I have had a passion for conservation for as long as I can remember, even at the age of seven if you asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up I would have answered, ‘a conservationist!’ However, I never had an interest in fish until I took ichthyology as an arbitrary credit in my second year. Now it is the subject that I will be happily studying for the rest of my life! My current area of research is recreational fisheries, looking at the effects of catch-and-release fishing on different estuarine species, a topic I also stumbled upon by accident. Despite my research topic, fishing has never been one of my hobbies (although it is growing on me), I prefer reading or crocheting in my spare time, which is becoming less as my master’s degree progresses!