ssex is home to the second-largest coastline in England, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that it provides the perfect introduction for a budding marine biologist. Rummaging around the mudflats in search of minibeasts and accompanying my dad on sea angling trips out of the Blackwater Estuary were the bread and butter of my upbringing. Even now, despite living over an hour from the coast, feeling the blisteringly cold salty water wash across my skin is my escape from everyday chaos. I
