User:Noelashton

Noel Ashton (born 25 December 1963) is a whale and dolphin scientific illustrator, artist, writer, sculptor, environmentalist and public speaker. He has worked within whale conservation for over twenty-five years using his paintings, sculptures, experiences and narratives within innovative conservation initiatives in southern Africa. He is married to environmental writer and activist Belinda Ashton.

Education

Graduating with a degree in Environmental and Geographical Science from the University of Cape Town, Ashton has been involved in the environmental sector for most of his life, with a specific focus on cetaceans and the conservation of the marine environment. Through his programme Oceans of Africa he fulfills his life-long aim to work towards conserving marine species and their ocean habitats. His recent public talk at the Frontiers of Science Lecture at Rhodes University in Grahamstown saw him returning to the hometown of his old school Kingswood College to deliver this keynote address.

Scientific illustrations

Ashton specialised as a whale and dolphin scientific illustrator, developing highly refined techniques of morphologically mapping the world's species, using mathematical proportioning and colour matching in order to paint and illustrate the worlds’ whales and dolphins with high scientific accuracy. He has worked alongside a number of respected cetacean scientists and his illustrations have appeared in numerous journals and scientific publications. His scientific illustration of the Heaviside’s dolphin Cephalorhyncus heavisidii, published in a journal for the International Whaling Commission, was the first scientific illustration of this species.

Whale and dolphin paintings

Years in the field studying southern Africa's whale and dolphin species diversity has been translated into evocative paintings that capture the beauty and majesty of these mysterious ocean mammals. His cetacean conservation exhibition 'Windows on the Ocean' was launched in 2003 at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town by Jonathan Oppenheimer of The De Beers Group, official sponsor's of this initiative. After a successful show at the Aquarium, the exhibition was hosted by the Whale Museum in Hermanus and sponsored by the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Ashton continues to paint whales and dolphins when time permits, using his artwork to inform and illustrate his public talks and conservation programmes. Commissions are undertaken and his work is held in private collections around the world.

Writing

Ashton has published three books, his most recent being The Whales of Walker Bay, an anecodotal account of his many years spent watching the southern right whales that visit Walker Bay on the South African south coast each year. This book includes scientific illustrations, species notes, whale watching hints and tips and offers insight from someone who has observed and researched these whales for most of his life. The humpback and bryde's whale are included in this publication. He has produced two field guides - The Whales and Dolphins of southern Africa, a comprehensively illustrated guide to the twelve most commonly sighted whale and dolphin species in southern African waters; and The Benguela Dolphins, a field guide focusing on the dolphins of the Benguela Current ecosystem on the southern African west coast.

Conservation initiatives

Through Ashton's Oceans of Africa programme and using his art, research, whale watching experiences and environmental narrative he has initiated and created a wide range of conservation initiatives. These include the Windows on the Ocean cetacean exhibitions displayed at the Two Oceans Aquarium and the Hermanus Whale Museum; the IFAW Whale Walk comprising a series of information boards positioned along the seafront in Hermanus, a programme that has been rolled out along the coastline as well as at key vantage points in Cape Town; the Benguela Boards which is an extension of this project, where another set of boards applying to the Benguela Current species have been distributed along the west coast and included within the West Coast National Park. The Whale Show, a 25-minute DVD which introduces whales, whale watching and whale conservation is shown daily in the Whale Museum in Hermanus and comprises Noel's artwork, illustrations and personal narratives and is narrated by John Webb.

In 2008 Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu launched Ashton's Sacred Ocean anti-whaling campaign which is centered around his 3.5 metre high iconic sculpture which is positioned in the foyer of the Two Oceans Aquarium, Cape Town. Accompanying the sculpture is the Great Whaling Debate, an electronic voting portal allowing the public the opportunity to vote for or against whaling, thereby providing quantifiable data around the public's sentiments regarding the highly contentious issue of commercial or scientific whaling. This campaign has been sponsored by the International Fund for Animal Welfare.