Clara comes from a small island in Spain, Mallorca. She grew up spending most of her time in the sea with her father, fishing and snorkeling. Seeing large fish and megafauna was her childhood dream and lead her to an undergraduate in Environmental Sciences and then an MSc in Marine Ecology.

After visiting the Maldives twice, she fell in love with the country and decided that she wanted to come back to help protect the whale sharks and develop sustainable tourism. Clara has participated in cetacean research projects, fisheries management projects and has helped in a chimpanzee sanctuary and veterinary hospital. Until recently, she has been working in nature reserves as a guide, focusing on sustainable tourism and conservation.

When she is not working, Clara is travelling around the world on the lookout for megafauna, or at home practicing water sports, hiking or climbing. She will always have one of her multiple cameras on her and when she spends more than a week without being able to see the ocean, she becomes “land” sick.

At first glance it looks like Basith took a big direction change when joining MWSRP.

Working in the insurance sector, to becoming a conservationist and researcher. But a background including the Vice Presidency of the Rotaract Club Male', being an active member of Project Damage Control and an extensive history of leading beach and underwater clean ups around his home city of Male' shows where his true passions lie.

Basith is gifted in the water and on the basketball court and joined MWSRP on a short internship in early 2017, becoming such an integral team member that his transition to In-Field Coordinator was immediate and seamless. His whale shark learnings were so rapid that he now helps to oversee the Big Fish Network across the whole of the Maldives.

Rich comes from the West coast of Wales and this is probably where his love of the ocean and penchant for day dreaming originates. It took him two research expeditions to the mountains of Papua New Guinea and Kazakhstan to realise just how much he wanted to work by the sea.

Rich worked as a fisherman whilst planning a first expedition to the Maldives with Jim and later for a fisheries monitoring company in Victoria, Canada. Over the years Rich has memorised most of the whale shark spot patterns in the database, which is a good job because chances are he’s forgotten his laptop.

Discovered early on that as a fair skinned Welshman, the tropical sun was never going to be his friend! One of the founding members of the Programme, Jim began his Maldives association as a marine biologist straight out of university. He moved into the resort world, gaining department head operations experience.

As a self-confessed fish geek, Jim went back to his marine roots as the Cruise Director of a liveaboard, spending a few years traversing the paths less traveled in the Maldives. Usually you can find Jim at the end of a day applying after-sun.

Despite appearances, Rachel is actually half Seychellois and seems to have the ocean in her blood (well… warm tropical ones at least!). A passionate fan of whale sharks, Rachel knows many of the individuals on our database by sight and has contributed to multiple scientific publications.

Rachel has her MSc in Marine Biology and is an invaluable asset to the MWSRP. She is a huge fan of the outdoors and can be found leading the charge from surfing the waves in western Wales and to anything mountainous!

Some people were just born to work outdoors with nature, and Ben is definitely one of them. When he’s not swimming after a whale shark in the Maldives, he’ll be identifying trees in Scotland or leading outdoor pursuits somewhere rugged and uncomfortable! A keen and pretty handy stand-up-paddle boarder and surfer to boot, Ben is also something of a closet sea-grass fan, and by default, our expert!

Rhodri Lloyd-Williams has a wealth of knowledge on whale sharks and the Maldives, having been involved from the early days of the Programme with MWSRP Director, Rich.

Morgan Riley has a wealth of knowledge on whale sharks and the Maldives, having been involved from the early days of the Programme with MWSRP Director, Rich.

Professional Foci: Population Biology, Ecology and Physiology of Marine Vertebrates.

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 Ph.D. 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. Dr. Stewart served as a Science and Diplomacy Fellow in the Bureau of Oceans at the U.S. State Department from 1999 to 2001 and was awarded the prestigious Lowell Thomas Medal by The Explorers Club for his career efforts to explore, understand, and conserve Earth's ocean wildlife, In 2012, he was recognized as one of forty of the world's leading conservation biologists. Read more about Dr. Stewart here.