Currents of success
“Society understands that the ocean is our life-support system.”
In 2025, Emily Cunningham, an Honorary Associate Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, was awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours List for ‘services to marine conservation and coastal communities’.
Emily is a multi-award-winning expert at the forefront of driving positive change for our waters and the communities that depend on them. Her love for the marine world began whilst growing up in Staffordshire. She had a CD-ROM about endangered species and remembers worrying about a future without marine mammals. So, aged eight, she decided she wanted to become a marine biologist when she grew up so that she could help conserve wildlife.
This dream became a reality. Emily was the first person in her family to go to university when she went to Bangor University to study Marine Biology. She has since worked in ocean conservation for more than a decade.
Emily has been part of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at our Penryn Campus since 2024 as an Honorary Associate Research Fellow. During this time, she’s supervised students, given guest lectures in conservation-focused modules, and spoken at the annual Women in Conservation conference.
Her work doesn’t stop there as she also leads the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) global River Dolphin Rivers Initiative, which works across 12 countries in Asia and South America to conserve the six remaining species of freshwater cetacean: five river dolphins and one freshwater porpoise. All six are endangered or critically endangered, with threats including drowning in fishing nets, habitat fragmentation, climate change, and direct killing.
In these 12 countries, WWF works with local communities, governments and partner organisations to try and reverse the river dolphin numbers decline. They’ve seen success in Pakistan, where the population of Indus river dolphins has doubled in recent decades, and in China, where the population of Yangtze Finless Porpoise has risen by 20%.
Her career has also curated moments that have taken her breath away and Emily notes that this was particularly the case working in Antarctica; from walking amongst thousands of penguins at a breeding colony (pictured) to getting to dive to the seabed in a submarine.
Adding, “it was like being in a David Attenborough documentary and it only strengthened my resolve to protect our ocean.”
However, the seas and wildlife of Cornwall are still her favourite.
Looking to the future, Emily’s dreams are as vast as the ocean itself. They encompass the realisation of her 15-year long dream to write a book about how we can all help save the ocean, which will become a reality in 2026. Emily adds that her wider dream is that “society understands that the ocean is our life-support system.”
For that to happen, we need the value of our ocean to be part of the curriculum and for more people to experience the wonder of the ocean first-hand. Emily is excited that an Ocean Literary Strategy for England is underway and that many local authorities are committing to ensuring that all school-aged children in their area get a first-hand experience of the ocean through passing a Motion for the Ocean. This is the world’s first Local Government Ocean Recovery Declaration, co-founded by Emily, which has been passed by 38 local authorities and counting, and commits each council to taking action locally to benefit our rivers and seas.
Reflecting on how the general public can contribute to marine conservation, Emily suggests: “No matter where we live, we impact, and are impacted by, our ocean. People can help by writing to their local Council and asking them to pass a Motion for the Ocean. You can help the ocean by being ocean-friendly in what you put down the drain, buying sustainable locally-caught seafood, reducing your climate footprint (meat consumption, pension and banking, and travel are easy beginning areas), and raising awareness of what our ocean does for us.”
So, how did it feel for Emily to find out she’d been awarded an MBE?
She explains that she didn’t believe it at first and it wasn’t until she rang the number on the letter and spoke to someone that she believed it was genuine. She adds, “Once it had settled in, it was a feeling of gratitude – both that my work had been recognised and that marine conservation was seen as a valuable contribution to our society.”
In April 2025, Emily received her MBE from the Princess Royal at Windsor Castle which she remembers as a “real pinch-me moment.” She wore a dress with sea creatures on it and took her parents and her husband, Daniel, as her guests. Emily shares, “I remember taking both my parents’ hands as we walked out of the presentation room and us all welling up as the gravity of the moment hit us. As a working-class girl, it felt huge to be there as a recipient of an MBE.”
