Dr. Andrea Marshall

Co-founder (on medical leave)

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Dr. Marshall is currently on extended medical leave following a severe brain aneurysm and stroke that occurred in early 2024. Her pioneering research and conservation initiatives continue to guide our work.

Research Interests

As a conservation biologist Andrea and her team focus predominately on research questions related to the effective management and conservation of threatened marine animals. Her team works on manta rays globally, in areas we have determined to be of extraordinary conservation value. They collect baseline data on these focal populations, while additionally studying aspects of their biology, reproductive ecology, habitat use, migrations and social behaviour. In Mozambique, Andrea also manages a team which studies other species of elasmobranchs in southern Mozambique such including endangered wedgefish, mobula rays, and leopard sharks, species that are data deficient such as the smalleye stingray and important reef predators in the region, like bull sharks.

Education

Andrea did her undergraduate degree in the United States at the University of California Santa Barbara. After that she moved to Australia and did her post graduate work at the University of Queensland. Andrea’s PhD focused on the biology and ecology of manta rays living off the coast of southern Mozambique. After completing her thesis she stayed on in Mozambique and she and Simon Pierce formed the Marine Megafauna Foundation to continue their important work along the coastline.

Biography

Andrea has always been passionate about the ocean. Learning to dive at a young age, Andrea got certified on her twelfth birthday and now almost 10,000 dives later she leads research programs all over the world for MMF, as one of the principal scientists for the organization. Andrea directs MMF’s global manta ray department and MMF’s threatened species program in southern Mozambique. As one of MMF’s co-founders, Andrea also works at an executive level within the organization.

Andrea spends most of her time in the field. During her 20-year research career she has travelled to the ends of the globe, from Brazil to Myanmar, mainly as a scientist but also as a semi-professional underwater photographer, her other great passion. She has visited over 45 countries and been fortunate enough to pioneer the exploration of many remote coastlines.

Andrea’s passionate commitment to the eastern African coast has ultimately shaped her goals as a conservation biologist. Having worked in Africa for the last 20 years she realizes that research alone will not protect our ocean giants here. To that end she has dedicated her life to the development of a large-scale network of marine protected areas along the Mozambican coastline and hopes to use MMF’s science to inform the management strategies being developed for marine megafauna in the country. She is confident this will become one of the most important marine protected areas in Africa, the equivalent of Africa’s Marine Serengeti.

Current MMF projects

Global Manta Ray Program

• Florida Manta Ray Program

• Southern Mozambique Manta Ray Program

• Indonesian Manta Ray Program

• Andaman Sea Manta Ray Program

Threatened Species Program (Mozambique)

• Devil Ray Project

• Bull Shark Project

• Wedgefish Project

• Leopard Shark Project

• Smalleye Stingray Project

• Elasmobranch Census Project

Media

Queen of the Mantas | Waterbear

Ray of Hope | Alert Diver

Meet the Scientist Snapping Selfies With Giant Manta Rays | WIRED Magazine

So You Want to Be a Marine Biologist? | Gapyear

Join Andrea in the field!

Featured papers

Nathan Pacoureau, [others], Andrea Marshall, [others], and Nick Dulvy (2020). Half a century of global decline in oceanic sharks and rays. Nature In press

Marshall, A., Barreto, R., Carlson, J., Fernando, D., Fordham, S., Francis, M.P., Herman, K., Jabado, R.W., Liu, K.M., Pacoureau, N., Rigby, C.L., Romanov, E. & Sherley, R.B. 2019. Mobula alfredi . The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019: e.T195459A68632178. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-3.RLTS.T195459A68632178.en. Downloaded on 14 January 2020.

Marshall, A., Bennett, M.B., Kodja, G., Hinojosa-Alvarez, S., Galvan-Magana, F., Harding, M., Stevens, G. & Kashiwagi, T. 2018. Mobula birostris (amended version of 2011 assessment). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T198921A126669349. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-1.RLTS.T198921A126669349.en. Downloaded on 14 January 2020.

Stephanie Venables, Andrea Marshall, Amelia Armstrong, Joseph Tomkins, Jason Kennington (2020) Fine-scale population structure and effective population size of reef manta rays Mobula alfredi in southern Mozambique using genome-wide SNPs. Heredity DOI:10.1038/s41437-020-00373

Jessica Pate, Andrea Marshall (2020) Urban Manta Rays: Juvenile manta ray habitat along a highly developed Florida coastline. Endangered Species Research DOI:10.3354/esr01054

Stephanie Venables, Daniel Van Duinkerken, Christopher Rohner, Andrea Marshall (2020) Habitat use and movements patterns of reef manta rays Mobula alfredi in southern Mozambique. Marine Ecology Progress Series DOI:10.3354/meps13178

Elitza Gemanov, Andrea Marshall, I. Gede Hendrawan, Ryan Admiraal, Christoph Rohner, Janis Argeswara, Raka Wulandari, Mahardika Himawan, Neil Loneragan (2019) Microplastics on the Menu: Plastics pollute Indoneisan manta ray and whale shark feeding grounds. Frontiers in Marine Science DOI:10.3389/fmars.2019.00679

Robert Perryman, Stephanie Venables, Ricardo Tapilatu, Andrea Marshall, Culum Brown, Daniel Franks (2019) Social preferences and network structure in a population of reef manta rays. Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology DOI:10.1007/s00265-019-2771-x

Atlantine Boggio- Pasqua, Anna Flam, Andrea Marshall (2019) Spotting the ‘small eyes”: using photo-ID methodology to study a wild population of smalleye stingray (Megatrygon microps) in southern Mozambique. Peer J DOI:10.7717/peerj.7110

Elitza Germanov & Andrea Marshall (2014) Running the Gauntlet: Regional Movement Patterns of Manta alfredi through a complex of parks and fisheries. PloS One DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0110071

Andrea Marshall, Simon Pierce (2012) The uses and abuses of photographic identification in sharks and rays. Journal of Fish Biology 80: 1361-1379.

Andrea Marshall, Christine Dudgeon & Mike Bennett (2011) Size and structure of a photographically identified population of manta rays Manta alfredi in southern Mozambique. Marine Biology DOI:10.1007/s00227-011-1634-6

Andrea Marshall & Mike Bennett (2010) Reproductive ecology of the reef manta ray (Manta alfredi) in southern Mozambique. Journal of Fish Biology DOI:10.1111/j.1095-8649.2010.02669.x

Andrea Marshall, Leonard Compagno & Mike Bennett (2009) Redescription of genus Manta with resurrection of Manta alfredi (Krefft,1868) (Chondrichthyes; Myliobatoidei; Mobulidae). Zootaxa 2301: 1–28.

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