Billy Heaney

Ambassador

Billy is an outgoing, adventurous zoologist, wildlife tour guide, keen paddle-boarder and broadcaster. He has featured as a panellist on BBC Radio 4's nature comedy show‘Nature Table’, he has appeared on BBC Springwatch, BBC One’s Countryfile and ITV This Morning, as well as BBC Two’s ‘SpringWatch, WinterWatch’, and BBC Earth’s digital platforms.

Billy has graduated from the University of Exeter with a BSc in Zoology and a Masters by research, where he studied grey seal haul-out colonies around Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

He works on a freelance basis as a wildlife-tour guide, most recently with Hebridean Adventures on weeklong cruises around the inner isles and during his time at University, he spent most of his time outside of lectures guiding for AK Wildlife Cruises out of Falmouth Harbour. His passion for whales and dolphins has taken him all over the world, from the bracing west coast of Iceland in search of herring feeding orca, to the tropical Indian sub-continent in search of blue whales, all the way down to New Zealand in search of the world’s smallest oceanic dolphin, the Hector’s.

He has been fascinated about orca, since he was two years old and is currently campaigning with WDC and WeWhale to phase out orca captivity and to protect the endangered, isolated Iberian orca population. He has recently appeared on ITV This Morning and BBC World Service’s The Inquiry to discuss the interactions taking place between orca and recreational boaters in the Straits of Gibraltar.