Meet Dai Evans – wildlife campaigner, member of Golden Lion SAC and now a Marine Champion. Interview by Kristina Pedder
VOLUNTEERLIFE
FACTFILE
Name: Dai Evans Job title: BSAC Marine Champion First dive: February 2019
Dai Evans’ passion is wildlife. As a wildlife activist, he has spent large parts of his life defending it. Having seen documentaries by Sylvia Earle and Paul Watson, he wanted to use his experience to help marine life. Friends at Sea Shepherd suggested he learned to dive.
“ Both BSAC and British Divers Marine Life Rescue( BDMLR) were suggested by Sea Shepherd as places to start my career in ocean conservation,” Dai explains.
So, in 2019, Dai took the plunge and found a local BSAC club. He qualified as a Dive Leader in 2025 and having attended an Instructor Foundation Course he is also an Assistant Diving Instructor.“ I have never needed any persuasion to assist the wildlife or the ocean. Nor helping new divers become advocates. The new breed of diver is a potential frontline defender of the ocean.” Dai has done 220 + open water dives, mostly around the UK. I ask about favourite dive spots:“ The north Wales coast, Shetland, Scapa Flow are special to me,” he replies, admitting to a recently developed soft spot for Gozo and the southern Red Sea.“ Cathedral Cave and Comino Island were beautiful. Along with my first experience with octopus, that was also my first dive holiday abroad. It was a club trip, so the company was good too.”
He is also a Marine Mammal Medic with BDMLR, a role with the skills to respond to a
The beauty of the world
Meet Dai Evans – wildlife campaigner, member of Golden Lion SAC and now a Marine Champion. Interview by Kristina Pedder
In his role as a medic, Dai responds to a stranded harbour porpoise
52
Reporting from the Faroe Islands for the Paul Watson Foundation