"My parents were not remotely sciencey, but my mother encouraged my love of animals by buying me field guides. When I was with my father in Southeast Asia, we frequently went snorkelling on amazing coral reefs.
Learning young: Professor Culum Brown, pictured, inspires his children by taking them on research field trips. Image: Jesse Taylor
Since my research has revealed that fish have intelligence, personalities, social networks and feel pain, I do a lot of outreach communication work, talking to community groups and schools. I also do a lot of media interviews on my research results.
I work with animal welfare groups and government agencies, developing guidelines on fish welfare and ethics for fishing and aquaculture. I supervise a lot of post-grad students in Australia and around the world, particularly those who are studying sharks and rays.
My three children have all spent time in the field with me while I was working on sharks and we have visited these same locations while we were on family holidays. They love sharks as much as I do.
My oldest child Maia, who is 13, is super keen on snorkelling. My 10 year-old son Orlando loves sharks and is always doing something sharky for his school assignments. Eight year-old Nicolo loves bugs, grasshoppers, caterpillars and anything else he can catch.
All my kids are passionate about animals and saving the environment.
They are all naturally inquisitive. I encourage them to learn the names of the birds they see around the yard and identify their calls — the same goes for frogs using the Frog ID app. They play with insects by catching them and making them ‘homes’. This allows them to find out a little about their habitat and what they eat. Anyone could try this at home. We also have a huge fish tank. The Angel Fish are constantly breeding and protecting their young which is fascinating for the kids.
A few years ago, they collected snails from the garden and ‘tagged’ them using different colours of nail polish. They’d seen me tagging fish and got the idea to tag snails. Each snail had a name, and they watched those snails move around the garden for nearly a year."
All three of my kids are passionate about animals and saving the environment. It is their future after all, and I hope they can sort out the mess we've left behind."
