Elissa Phillips is a UK ocean conservation presenter and one of the most compelling voices for the sea. She has campaigned internationally against commercial whaling. As a marine conservation worker, she documented whale kills in Iceland firsthand. She then brought those realities directly to the global policy stage.
At COP29, she spoke on the issue of commercial whaling. She also moderated a high-profile panel at the UN Ocean Summit, connecting ocean protection with human rights. Her work sits at the intersection of environmental defence, policy, and public engagement. Because of that breadth, she is equally at home in a parliamentary hall, a festival field, or a primary school classroom.
She speaks with warmth, directness, and a refusal to make the ocean feel like someone else's problem.
Read Elissa's feature in Prospect Magazine and Inside Climate News.
Through Incredible Oceans, Elissa presents at science festivals, community events, and major public gatherings across the world. Her approach blends science, storytelling, and advocacy. As a result, complex marine issues become accessible to audiences of all ages.
Whether the subject is the secret lives of whales, the hidden systems that keep the planet alive, or why the ocean matters to people who have never seen it, she leaves audiences with urgency and possibility in equal measure. She has presented alongside leading scientists and conservationists. However, her venues range from muddy festival fields to parliamentary halls and international summits.
Elissa leads Incredible Oceans' schools programme. She delivers talks and workshops to KS1 and KS2 audiences across the country, bringing ocean science into classrooms in ways that are fun, memorable, and curriculum-relevant. Because of her background in advocacy, she connects science to real-world action in ways that resonate with young people.
Incredible Oceans is a UNESCO-recognised ocean education initiative and part of the Blue Thread network. See our current education programme →
Elissa came to ocean advocacy via corporate leadership, not academia. That path gives her a perspective that scientists rarely have. Therefore, she understands the economic and political systems that determine whether the ocean is protected or exploited. On stage, that translates into talks that are rigorous, grounded, and impossible to dismiss.
As a British-Indian woman working in marine conservation, she also brings a perspective that is rarely represented at the front of a room. However, her presence on stage makes a clear argument: the ocean belongs to everyone. Not just those who were handed a clear path into it.
🐋 Commercial whaling and marine exploitation. The realities of modern whaling, the global policy landscape, and what effective marine protection requires. Drawn from direct field experience in Iceland and engagement with policymakers at COP29 and the UN Ocean Summit.
⚖️ Ocean defence and environmental justice. The ocean is a shared resource. Yet the communities who depend on it most often have the least say in how it is governed. This talk examines the legal and political frameworks that shape its future.
🌍 Diversity and inclusion in ocean science. The ocean needs voices from every background. This talk examines what the science, and the movement, loses when those voices are absent. It challenges assumptions about who gets to care about the sea, and who gets to speak for it.
🌱 Youth engagement and intergenerational responsibility. Young people are the most important ocean audience. This talk explores how to reach them, and why it matters. It draws on years of schools delivery across the UK.
💡 Turning concern into action. For corporate and professional audiences: how organisations move from environmental awareness to meaningful commitment. Grounded in Elissa's corporate background and experience working across sectors.
🌊 Ocean stories for everyone. Strange and wonderful tales from the sea, from the secret lives of whales to the microscopic organisms that produce half the oxygen we breathe. For audiences who didn't know they cared about the ocean until they heard one.