Scientific Advisory Board
The Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme regularly consults various scientists from around the globe. The following scientists have agreed to collaborate to form the MWSRP Scientific Advisory Board:
Dr Brent Stewart Ph.D.,J.D.,FN91,FR6S
Senior Research Scientist (Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute)
Dr. Stewart has studied the population biology, foraging and physiological ecology, and behavior of marine mammals, sea birds, and whale sharks for over 25 years. His research expeditions have ranged from Greenland and Iceland in the North Atlantic south to Marion Island in the South Atlantic and Kenya and Western Australia in the Indian Ocean, in Russia's Lake Baikal and along the coast of Kamchatka, from the Beaufort and Bering Seas south through temperate, tropical and equatorial waters in the North Pacific Ocean, and in the Weddell, Amundsen, and Ross Seas of the Antarctic's Southern Ocean and in China's Yangtze River.
Dr. Stewart's principal interests in these comparative studies is in discovering and understanding what habitats are important to these various large marine vertebrates, how they navigate and migrate over vast areas to find and use those habitats, how they hunt and capture prey necessary to sustain fasting periods and successfully reproduce, how they interact with each others (populations and species) while sharing habitats and resources, and how they respond to and adjust to short and long term natural and anthropogenic changes in those key habitats.
The application of remote sensing and telemetry is a key tool in many of these studies. The overall objectives of his scientific studies are to contribute his findings to the peer reviewed scientific literature and to education, conservation and management authorities to promote science-based conservation of ocean life. Dr. Stewart holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from the University of California at Los Angeles, a Master of Science degree in Ecology from California State University at San Diego, a Doctoral degree in Biology from the University of California at Los Angeles, and a Juris Doctorate from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley with an emphasis in Constitutional, Administrative, and U.S. and International Environmental Law.
Guiseppe Notobartolodi Sciara Ph.D.
Tethys Research Institute University of Parma.
Guiseppe's first introduction to research was through his participation in a study of the agonistic behaviour and territoriality of a small gobiid fish in 1968-69 as a student research assistant.
After graduating from the University of Parma he moved to San Diego, California, working for three years (1977-1980) as a research associate of the Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute. Activities there included: an extensive literature compilation on the whale shark, culminating in an on-line bibliography which can still be searched on and a year-long investigation of the distribution and abundance of large marine vertebrates (Bryde's whales, manta rays and whale sharks) found in the coastal waters of eastern Venezuela, involving both aerial and vessel surveys (1978-1979). While still in Venezuela, in October 1979 Guiseppe was joined by a team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) for a Bryde's whale radio-tagging experiment.
In 1978 he participated as a research assistant in a study of the social behaviour and ecology of humpback whales in Hawaii, with Louis M. Herman, professor of psychology of the University of Hawaii.
In 1980 he was admitted as a Ph.D. student to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego. Guiseppe's thesis work focused on the ecology, life history, and taxonomy of manta rays.
In 1983, stationed at fishing camps in southern Baja California, Mexico, Guiseppe proceeded to the revision of the systematics of the genus Mobula, and described a new species, M. munkiana Notarbartolo di Sciara 1987.
After obtaining his degree in 1985 he returned to Italy, where in 1986 he founded the Tethys Research Institute, a non-profit research NGO based in Milan and Venice, specialising in the study Mediterranean cetaceans.
Since the mid-80s Guiseppe has been a member of the Monaco-based International Commission for the Scientific Exploration of the Mediterranean Sea (CIESM), and participated to several of its congresses.
Guiseppe was nominated in 1996 for president of the government Central Institute for Applied Marine Research (ICRAM) in Rome which provided him with a unique opportunity for promoting and directly funding marine research in Italy during the nearly seven years of his mandate.
He has done much for research on Mediterranean sharks and rays. To help coagulate elasmobranch science in Italy, in 1995 he organised, at the Milan City Aquarium, the first Italian Conference on Elasmobranchs, where an informal group, GRIS (Gruppo Ricercatori Italiani sugli Squali) was founded.
He is a charter member and life member of the Society of Marine Mammalogy. He has also been a member of the Società Italiana di Biologia Marina since 1986, and a member of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists from 1988 to 2005.
In September 1993 Guiseppe was awarded the "Premio Tridente d'Oro" for his scientific activities by the International Academy of Underwater Sciences and Techniques on the island of Ustica, Italy. And in May 2006 the Milan City Aquarium and Verdeacqua, promoters of the 10th edition of "Il Mare a Milano", awarded him with the "Premio alla Carriera UNA VITA PER IL MARE".
