Impact report 2024
A summary of the year’s work by place, beside the report’s own pages: the papers our team published, our outreach, and the funders the report thanks.
About the report
- Covers
- 2024
- Published
- 2025, by the Marine Megafauna Foundation
- Length
- 64 pages (33 spreads)
- Format
- PDF, 12.5 MB
- Credits
- Design: Madeleine Pierce. Cover photo: Clare Prebble.
A summary of the report. The PDF has it in full, with its maps and donor lists.
Report page 5, summarized
Letter from the Executive Director
In late January 2024, MMF co-founder Dr Andrea Marshall suffered a sudden and severe brain aneurysm. She and her husband, Janneman Conradie, also part of the MMF team, were on long-term medical leave through 2024, and Andrea remains on indefinite leave as she focuses on her rehabilitation in Florida.
MMF made significant operational changes. Dr Simon Pierce, the other co-founder, became Executive Director; Sarah Butchers remains Chief Operating Officer; and Mark Hackney stepped up as the new Board Chair.
Twenty years after Andrea and Simon began working together in Mozambique in 2005, MMF is led by a team of scientists and conservationists, most of whom came through its own capacity-building programs. Despite the year’s challenges, the letter describes 2024 as a very successful year for research, education, and conservation outcomes.
The letter names the people behind that work: Jessica Pate’s Florida Manta Program; Janis Argeswara, MMF’s first Indonesian intern and now Country Manager, leading a national manta ray program monitoring over 3,400 individual manta rays across Nusa Penida, Komodo, and Sangalaki; Emildo Patricio Vilanculo, Country Manager in Mozambique, who started as an MMF swim instructor; Azevedo Chitsumba’s education team, which has graduated over 6,000 Mozambican children through the learn-to-swim and marine conservation curriculum; Nilza de Catarina, one of the first Research Fellows and now Research Manager; Martinho Saide, joining in 2025 as Conservation Manager; and Principal Scientist Dr Chris Rohner, MMF’s first PhD student in 2009.
Letter by Dr Simon Pierce, Executive Director and co-founder.
Report page 8
Who we are
MMF was founded in 2009 by marine scientists Dr Andrea Marshall and Dr Simon Pierce to further their mission to save the world’s ocean giants from extinction. Since then, many others have joined the team, and the organization has expanded to worldwide research, education, and outreach on marine megafauna conservation.
We focus on strategic locations with large or otherwise important populations of threatened marine species, such as key feeding and breeding areas, and work with communities to create sustainable livelihoods so they benefit from a healthy ocean. We also emphasize the development of national science capacity, to ensure long-lasting monitoring and management success.
Report pages 9 to 52
Highlights by place
Our 2024 highlights, place by place.
United States · Research
Florida
Page 10 of the report
- 30aerial surveys looking for manta rays along the Florida coastline, and 500+ drone flights to locate mantas and observe behaviors
- 200guitarfish individuals in the database
- 3,700children reached through our education curriculum
- 65boat surveys for manta rays around the Florida coastline
- 22manta rays tagged with acoustic and satellite tags
- 283manta rays now identified by the MMF Florida team
Project pages: Florida Manta Project · Atlantic Guitarfish
Asia Pacific · Research
Indonesia
Page 18 of the report
Aulia Zeintrinanda, MMF turtle project leader, has now identified more than 500 individual hawksbill and green turtles across Nusa Penida and Komodo National Park. Caption on page 22.
- 3,400manta rays now identified throughout Indonesia
- 500+turtles now identified in Nusa Penida and Komodo
- 900+people reached through direct engagement via presentations and conservation talks, including 24 manta and turtle talks
- 212dive surveys for manta rays and marine turtles
- 3remote underwater video surveys of manta cleaning stations, in collaboration with Indo Ocean Project
- 2master’s scholarship recipients, for studies in the UK and Australia
Project pages: Indonesia Manta Ray Project · Indonesia Sea Turtle Project
Western Indian Ocean · Research
Tanzania
Page 26 of the report
- 33whale sharks identified in 2024 at Mafia Island, home to a small, highly resident population of 250+ whale sharks
- 3sharks tagged with satellite tags in 2023 returned to Mafia Island in 2024, and two other sharks were first identified 17 years ago
Project pages: Tanzania Whale Shark Project · Tanzania Blacktip Reef Shark Project
Western Indian Ocean
Mozambique
Page 30 of the report
Conservation report page 30
- 17marine rangers trained to implement catch monitoring in current fishing areas and the future Shark and Ray Protection Zone in Bazaruto
- 76Ocean Ambassadors delivered 80 conservation lessons, reaching 6,505 community members
- 232active members across 11 Village Savings and Loan groups, with 67% women participation
- 14community members trained in aquaponics management, plus a new glass recycling program providing alternative income for fishermen
Research report page 36
- 388megafauna surveys
- 6manta ultrasounds: the first-ever ultrasounding of female manta rays in Mozambique waters
- 18acoustic receivers downloaded and redeployed
- 22024 Research Fellows trained in underwater data collection and BRUV systems, and employed within the permanent science team
- 4communities near Inhassoro trained to use drones for aerial surveys of seagrass habitats (dugong monitoring)
Education report page 40
- 12schools in coastal Mozambique taught about their local marine habitats and the importance of ocean conservation
- 2,216virtual reality experiences delivered from Maputo to Nacala, for students, officials, and conference delegates
- 67Coral Reef Club graduates, with 2 receiving dive scholarships to become professional divers and 17 gaining business management certification
- 4,710mini marine conservationists graduated from MMF’s ocean awareness curriculum between 2012 and 2024
- 1,505new swimmers trained by MMF’s team to swim safely and confidently, from 2012 to 2024
Project pages: Sustainable Seas · Mozambique Ocean Guardians Education Program · Dugong & Seagrass Conservation · Mozambique Acoustic Telemetry Network · Bazaruto Seascape Marine Research
Western Indian Ocean · Research
South Africa
Page 46 of the report
- 19manta rays tagged, including 16 acoustic and 3 satellite tags, revealing critical habitat use patterns
- 29reef manta rays identified through photo-identification
- 1landmark publication on manta ray demographics and distribution in South Africa
Project pages: Mozambique Manta & Devil Ray Research Project
Western Indian Ocean, in partnership with the Madagascar Whale Shark Project · Research
Madagascar
Page 48 of the report
- 200+local skippers and guides trained on our whale shark tourism code of conduct
- 566whale sharks identified from 2015 to 2024 near Nosy Be in northwest Madagascar
- 18volunteers collected photo-IDs on whale sharks and monitored marine megafauna species
- 8new whale sharks tagged off Nosy Be
Project pages: Madagascar Whale Shark Project
Australia, in partnership with University of the Sunshine Coast and Spot A Shark · Research
Southeast Queensland
Page 50 of the report
- 2seasons of collaborative research in southeast Queensland with the University of the Sunshine Coast
- 38research dives at Wolf Rock and Flat Rock
- 205grey nurse sharks identified across two significant aggregation sites, Wolf Rock and North Stradbroke Island
- 2,000+critically endangered grey nurse sharks now identified in eastern Australia via scientific surveys and citizen science
Project pages: Grey Nurse Shark Project
Australia, in partnership with Biopixel Oceans Foundation · Research
Great Barrier Reef
Page 52 of the report
- 3seasons of collaborative research in far north Queensland with Biopixel Oceans Foundation
- 30whale sharks identified from the Wreck Bay area in 2024
- 17satellite tags deployed
- 7 daysof aerial surveys by plane, helicopter, and drone to help locate whale sharks in the outer Great Barrier Reef
Project pages: Coral Sea Whale Shark Project
Report page 56
2024 scientific papers
- Planktivorous sharks and rays.
- Killer whale predation on a giant manta ray (Mobula birostris), a sicklefin devil ray (Mobula tarapacana) and a tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) in the Southwest Indian Ocean.
- Length–weight relationship and diet composition of the spotcheek emperor, Lethrinus rubrioperculatus (Sato 1978) (Actinopterygii: Perciformes: Lethrinidae) from the Mecúfi Waters, Cabo Delgado, Mozambique.
- Shortfalls in the protection of Important Shark and Ray Areas undermine shark conservation efforts in the Central and South American Pacific.
- Climate-driven global redistribution of an ocean giant predicts increased threat from shipping.
- Persistent declines in sightings of manta and devil rays (Mobulidae) at a global hotspot in southern Mozambique.
- Effects of climate warming on energetics and habitat of the world's largest marine ectotherm.
- Evidence of reproductive and feeding habitat for manta rays off Florida’s Atlantic coast.
- Identifying priority sites for whale shark ship collision management globally
- Directed conservation of the world’s reef sharks and rays.
- Behavior, site use and demographics of shortfin devil rays, Mobula kuhlii, at a newly-discovered cleaning area in South Africa.
- Perceptions regarding the recreational cobia fishery in relation to manta ray conservation.
- First sightings of mimic octopus Thaumoctopus mimicus (Cephalopoda: Octopodidia) from the Southwest Indian Ocean with photographic records from the Inhambane Province of southern Mozambique.
Report page 58
Outreach
- 703,000reached via social media (Instagram 288K, Facebook 300K, LinkedIn 116K)
- 5,200+mini marine conservationists inspired through our global education programs
- 2,200+virtual reality experiences
- 13,000+community members reached through conservation talks, briefings, outreach events, student programs, and conservation messaging campaigns across multiple projects
Report page 2
Special thanks to our major project funders
- Alina Riensema
- Anthony Hsieh
- A Stuart Holdings
- Atlantis Dubai
- Aqua-Firma
- Better Giving
- Blue Action Fund
- Big Fish Diving
- Boris Worm
- Casa JVC
- Community Foundation for Palm Beach & Martin Counties
- David & Carol Myers Foundation
- Disney Conservation Fund
- ElasmOcean
- Elnora Cameron
- Embassy of Ireland, Maputo
- Fortuna Foundation
- Foundation Segre
- Georgia Aquarium
- Help For Mozambique
- Jason Katz
- Jumeirah Thanda Island
- Kansas City Zoo
- Mantahari Oceancare
- Margo Marshall
- Mark & Caroline Hackney
- Milkywire
- Mission Blue
- MMF Canada
- Morin Resort
- Nacora International Insurance Brokers
- NBC Universal
- Ocean Wildlife Project
- Our Children’s Earth Foundation
- Palm Beach International Boat Show
- Paul T. Jones, II and Sonia M. Jones
- Peri-Peri Divers
- Philippa Nigg
- Pure Ocean Fund
- Queensland Government
- Ray of Hope Expeditions
- ScubaPro
- Save Our Seas Foundation
- Shark Conservation Fund
- Shark Foundation
- Stichting Kalverboer Silsby Foundation
- The Rufford Foundation
- Waterlust
- Windrush Trust
- Zoomarine
About this summary
- The PDF is the full report: its maps and full donor lists are only there.
- The figures are the report’s highlights for 2024, and some are running totals (“now identified”).
- The report is our own account of the year, not an audited statement. Our filed financial return is on our transparency page.
