Sylvia Blake
SPECIALIST ADVISER MARINE EVIDENCE
Sylvia has over 32 years of experience in environmental science at Cefas. Using her background in Ecotoxicology and Analytical Chemistry, Sylvia provides impartial evidence based advice on the use of chemicals offshore in UK and Netherlands oil and gas industry as well as for marine licensing applications and assessments to support offshore wind farms, aggregate extraction, offshore renewable energy, marine constructions and NSIPS (including nuclear new builds), dredging and dredge material disposals for England, Wales and the UK’s Overseas territories. As well as authoring reports and providing quality control and quality assurance for papers and reports and reviewing manuscripts externally for journal publications. As Principal Investigator for the Offshore Chemicals contracts Cefas hold with BEIS and the State Supervision of Mines in the Netherlands (NL), she advises on the risk of chemicals used by the oil and gas industry as well as representing the NL at international meetings. At Defra as a principle marine scientist, Sylvia was the senior Research Programme Manager supporting policy, regulators, Cefas colleagues and wider stakeholders with evidence to underpin informed policy decisions.
Sylvia was the relationship manager for the MMO, SEAFISH and the Inshore Fisheries Conservation Agency (IFCA), leading on the management of Defra’s Marine and Fisheries Research Programme budget with a foundation accreditation in contract management. The contracts procured included work on marine plastics underwater noise and deepsea mining. She also led the evidence team on procurement, peer reviews and publications, providing advice to colleague’s policy leads and contributing on ministerial briefings. Sylvia has a strong record of managing teams and bringing multidisciplinary teams together to undertake research and advice. This includes working on scientific vessels undertaking environmental monitoring, handling large data sets, analytical chemistry and ecotoxicology as well as the ability to interpret and communicate this information, as well as other disciplines (biology, social and economic) in the context of regulatory requirements and practical assessments. She has been involved with novel dredging and disposal projects providing advice and writing reports on the lessons learned from the UK’s first offshore capping exercise. More recently I have authored reports of modelling exhaust gas cleaning system (loop scrubbers) emissions and impacts on UK Ports, and a report to identify feasible compensatory measures for offshore wind farm developments, for Defra. Sylvia has also provided expert witness evidence when required on dredge and disposal prosecutions.
Research publications: Google scholar
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