Mary Shodipo
Mary Shodipo is a marine ecologist and National Geographic Explorer from the UK. She is currently doing a PhD at the University of Miami, USA. Mary has a very diverse background, spanning the social sciences, fine art and music. Prior to turning her attention to the ocean, Mary was head of a digital music department at a music college in Brighton, UK for 8 years.
Mary decided to study marine biology after volunteering at the Thresher Shark Conservation and Research Project in the Philippines during the summer of 2012. Although she had been fascinated by the natural world from an early age and an avid diver for 22 years, this experience of conservation and scientific research led her to take a sabbatical from teaching music to volunteer with more marine conservation organizations in the central Philippines. In 2014 she relocated to the Philippines and began her scientific journey in earnest. Her passion for conservation and reef fish ecology naturally led her into research on the effects of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) on fish biodiversity and abundance. Further work led her to studying reef fish parasites, where she learnt about their importance and influence in the ecosystem. Combining this focus on parasites with her interest in MPAs and reef fish, Funded by National Geographic, Mary undertook the first study of its kind to examine the combined effects of fishing pressure and coral cover on the most common external parasite of coral reef fishes, gnathiid isopods, working in the most biodiverse marine region in the world, the coral triangle.
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Mary became increasingly aware of the rise of overfishing and poaching in MPAs in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic and was in a unique position to study the direct effects. In 2021 Mary was awarded a National Geographic COVID-19 grant to study the effects of the global pandemic on coral reefs and local fishing communities in the Philippines. By combining her music background with her passion for MPAs and coral reefs, Mary has been recording coral reef soundscapes to further explore the effects of fishing on coral reef health and the influences of marine protection on bioacoustics. In 2022 at the United Nations Climate Change conference (COP27, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt), Mary worked with Google Arts and Culture, Dave Erasmas and Professor Steve Simpson to develop and launch an interactive installation that enables citizen scientists to help marine scientists work through their many hours of coral reef recordings by identifying fish vocalisations. They went on to create an online platform called Calling in Our Corals, where citizen scientists around the world have been able to lend their ears to science.
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