Laura Simmons has been with Merlin Entertainments’ SEA LIFE since October 2020, initially working as a displays curator for SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium & ANZ before moving into her current role as regional curator for Australia/New Zealand in January 2023. Prior to this, she was a curator/project manager at Cairns Marine for over a decade.
Her early years were spent in Gainesville, Florida, where she developed an early passion for everything wild and aquatic and went on to obtain an undergraduate degree in zoology from the University of Florida. Her work in aquariums started with Anheuser-Busch. After over ten years of employment at SeaWorld in Florida, she relocated to start and run the aquarium department at Discovery Cove for six years. Simmons was then employed by Landry’s Restaurants to establish the Life Sciences Department at the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. She oversaw the construction and opening of two sizable aquariums that serve as the hotel’s centrepieces.
Simmons was brought on board by Cairns Marine in 2010 to manage the facilities and husbandry operations, as well as serving as the company’s liaison with the public aquarium and research clients. She worked closely with the company’s maritime activities to assure excellence in the collection, handling, and supply of the more than 1200 species that Cairns Marine offers. She also supervised a team of more than 35 employees within the land-based facility.
In 2023, SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium announced its involvement in the world’s first re-wilding of an endangered shark species. Talking about the organisation’s participation in the Stegostoma tigrinum Augmentation Recovery Project, she said:
“Bringing our team and animals into the StAR project and being able to contribute to shark conservation in a meaningful way has been a dream come true. This is part of the “WHY” behind what we do every day! A recovery effort of this kind would not be possible without the successful husbandry, welfare and breeding expertise established at public aquaria like SEA LIFE.”