Sondra Eger

Researcher & PhD Candidate

Sondra grew up in a small town in Alberta, but it didn’t stop her from falling in love with the mysterious and powerful ocean. She was fortunate to have many family vacations in coastal areas where she was always excited to experience the water in a new way. She satisfied her growing curiosities in many ways: interning at an international marine conservation organization in Northern Madagascar; pursuing her divemaster in Mozambique; leading citizen science efforts in the British Virgin Islands, etc.

Since 2015, Sondra has been enrolled in a PhD program in Social and Ecological Sustainability, conducting research on practical ways to achieve integrated management of coastal and marine social and ecological systems. During the summer of 2018, Sondra was based at the Huntsman Marine Science Centre as a visiting fellow. She spent the summer travelling around coastal areas of the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, while fitting conferences and other commitments in between.

One of her primary tasks was to interview coastal stakeholders around the bay, and she met many diverse people and ecosystems along the way. She reflects on how much she loved seeing people’s expressions as they talked about the things they loved. Sondra felt that this experience solidified and renewed her commitment to conserving the marine environment and sparked her interest in the role of coastal communities in doing so.