 2000. His lucky touch helped bring corking views of the world's second live-at-sea True's beaked Whale and Europe's third-ever Masked Booby while guiding successive trips with Hugh in 2003. He has enjoyed cetaceans in such far-flung places as Fiji, Japan, and New Zealand, as well as watching Gangetic river dolphins in Nepal.

Dylan Walker

Dylan is a professional field naturalist, conservationist and tour guide with an all-consuming passion for whales and dolphins. Recognised as one of the most experienced marine mammal observers in Europe, he has conducted research and survey work throughout the eastern North Atlantic from Iceland to the Canary Islands. Nowhere is Dylan more at home though, than in the Bay of Biscay, having crossed this region many times over the last decade. An accomplished author, he has written several acclaimed books including Whales and Dolphins of the European Atlantic and Whales and Dolphins of Great Britain. In 1995 Dylan utilised 10 years of Company of Whales data to define areas of high cetacean diversity as part of his Masters degree in Marine Mammal Science. Since then, he has been appointed as Project Development Officer for marine conservation charity ORCA. Dylan is an excellent all-round naturalist with a friendly personality, good sense of humour and an unquenchable enthusiasm for wildlife; qualities that make him a highly popular tour guide.

Glenn Overington

Glenn has a passionate affection for all aspects of nature and wildlife, with an overwhelming interest in cetaceans, seabirds and other marine life. Glenn has travelled to numerous destinations around the world including Iceland, Nova Scotia, Baja California, and the Scottish Islands (in addition to regular visits to the Bay of Biscay of course!) in pursuit of further encounters and harbours ambitions to visit many other areas in the future, with a particular focus on the remote and extreme islands and archipelagos of the Southern Hemisphere. In addition to whale-watching, Glenn is an experienced birdwatcher with (in addition to seabirds), a deep admiration for raptors and owls. His favourite birding destinations include Finland and Arctic Norway (destinations where he has returned on many occasions), Spitsbergen and Poland. Glenn is also a highly motivated photographer, taking images of natural history and landscapes. In between these interests Glenn (reluctantly) attempts to find time for his 'day job'. Glenn lives in Worthing, West Sussex with his wife Terriena and young son Harry.

Alex Carlisle

Alex is a highly experienced and motivated whale watcher whose worldwide travels to places such as California, Australia, The Maldives and Iceland have led him to encounters with more than 30 cetacean species. Alex's extensive interest in whales and dolphins ranges from just the simple joy of watching these animals, to studying the finer points of their identification, an area in which he is widely recognised for his expertise. Alex is an accomplished wildlife photographer and his whale and dolphin photos have appeared in various publications. Alex was the former cetacean recorder for ORCA, where his role included organising and conducting important winter marine surveys of the Bay of Biscay. As a Company of Whales tour guide, Alex's wildlife knowledge and experiences make him highly competent at finding and identifying the region's cetaceans and birds, and his enthusiastic and personable nature helps to ensure an enjoyable trip for anyone touring with him.

Phil Coles

Phil has been guiding for The Company of Whales since we began running holidays in 1996. His expertise and knowledge of the wildlife of the Bay is second to none. Phil has seen most of the cetaceans of the Bay of Biscay, including some of the rarest, such as Sowerby's Beaked Whale and Blue Whale. As a researcher, Phil specialises in studying beaked whales, having written several articles and papers on this little known family of cetaceans. As a first class artist, he also illustrates cetacean books and publications. Phil's full time job rarely takes him out to sea. He is a television producer for a wildlife film company called HIT and has worked on films dealing with topics from dung beetles to dinosaurs and Kenya to Kazakhstan. It is no wonder that Phil is such an asset to the team, with his expertise in cetaceans and a diverse knowledge of the natural world. But for Phil, nothing beats being out in the Bay of Biscay and observing some of the amazing animals that make it their home. The only thing he enjoys more is the opportunity to share the experience with our guests for whom his message is: "I hope to see you again next year!"

James Diamond

James has worked in nature conservation in southwest England for ten years, since graduating in Environmental Science from Plymouth University. He is currently working for English Nature on a conservation project to protect one of Europe's rarest mammals, the greater horseshoe bat. James has a long-standing interest in all natural history, in particular birds and mammals. He was bitten by the Biscay bug in the late 1990s and has led trips for the Company of Whales since 2001. His passion for wildlife has led James to travel throughout Europe and beyond, including trips to watch Elk and alpine flowers in Sweden, raptors in Israel and the inhabitants of the highest mountains in the world in Nepal.

 

Dave Gray

Dave is based in Leicester were he works as a nurse. He has been a keen birder for the last 25 years and has an unquenchable thirst for seabirds, raptors and wild orchids but also a passion for cetaceans - particularly beaked whales and Risso's Dolphins! Originally trained as a Fine Artist at De Montfort University, Leicester, his artwork was based on his natural history experiences and he has many pictures held in private collections throughout the UK. Over the last few years has been a regular contributor of articles on the wildlife of the Bay of Biscay for Birding World and Bird Watching Magazine and along with Hugh, Dylan and Graeme, was a founder member of ORCA, holding the position of bird recorder for a number of years. Away from Biscay, Dave is an active committee member of the Leicestershire and Rutland Ornithological Society, having carried out many surveys on the local bird life. Dave has travelled extensively over the whole of the UK, Europe, The Canaries and the Eastern seaboard of America. When not travelling across Biscay, he can be found birding or orchid hunting in the Midlands, or supporting his beloved Liverpool Football Club and Welsh rugby team.

Tom Walmsley

Tom Walmsley is a marine biologist, underwater cameraman and expedition organiser with a wealth of experience in the world's major oceans. He has worked as a cameraman for international television companies including the BBC. He participates with research teams for the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and has worked on projects assessing whale-watching world-wide. Tom completed his own survey on the dolphins around Gibraltar before moving into film-making. He has recently finished filming and producing a number of videos on cetaceans, including projects with the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust and the Seawatch Foundation.

Elfyn Pugh

Elfyn lives in Machynlleth in central Wales. He has had a lifelong interest in birds. His first job was as a zookeeper at Chester Zoo where he holds great memories of both animal and 'human' behaviour! Following that he spent most of his working life as a Police Officer in rural parts of Wales. Following his retirement Elfyn set up a bird tour company and he specialises in showing people one of his favourite birds - Red Kite. He monitors their nests in his immediate area as a volunteer 'nest-watcher' for the Welsh Kite Trust. Elfyn has a wide interest in wildlife but particularly loves seabirds and cetaceans. He has crossed the Biscay many times with the Company of Whales and as a volunteer guide and wildlife officer for the marine charity ORCA . Over a period of many years he has also travelled widely in search of birds and cetaceans and has visited Baja, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Austria, Spain, Denmark, Iceland, Israel, Ireland and many parts of Britain. Apart from his home area he loves to visit Pembrokeshire and Scotland. Elfyn loves to share his passion for whales and dolphins and birds with other people and he takes great joy from showing people their very first whales or dolphins!

Brian Stone

After gaining his degree in chemistry and working on air pollution in the UK, Brian quickly found a talent for data analysis. After a spell designing databases to support the EU Birds Directive and chairing the UK bird population estimates panel, he now writes computer systems for TV companies. He lives with his family near Peterborough, has a black belt in Taekwondo and is a keen cyclist and rock climber! Brian is an all-round naturalist and is as happy searching for insects in the fens as birds and cetaceans on the high seas. At home he is an active birder and also specialises in the study of moths and other insects. He is the bird recorder for the Peterborough area and enjoys ferreting out rarer birds in the relatively unpromising environment of northern Cambridgeshire. Nothing motivates him more than the chance to introduce someone to a new wildlife experience and thus becomes a valued recent addition to the COW team!

Rob Still

Rob has had a keen interest in wildlife since childhood. Rob has travelled all over the world in search of wildlife, but has a particular fondness for South America. After obtaining a degree in Ecology from UEA he formed his own graphic design company, producing material for conservation bodies such as Butterfly Conservation and The Neotropical and Oriental Bird Clubs. Rob's artwork has appeared in such diverse places as a British Birds front cover and the Trinidad and Tobago High Commission in Nigeria! More recently Rob has been the driving force behind WildGuides - a publishing company specialising in wildlife guides that help raise funds for conservation. He has designed and co-authored books on Galápagos and British butterflies, dragonflies and orchids. He is responsible for co-ordinating both Shetland Wildlife's and The Company of Whales brochures and media design and is looking forward to some exciting new publishing projects with Hugh and Mike over the next year or so!

John Young

John has had a keen interest in wildlife, especially birds, for as long as he can remember. Birding trips to South Africa and New Zealand in 1992 got him hooked on mammals, especially whales and dolphins. Fired by his enthusiasm and thirst for knowledge, his subsequent travels in search of cetaceans have led him to California, Iceland, Canada, the Canaries, the Azores and the Maldives along with several trips across the Bay of Biscay. He enjoys taking video of whales and dolphins and some of his footage has been used for educational projects by WDCS, the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group and the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association Limited (SEARCH). He has also produced a video guide to the Whales and Dolphins of the Eastern North Pacific and Tropics and is currently working on gathering material for a number of other video projects. John has an informative and amiable nature and thoroughly enjoys sharing his wildlife knowledge.

Judd Hunt

Judd lives on Barry Island in South Wales where he works as a manager within the Civil Service. A passionate birdwatcher since 1979, he has travelled extensively in search of wildlife with his journeys taking him to every county in the British Isles, to Ireland, the Americas, across Africa, most of Europe including the islands of the mid Atlantic, the Middle East, India and Sri Lanka! He developed a keen interest in cetaceans in the mid-1980s when he used to sail across the Irish Sea with Hugh in search of seabirds and still clearly remembers their first encounters with Fin Whales and Orcas! Judd has worked for the Company of Whales since August 2000 and also has a mass of experience working as an overseas tour guide with our sister company, Shetland Wildlife. Judd is a founder member of the Glamorgan Birdwatching Club and has been involved in many local conservation activities and projects over the years. Although widely travelled, Judd still dreams of visiting the Antarctic Peninsula and the islands in the South Atlantic, hopefully as a guide for Shetland Wildlife or the Company of Whales!

Trevor Codlin

From an early age, Trevor has had a keen interest in wildlife, in particular birds and insects however, as with any natural history enthusiast; this interest has expanded to cover different species groups over time. Trevor has become an excellent all round naturalist, with an in depth knowledge of a range of common and unusual species. Through Trevor’s love of birds, he has qualified to become a bird ringer, using his skills to study species such as the House Sparrow, in order to help understand the reasons for its decline. After spending 20 years working in the photographic industry, where he learnt the skills to become a highly accomplished photographer, Trevor left to follow his interest of working with wildlife. Currently, when not guiding for the Company of Whales, Trevor can be found carrying out ecological survey work, specialising in bats, birds, dormice, reptiles and invertebrates. He is widely travelled and it was during a trip to British Columbia 15 years ago where he encountered Grey Whales at close hand, that cetaceans first captivated him. He has since ventured on numerous trips across the Bay of Biscay, and is extremely experienced in the flora and fauna encountered in the region. Trevor is a friendly outgoing person who enjoys leading groups and sharing his knowledge of wildlife with others.

Ingrid Kohl

Ingrid is an ornithologist, herpetologist and conservationist originating from Austria. Wildlife has been her passion since a very young age and she has travelled extensively across Europe and North America. Her diverse career has included spells working on re-introduction programmes of both Great Bustards and Lammergeiers and she has also coordinated a telemetry study of both Ural Owl and Goshawk. Ingrid is currently completing her Ecology Masters course at the University of Vienna where she is studying one of Europe's most handsome birds, the Bluethroat. All forms of marine life interest her, and in the last few years she has become one of the many who are now hooked on the cetaceans and seabirds of the Bay of Biscay especially after seeing the True's-beaked Whale with us in 2003! Her unquenchable thirst for all things natural and her endless enthusiasm make her an ideal guide.

Graeme Cresswell

Graeme is a conservation adviser, currently working with the Environment Division at Norfolk County Council. Graeme has a long-standing interest in marine wildlife and is an accomplished photographer, specialising in marine mammals. He has travelled extensively throughout the North Atlantic and North Pacific where he has photographed over 25 species of cetacean. Graeme has co-authored the new photographic guide to the Whales and Dolphins of the European Atlantic and he is currently writing two further identification guides to the marine mammals of the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards of North America. He is a founder member of Organisation Cetacea (ORCA), and, with Dylan Walker, has co-edited the Bay of Biscay Cetacean Report since 1997.

Lisa Walker

Lisa has been involved in nature conservation, research and education since she completed her degree in Environmental Management in 1996. She has travelled widely and worked on a great variety of conservation and research projects from Orang Utan rehabilitation in Sumatra to surveys of rainforest plants in Vietnam. Closer to home she has studied Basking Sharks off the Western Isles, Brown Trout and Grayling in the streams of County Durham, and Alpine plants in the Scottish Highlands. Lisa's passion for studying wildlife led her to complete a Masters in Ecology at Aberdeen University before she turned to a career in education. Currently, she works as a teacher, dividing her time between a primary school and a field studies centre in West Dorset. Lisa has been whale watching in the Bay of Biscay for five years where she has seen most of the cetacean species to occur in the region - the undoubted highlight being a close encounter with a pod of Killer Whales.

 

David Tipling

David is one of the world's top wildlife photographers. A keen naturalist from a young age, David established his own picture library Windrush Photos in 1993 and his work has been published in hundreds of publications world-wide. His incredible shots will be familiar to travellers who read BBC Wildlife, RSPB Birds, Birdwatching, Country Life and Audubon magazine. As well as being a top "sea-birder", David is author of Top Birding Spots in Britain and Ireland, co-author of Seabirds of the World and is currently shooting pictures for the new Wild Places and National Parks of Britain and Ireland. When not photographing wildlife, David is an active sportsman with a passion for tennis and skiing.

Kelly Macleod

Kelly has had a keen interest in cetaceans and the wider marine environment for many years. She studied Zoology at Oxford University before completing a Masters degree in Environmental Science at the University of Greenwich. Her Masters focused on an assessment of the harbour porpoise in UK waters. Over this period she also worked as a naturalist guide for whale-watching companies in Scotland and the Azores. During her "gap" year she worked on a marine research vessel which travelled around British waters to assist projects and promote marine conservation issues. She completed a PhD in 2001 on the cetaceans and oceanography of the coastal and offshore waters off northwest Scotland. Her current research interests are in survey methods, estimating abundance and habitat preferences of cetaceans. She has been involved with a number of organisations in the cetacean research and conservation field including the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, Greenpeace, and the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust.

David Smith

David has a life-long interest in wildlife and completed his first trip across Biscay in 1999. In the years that followed he worked as a seabird observer for the Falkland Islands Fisheries Department, graduated with a PhD in agro-ecology from Reading University, saw Blue Whale in Monterey Bay and completed many more trips across Biscay - for fun and also as an observer for our research partners, ORCA. David is now a freelance ecologist and when he is not working, he likes to find rare birds in COW's HQ in Shetland and all over the UK – if only it was that easy! Having introduced his mum, Marion, to whale watching – she is now one of the Company of Whales top clients!

Aimee Felus

Aimee has been fascinated by cetaceans since studying ethology and sociobiology at university. She became hooked after encounters with Bottlenose Dolphins in the Aegean and Minke Whales in the English Channel. After winning an Earthwatch fellowship to study Basking Sharks off Cornwall, Aimee now works in the field of Environmental Education which involves inspiring others with her enthusiasm for the natural world - and there's no better place than Biscay! She has also led school pupils across Biscay, researched cetaceans in the Hebrides (and thus become another one of our guides who has fallen in love with remote Scottish islands!) and relishes the chance to introduce more people to the wonders of the Bay of Biscay.

Leanne Batty

Leanne has been fascinated with cetaceans since studying animal behaviour at Leeds University in 2000. In the years that followed, she went on to complete an MSc in Marine Environmental Protection at Bangor University and volunteered at the Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre as the Education Officer. Most of her time however was spent in the field collecting data on the resident population of Bottlenose Dolphins and with this data, Leanne and her colleagues compiled a photo id catalogue for the 2005 season. For the last four years Leanne has worked and guided tours for the Out of the Blue programme (the endorsed travel company of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society) and has been fortunate enough to see whales and dolphins in all corners of the World including the Azores, Canary Islands, Mexico, and a bit closer to home in Pembrokeshire, Scotland and the Bay of Biscay! With The Company of Whales appointed as the official operator for Out of the Blue Bay of Biscay holidays, Leanne's face will be a familiar one to many of our guests who will be hoping she brings their trip as much luck as she did to one in August 2009, which produced a pod of 21 Killer Whales!