Austin Gallagher | |
---|---|
Born | Boston |
Nationality | American |
Citizenship | United States of America |
Education | University of Miami, Northeastern University, Loyola University Maryland |
Alma mater | Thayer Academy |
Occupation(s) | Marine biologist, entrepreneur |
Organization(s) | Beneath the Waves, The Explorer's Club (fellow) |
Known for | Conservation work |
Board member of | Editorial board of the Endangered Species Research journal [1] |
Awards | Forbes 30 Under 30 list, 2016, Fulbright (distinguished professor) [2] |
Website | www |
Austin Gallagher is an American marine biologist, explorer, author and social entrepreneur, best known for his research on sharks. He is the founder and CEO of Beneath the Waves, [3] a non-profit organization focusing on ocean conservation. [4] He is a National Geographic Explorer, has been the lead on more than 50 global scientific expeditions, and has published over 100 scientific papers [5] spanning research on the migrations of ocean giants, deep-sea exploration, and marine policy.
His research has directly informed policy for threatened species, [6] protected area design, and climate change mitigation in numerous countries. He was a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in the science category. [7] [8] He is a current fellow of the Explorers Club and a Fulbright scholar and distinguished professor. [9]
After graduating from Thayer Academy near his home city of Boston in 2004, Gallagher moved to Baltimore to attend Loyola University Maryland where he majored in biology and minored in journalism, graduating in 2008. [10] From 2008 to 2009, he obtained a master's in marine science from Northeastern University as part of the Three Seas Program. [11] [12] In 2010, he began his doctoral degree in environmental science from the University of Miami, studying shark physiology and behavior, ultimately finishing in 2015. [13]
During his masters and doctoral research years, he founded Beneath the Waves, initially created as a platform for inspiring effective storytelling in the marine science community. From 2010-2013, Gallagher molded Beneath the Waves into an event series that brought together scientists, filmmakers, and the general public, licensing the brand and event series to over 40 institutes from 25 countries. [14] [15] In 2014, Gallagher incorporated Beneath the Waves as a non-profit organization in the United States, creating a more expansive mission that included research activities. [16]
From 2015 – 2017, he worked as a postdoctoral research fellowship at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada under the supervision of Dr. Steven Cooke. [17] In 2018, he began working full time at Beneath the Waves as its Chief Scientist. In 2021, Gallagher assumed the role as CEO, focusing his efforts on setting the high-level scientific strategy and executing impactful partnerships. [18]
Gallagher sits on the editorial board of the scientific journal Endangered Species Research.
He maintains formal adjunct professorship positions at The University of Exeter (UK) and Northeastern University. Through these universities, he has mentored over 20 graduate students, over 75% of them female. [19]
Gallagher is a frequent host, wildlife presenter, and talent for Discovery Channel and Shark Week, [20] [21] and he has also appeared on Nat Geo Wild. [22]
Gallagher is a broadly-trained biologist focusing on studying survival in marine animals. [23] He is a world authority on sharks, [24] [25] conducting research aimed at advancing our understanding of their behavior and physiology, and using this information to create protected areas. [26] [27] To date he has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles, and he has presented his work at numerous institutions including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and National Geographic. He has been credited as being one of the first scientists to demonstrate that sharks were worth more alive for tourism than dead for fishing, [28] and has emerged at the forefront of various branches of marine science, most notably shark research. [29]
In 2015 he led the first ever multi-national expedition to study sharks in Japan, which was featured as the cover story of the February 2016 issue of Outside Magazine [30] and covered by GoPro.
In 2016, he spearheaded a shark and fishing boat tracking initiative Global Fishing Watch, in partnership with Oceana, Google, and SkyTruth.
In 2017, he led the science on the BVI Art Reef, [31] a collaborative project with Sir Richard Branson that sunk a derelict WWII ship for the purposes of establishing an artificial reef to restore overfished species in the British Virgin Islands. [32] [33]
In 2018 he began investing heavily in The Bahamas as a research locality, with a project evaluating the benefits of large protected areas for sharks. [34] producing the first publication on the long-term movements of sharks within a shark sanctuary, [35] the first records of harmful metal concentrations in sharks from the region, [36] the first application of 360-degree camera technology to marine species, [37] and the first description of the genome of the Caribbean reef shark. [38] The Bahamas work led by Beneath the Waves has generated significant press and has been featured in Forbes, Scientific American, and on Sir Richard Branson's Virgin blog. [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44]
From 2019 - 2020, Gallagher began significantly expanding his research footprint throughout the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean, and began producing several “first-ever” discoveries for the study of the ocean, including the description of likely-new species of bonnethead shark off Panama, [45] the first global assessment of shark and fishing vessel movements, the first video recordings and imagery of the sharpnose sevengill shark (at 2200 feet deep), [46] the first published science on the potential ecological effects of white sharks in the Atlantic, [47] and the first record of sawfish in Biscayne Bay, Miami, Florida. [48]
In 2020, Gallagher began working closely with Dr. Carlos Duarte, recognized as one of the world’s top marine scientists and most-influential scientists (of all disciplines), whom inspired Gallagher’s research expansion into blue carbon. Through a unique partnership with tagged tiger sharks, Gallagher and Duarte discovered the world’s largest seagrass meadow in The Bahamas, estimated to be up to 93,000 square kilometers.
In 2021, Gallagher led the first expedition to study deep-sea fish fauna off Turks and Caicos. From 2021, Gallagher served as the co-Principal Investigator on two multi-year Darwin Plus projects, [49] funded by the government of the United Kingdom, to study the deep-water biodiversity of Bermuda and The Cayman Islands. [50]
Gallagher has helped activate Beneath the Waves into a variety of influential communities and pop-culture events, including Summit Series, the 1 Hotel, Tortuga Music Festival, and Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. He has worked with the Grand Isle Resort and Spa [51] in Great Exuma, Bahamas, to expose visitors of the resort to hands-on shark tagging research, thus creating a sustainable business model for funding ocean research. [52] In 2017 he co-founded a beverage startup called Tempo, [53] which produces plant-based, functional, and clean beverages for the modern consumer, whose products are currently sold in Whole Foods Market in the midwestern United States. [54] [55]
In 2016, Gallagher became the first American marine biologist to make the Forbes 30 Under 30 List, at the age of 29. [7] He was also the only conservation biologist on the list in 2016. From 2016-2017 he served as a member of the Forbes Non Profit Council. [56] In April 2016 he was awarded the Loyola University Young Alumni Award, [57] and in the same month he gave a TEDx talk in San Diego, California, on facing your fears to change the world. [58]
In 2019, Gallagher became a Fulbright distinguished professor.
In 2021, Gallagher was awarded Scuba Diving Magazine’s Sea Hero Award. [59]
The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles starting with Cuba, to the east by the Lesser Antilles, and to the south by the northern coast of South America. The Gulf of Mexico lies to the northwest.
Sylvia Alice Earle is an American marine biologist, oceanographer, explorer, author, and lecturer. She has been a National Geographic Explorer at Large since 1998. Earle was the first female chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and was named by Time Magazine as its first Hero for the Planet in 1998.
An artificial reef (AR) is a human-created freshwater or marine benthic structure. Typically built in areas with a generally featureless bottom to promote marine life, it may be intended to control erosion, protect coastal areas, block ship passage, block the use of trawling nets, support reef restoration, improve aquaculture, or enhance scuba diving and surfing. Early artificial reefs were built by the Persians and the Romans.
The Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) is a United States National Marine Sanctuary located 100 nautical miles (190 km) offshore of Galveston, Texas, in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. It contains the northernmost coral reefs in the United States.
The great hammerhead is the largest species of hammerhead shark, belonging to the family Sphyrnidae, attaining an average length of 4.6 m (15 ft) and reaching a maximum length of 6.2 m (20 ft). It is found in tropical and warm temperate waters worldwide, inhabiting coastal areas and the continental shelf. The great hammerhead can be distinguished from other hammerheads by the shape of its "hammer", which is wide with an almost straight front margin, and by its tall, sickle-shaped first dorsal fin. A solitary, strong-swimming apex predator, the great hammerhead feeds on a wide variety of prey ranging from crustaceans and cephalopods, to bony fish, to smaller sharks. Observations of this species in the wild suggest that the cephalofoil functions to immobilize stingrays, a favored prey. This species has a viviparous mode of reproduction, bearing litters of up to 50 pups every two years.
Mote Marine Laboratory is an independent, nonprofit, marine research organization based on City Island in Sarasota, Florida, with additional campuses in eastern Sarasota County, Boca Grande, Florida, and the Florida Keys. Founded in 1955 by Eugenie Clark in Placida, Florida, it was known as the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory until 1967. The laboratory aims to advance marine science and education, supporting conservation and sustainable use of marine resources. A public aquarium and associated education program interpret its research for the public.
Shark cage diving is underwater diving or snorkeling where the observer remains inside a protective cage designed to prevent sharks from making contact with the divers. Shark cage diving is used for scientific observation, underwater cinematography, and as a tourist activity. Sharks may be attracted to the vicinity of the cage by the use of bait, in a procedure known as chumming, which has attracted some controversy as it is claimed to potentially alter the natural behaviour of sharks in the vicinity of swimmers.
David Doubilęt is an underwater photographer known primarily for his work published in National Geographic magazine, where he is a contributing photographer and has been an author for 70 feature articles since 1971. He was born in New York City and started taking photos underwater at the young age of 12. He started with a Brownie Hawkeye in a rubber anesthesiologist's bag to keep the water out of the camera. He lived with his family in New York City and spent summers in Elberon New Jersey exploring the Atlantic. He later worked as a diver and photographer for the Sandy Hook Marine Laboratories in New Jersey and spent much of his youth in the Caribbean as a teenage dive instructor in the Bahamas where he found his motivation to capture the beauty of the sea and everything in it. His wife is the photographer Jennifer Hayes.
A blue hole is a large marine cavern or sinkhole, which is open to the surface and has developed in a bank or island composed of a carbonate bedrock. Blue holes typically contain tidally influenced water of fresh, marine, or mixed chemistry. They extend below sea level for most of their depth and may provide access to submerged cave passages. Well-known examples are the Dragon Hole and, in the Caribbean, the Great Blue Hole and Dean's Blue Hole.
Eugenie Clark, popularly known as The Shark Lady, was an American ichthyologist known for both her research on shark behavior and her study of fish in the order Tetraodontiformes. Clark was a pioneer in the field of scuba diving for research purposes. In addition to being regarded as an authority in marine biology, Clark was popularly recognized and used her fame to promote marine conservation.
The Caribbean reef shark is a species of requiem shark, belonging to the family Carcharhinidae. It is found in the tropical waters of the western Atlantic Ocean from Florida to Brazil, and is the most commonly encountered reef shark in the Caribbean Sea. With a robust, streamlined body typical of the requiem sharks, this species is difficult to tell apart from other large members of its family such as the dusky shark and the silky shark. Distinguishing characteristics include dusky-colored fins without prominent markings, a short free rear tip on the second dorsal fin, and tooth shape and number.
Shark tourism is a form of eco-tourism that allows people to dive with sharks in their natural environment. This benefits local shark populations by educating tourists and through funds raised by the shark tourism industry. Communities that previously relied on shark finning to make their livelihoods are able to make a larger profit from diving tours while protecting the local environment. People can get close to the sharks by free- or scuba diving or by entering the water in a protective cage for more aggressive species. Many of these dives are done by private companies and are often baited to ensure shark sightings, a practice which is highly controversial and under review in many areas.
Reef Check is an international non-governmental organization dedicated to the conservation of two reef ecosystems: tropical coral reefs and Californian rocky reefs. The Foundation is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States, but uses data from volunteer scuba diver teams in over 80 countries, ranging from Australia, Japan, to even Germany. It is the United Nations’ official coral reef monitoring program.
Enric Sala is a former university professor who saw himself writing the obituary of ocean life, and quit academia to become a full-time conservationist as a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence. Sala’s present goals are to help protect critical marine ecosystems worldwide, and to develop new business models for marine conservation. He also produces documentary films and other media to raise awareness about the importance of a healthy environment, and to inspire country leaders to protect more of the natural world.
Shark River Reef is an artificial reef located in the Atlantic Ocean, 15.6 miles southeast of Manasquan Inlet, off of the coast of Ocean County, New Jersey. The site contains almost 4 million cubic yards of dredge rock material. Although 96% of the total reef material is rock, the site also contains numerous subway cars.
Pterois is a genus of venomous marine fish, commonly known as lionfish, native to the Indo-Pacific. It is characterized by conspicuous warning coloration with red or black bands, and ostentatious dorsal fins tipped with venomous spines. Pterois radiata, Pterois volitans, and Pterois miles are the most commonly studied species in the genus. Pterois species are popular aquarium fish. P. volitans and P. miles are recent and significant invasive species in the west Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and Mediterranean Sea.
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist, policy expert, and conservation strategist. She is the co-founder of Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank for ocean-climate policy in coastal cities, and the Roux Distinguished Scholar at Bowdoin College.
Valerie May Taylor AM is an Australian conservationist, photographer, and filmmaker, and an inaugural member of the diving hall of fame. With her husband Ron Taylor, she made documentaries about sharks, and filmed sequences for films including Jaws (1975).
Protected areas of the Caribbean are significant in a region of particular ecological vulnerability, including the impact of climate change and the impact of tourism.
Cristina Zenato is an Italian-born shark diver and conservationist. She is known for her work with Caribbean reef sharks in The Bahamas.
{{cite web}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(help)