transcript
show notes
From a childhood fascination with wildlife and David Attenborough's Life on Earth to helping restore rivers and Sussex's lost kelp forests, Sean Ashworth has spent much of his career challenging the way we think about and care for the natural world. Now working as a Catchment Strategy Manager with Southern Water, Sean shares how a determination to question the status quo has taken him from removing barriers on the River Ouse to helping turn a rather uninspiring trawling bylaw consultation into a community campaign to bring back Sussex's kelp forests – with a little help from David Attenborough!
In this episode of Let's Reboot the Future, Sean reflects on what it takes to challenge established thinking, the importance of listening to different perspectives and why communities should have a voice in decisions about their environment. He encourages us all to become positive disruptors – to question systems that aren't working, seek out people who share our values and not be put off by those who can't see what might be possible. A reminder that even when we feel like a lone voice, with a clear vision and good people around us, remarkable things can happen.
More about Sean Ashworth:
Sean Ashworth is a Catchment Strategy Manager at Southern Water. For the last five years he has been working on developing the company's interactions with key environmental stakeholders and Catchment Partnerships. His work at Southern water has also included delivery of critical water quality risk and mitigation work in river and groundwater systems. Sean started his career with a PhD in ecology at Exeter and went on to be a manager at the Environment Agency for fourteen years before joining Sussex Inshore Fisheries & Conservation Authority as Deputy Chief Officer, where he worked for seven years. Throughout this time he built the first Catchment Partnership pilot in Sussex, ran river enhancement project programmes, developed EA marine strategy, managed compliance programmes and developed and implemented significant marine protection regulation
Link to the 'Help the Kelp' film, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, Sean speaks about here.
It is also included in the book Ocean - Earth’s Last Wilderness, David Attenborough, Colin Butfield (2026)
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