We sincerely thank the following individuals for their contribution and expert knowledge within the field of dugong and seagrass conservation.

Amanda Hodgson

Amanda Hodgson

Amanda Hodgson is a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at Murdoch University Cetacean Research Unit (Perth, Australia). Her research interests involve population assessments through aerial surveys and adapting Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs or drones) to survey marine mammal abundance and distribution, focusing on dugongs and humpback whales.

Benjamin Jones

Benjamin Jones

Benjamin Jones is a Founding Director of Project Seagrass, an environmental charity devoted to the conservation of seagrass ecosystems through education, influence, research and action. He is currently a Ph.D. student at Stockholm University (Sweden) investigating the linkages between biodiversity and people using seagrass meadows as a model social-ecological system.

Christophe Cleguer

Christophe Cleguer

Chris Cleguer is a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at Murdoch University Cetacean Research Unit (Perth, Australia). Chris has broad research interests in spatial ecology and conservation of marine mammals, particularly dugongs. His research focuses on how to best inform dugong management at various spatial and temporal scales using a range of techniques to monitor individual dugongs and populations. These techniques include manned and unmanned aerial surveys to assess population abundance and trends, GPS-satellite telemetry to investigate dugong movements and habitat use, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to spatially assess threats to dugongs.

Helene Marsh

Helene Marsh

Helene Marsh is Distinguished Professor of Environmental Science and the Dean of Graduate Research Studies at James Cook University (Queensland, Australia). She is internationally recognized as an authority on dugongs, providing scientific advice to governments and NGOs in numerous countries. The focus of her research has been the biology of dugongs, particularly population ecology, history, reproduction, diet, and movements. Helene is a Fellow of the Australian Academies of Science and Technological Sciences and Engineering and has received several international awards for her research.

Josh Donlan

Josh Donlan

Josh Donlan is an ecologist and conservation practitioner who founded and leads Advanced Conservation Strategies (ACS). The environmental conservation NGO focuses on program design, sustainability sciences, and evaluation. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific and popular articles, some of them receiving widespread media attention.
He is currently a Research Fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Len McKenzie

Len McKenzie

Len McKenzie is a seagrass and coastal ecosystems ecologist. His research facilitates the protection, conservation, biological diversity, rehabilitation, management and sustainable development of seagrass resources. Len is a Principal Researcher at James Cook University (Queensland, Australia) and Director of Seagrass-Watch, a global seagrass assessment and monitoring programme.

Nicolas Pilcher

Nicolas Pilcher

Nicolas Pilcher has spent the last 25 years working on marine research and conservation projects throughout the Indo-Pacific. As Founder and Executive Director of the Marine Research Foundation, his work primarily focuses on reducing bycatch of endangered marine turtles and dugongs, as well as providing management-related data to improve conservation and management of marine species. He is a member of the IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group and the IUCN Sirenian Specialist Group.

 

Richard Unsworth

Richard Unsworth

Richard Unsworth is a Senior Lecturer in Biosciences at Swansea University (UK) and has over 15 years’ experience researching seagrass meadows around the world. His particular expertise is on how seagrass meadows support fisheries and food security. Richard is a Founding Director of Project Seagrass, an environmental charity devoted to the conservation of seagrass ecosystems through education, influence, research and action.

Simon Woodley

Simon Woodley

Simon Woodley is an experienced manager, facilitator, and advisor in the fields of marine protected area management and tropical marine scientific research. He has extensive training and capacity building experience in Asian and Indo-Pacific Regions, where he has focused on the management of marine protected areas.

Tara Sayuri Whitty

Tara Sayuri Whitty

Tara Whitty is a Fellow and Conservation Assessment Scholar at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation. Her interests involve investigating the interface between small-scale fisheries and conservation, based around the concept of stewardship. She is also Founder & Co-Chair of the Artisanal Fisheries Research Network, an interdisciplinary group of students, researchers, and faculty who study small-scale and artisanal fisheries.