The Belize Shark Project

04/18/2024

📣 Thrilled to finally be hiring an Operations Manager for MarAlliance. The OM would need strong and demonstrated financial/HR/operations skills and be a strong communicator, be based in the US and able to effectively work remotely. The post comes with a range of benefits and travel.

📍 For more details, check out our job description and if there is good fit and the desire to work with purpose with a fabulous international team, then do apply!

Operations Manager Download PDF MarAlliance is a dynamic, international non-profit that explores, enables and inspires conservation action for threatened marine wildlife – notably sharks, rays, and turtles – and their critical habitats with dependent human communities. In the face of declines in...

01/30/2024

When interviewing tuna purse seine net fishing captains working from the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean about setting on whale sharks and their releases from tuna nets 20 years ago, they told me that one of the most horrific things they had seen happen was the detachment of the tail from the body when an animal was hoisted by a crane out of the net.
20 years on, this method of "release" clearly continues with catastrophic results.
This is the first time we have seen such a video. The very large animal would not be able to survive long without its tail fin. There are other methods of release, including rolling the animal out of the net in the water that will better ensure its survival.

06/10/2023

Really proud of MarAlliance and our awesome comms team led by Mireia Peris for creating this innovative metaverse exhibit. Great way to engage folks in wildlife conservation by immersing them in our world of marine megafauna.

Follow the link to guide you through the process and exhibit and have a fun wander around the world of marine megafauna.

11/29/2022

Our sneak preview is here! Please join us for our virtual event at the link below anytime between Nov 24th and Dec 4th. We're also hosting a live chat with our event partner, Dr. Rachel Graham, Founder and Executive Director of MarAlliance, on Wednesday, November 30th at 8pm ET. We'd love to hear your thoughts about our 10-minute trailer!
https://watch.showandtell.film/watch/maralliance-unbelizeablue

10/05/2022

We are delighted to announce that our Founder and Executive Director, Dr. Rachel Graham, was awarded the Ocean Hero Award this year by Oceana Belize!
Rachel received this prestigious award alongside long-time colleague Dr. Leandra Cho-Ricketts.
You can see the full award ceremony here: bit.ly/3fz25Dq
Read the full Ocean Hero press release here: bit.ly/3SvvVra

Congratulations, Rachel! 🦈🌊🏆

08/30/2022

08/30/2022

This Whale Shark Day, learn more about this flagship species and celebrate these gentle giants!

We are proud to have contributed to the understanding and conservation of this inspirational species through research and monitoring that have provided new knowledge on their populations, dietary and environmental preferences, data for international collaborative research, catalyzed community-based tourism, and protective legislation including the creation or expansion of marine reserves.

08/11/2022

As we all get ready for CITES in November, here is a quick primer on NDFs. Too many acronyms? Please read the article and also stay tuned on updates via our Instagram account ().

Like it or not, the international trade of shark and ray products is a world-wide industry. Countries that plan to export shark meat, fins, or other products are required to abide by international laws that are intended to protect species that are in danger of extinction. In some cases, a country ma...

07/23/2022

New paper. MarAlliance is so pleased to have contributed to this highly collaborative analysis led by Melinda Conners and Sara Maxwell in Frontiers in Marine Science. Work highlights the challenge of mismatch in scale between highly mobile and (62 authors, 36 species). Thrilled to see many of our University of colleagues contributing.

See the paper here: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.897104/full

02/15/2022

Huge congrats to this year's winner of the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year award with this incomparable shot of one of our study species, the world's largest fish, the whale shark (or 5!).
Congrats Rafael Fernandez Caballero, stunning image!


BBC News - Underwater Photographer of the Year winner revealed
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-60334402

01/04/2022

NPR just released a lighthearted "get to know the wonderful manta rays" podcast based on a much longer conversation held by Rachel Graham and editor Emily Kwong who recently had a manta epiphany.

We have the good fortune to study these animals to assess best conservation strategies. Mantas are smart, social, curious, playful, highly evolved, long lived but sadly very threatened by targeted and bycatch fisheries and the illegal wildlife trade despite generating millions of $ in revenues through encounter tourism in numerous tropical and subtropical countries.

Much work to do by all manta conservationists and range state governments to secure their future.

https://www.npr.org/2021/12/29/1068813212/an-ode-to-the-manta-ray

A few months ago, on a trip to Hawaii, Short Wave host Emily Kwong encountered manta rays for the first time. The experience was eerie and enchanting. And it left Emily wondering — what more is there to these intelligent, entrancing fish? Today, Emily poses all her questions to Rachel Graham, the ...