Meet Jayne Ede, one of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s Counter Pollution and Salvage Officers (CPSO), who works to protect the maritime environment.
She regularly deals with shipwrecks, both recent and historical, and responds to incidents involving vessels that have gone aground – even crashed – into rocks, to protect the marine ecosystem from pollution.
She is part of the team that also responds to potentially serious pollution incidents all around the UK, including the clean up after the release of pollution such as oil, chemicals or cargo in the water.
She recently starred in an episode of behind-the-scenes documentary Coastguard (read more about it here).
Think of the images of oil-covered birds on coasts across the world and you'll understand why the Counter Pollution Team - and Jayne - do what they do to protect the marine life, land and sea from the things that can cause harm. It is rare to handle those sort of incidents on UK shores these days, and it is teams like Jayne's that keep it that way.
Her pathway to a career that focuses on the environment began with a degree in Chemistry.
Jayne has been in her role for five years now and is part of an experienced Counter Pollution team that fulfils the UK’s obligation to prevent, prepare and respond to pollution incidents in the marine environment under a number of international conventions and national regulations. They operate as the UK Competent Authority, the team with ultimate responsibility over counter preparedness and response.
Jayne explains that “if our roles didn’t exist, HM Coastguard would lack prompt access to expertise in salvage and pollution when things went wrong, and ports and oil handling facilities wouldn’t be held to account on their obligations to protect the environment.”
It is an important role, but not one she knew about when she first graduated, and certainly not at school.
“I grew up in Brighton in Sussex, moving to Southampton for university and have stayed since. So, I’ve always lived near the sea, but it was not always the dream to work in maritime,” she said. “I am a nature-lover and a bit of a hippy, so it suits me well though.
Her first job while at university was in a different kind of liquid, as she took a role at a famous paint company, before moving on to a role with the Ministry of Defence.
“My work was to develop countermeasures for chemical warfare agents, and I spent most of my time in a lab coat,” she said. “During my time in the MOD, I was part of a ‘specialist response team’ that trained often with the emergency services.
“I enjoyed this immensely and far more than my day-job in the laboratory, and I was learning a lot about how incident response is conducted in the UK. When I saw the job opportunity at the MCA and how it would be more closely related to incident management, it was an easy decision to apply.
“I am always kept on my toes by the variety of incidents that arise, and I’m proud to be part of the teams that resolve them.”
There are many avenues into a career in the maritime industry, from apprenticeships to graduate roles to entry-level positions that will provide training and development – Jayne’s pathway and role is just one of the options.
Check out our Join Our Team page to find out more.
