Polona Pengal

I guess I was destined to become an aquatic scientist, since my father was a great sport fishermen and our whole family spent every summer at the sea, camping, diving, hiking...

So, it was clear I would study biology and I finished my degrees at the Biotechnical Faculty of Ljubljana, where I was also an active member of the Biology Students' Society, participating and later leading the Diving Section at field trips and research camps.

I also took every opportunity to expend my knowledge abroad and so I attended the summer School of Conservation Biology in Croatia and I worked as a volunteer, monitoring coral reef at a Mexican research station for 3 months.

After my graduation, I started working at the Fisheries Research Institute of Ljubljana, working in the freshwater and later in the marine department. I was conducting electrofishing and gill-net sampling for the purpose of monitoring and research, attending marine expeditions for sole in the Adriatic, working on stock assessments of small pelagic fish, attending international coordination and fisheries management meetings. I also successfully applied for and led a project, studying marine fish farming effects on wild populations. This was also the topic of my doctoral thesis which I successfully defended by the end of 2013.

In November 2015 I joined forces with Blaž Cokan and we established a non-profit NGO - REVIVO, Institute for ichthyological and ecological research to work on aquatic research and conservation. Our vision is a world where people would respect and live in harmony with aquatic environments, enjoying their services sustainably, where rivers would run free and fish and other wildlife would thrive.

January 2017