Alex Mitchell

I'm the Founder and Director of Weird Fishes Advisory. I help organisations turn their nature and environmental data into evidence that actually drives policy and measurable impact.

Before setting up the advisory, I spent seven years doing exactly this work at International NGOs and Government. Through my experience I saw time and time again organisations struggling to use their data effectively. I set up Weird Fishes Advisory with the aim to help projects utilising environmental data for good better understand, use, and communicate data for better outcomes for nature.

What I've done

Future-Fit Foundation

I helped develop open-source frameworks that translate the UN Sustainable Development Goals into actionable business metrics for SMEs and global investors. I specialised in creating transparent reporting tools and auditing business practices to help organisations identify impact gaps and build measurable pathways toward a socially just and environmentally restorative economy.

DEFRA

I built decision-support tools for programmes worth hundreds of millions of pounds — including the monitoring tool for the £640M England Tree Planting Programme, which was cited as a "model example of reporting" by the Chief Analyst. I delivered real-time situation reports during COVID-19, EU Exit, and Avian Influenza that enabled ministerial decision-making at the highest levels of government.

Ocean Wise

I manage the Whale Report Alert System (WRAS) — a marine mammal protection programme that I've helped grow from a regional volunteer app to operational maritime policy across North America. I doubled the user base, secured six new data-sharing partnerships (tripling available data), raised over $400,000 CAD in funding, and am currently leading the integration of whale presence data into regulated maritime navigation systems.

Why Weird Fishes Advisory?

A data consultancy will build you a dashboard or a data pipeline. I do that too, but my real value is understanding the environmental context well enough to know which data matters, who needs to see it, and how to make it drive a decision. I won't just make a pretty report or dashboard, I'll make your data useful.

I can code a decision dashboard and present the strategy to your board. I've worked inside these organisations and understand the reality, not just the theory. I deliver implementation, not just recommendations.

Speaking and recognition

I've been invited to speak at international conferences and events such as the European Cetacean Society, NOAA policy workshops, OCEANS conference, and Greentech conferences — presenting on topics from marine data integration to environmental programme scaling.

If you have environmental data that should be doing more — whether that's driving decisions, demonstrating impact to funders, or scaling a programme's reach — book a coffee with me.