OATA has welcomed Leigh-Marie Hobday as its new Scientific Support Officer.

Leigh-Marie joins from the Coral Centre where she was Operations and Propagation Manager. Before that she was a Marine Invertebrate Taxonomist involved in studying the health of UK waters.

She attended the University of Portsmouth where she attained a BSc (Hons) in Marine Environmental Science before going on to study a Masters in Applied Aquatic Biology.

In her new role Leigh-Marie will support OATA’s Scientific and Technical Advisor Emily Maunder with analysis, research and evaluation on a diverse portfolio of issues affecting the industry, and support the delivery of the trade body’s City & Guilds-accredited training programmes.

OATA Chief Executive Dr Matthew Bond welcomed Leigh-Marie to the team: “Leigh-Marie has a strong background in a retail environment, particularly working with corals and marine inverts which will bring really valuable expertise to the team. Leigh’s arrival now completes the OATA team after a few staff changes this year and we have plenty to keep us all busy!”

Leigh-Marie said: “This will be a great opportunity to use my previous experience to become a voice for an industry that has been a part of my personal and working life for a long time now. I’m excited to work alongside a fantastic team of people and contribute towards the longevity of the trade.

“This is something very close to my heart because I’ve been a fish keeper since I was eight years old and, more recently a reptile keeper.  I currently have a planted Betta fish tank (he’s named Blu), an axolotl tank (he’s named Nahuatl) and a nano reef tank with a pair of Clownfish (Jim & Pam), a single Yellow Watchman Goby (Toby) and a Firefish named Angela.”

In her spare time Leigh volunteers with local beach cleanups, delivers community education on ocean life and contributes to an oyster restoration project.