Overview
Stella is the founder and lead of the Madagascar Whale Shark Project, which she established in 2016 to study and protect the whale sharks of Nosy Be — now recognized as one of the world’s important aggregation sites for juvenile whale sharks. As an MMF Research Associate, she collaborates with the Global Whale Shark Program on photo-identification and population research in Madagascar.
Stella hosts research expeditions to Nosy Be with partner operators, where guests join whale shark surveys in the field.
Current research
Leads
- Madagascar Whale Shark ProjectProject leader
Past research
Leads
- Madagascar Manta and Devil RaysProject leader
Global Whale Shark Program
Whale sharks have declined by more than 50% since the 1980s. Our Global Whale Shark Research & Conservation Program works to safeguard them and help their populations recover, with long-term monitoring in Mozambique, Tanzania, Madagascar, the Galápagos and Oman. Photos from our surveys, dive operators and visiting divers are matched by spot pattern in the global database on Sharkbook.ai.Explore the Global Whale Shark Program →
News featuring Stella
Recent research
- 2026Methods for tagging whale sharks: insights into performance and best practices with a focus on clamp attachments
- Only one percent of important shark and ray areas in the Western Indian Ocean are fully protected from fishing pressure
- 2025Global tracking of marine megafauna space use reveals how to achieve conservation targets
- Occurrence of mobulid rays in Northwest Madagascar
- 2024Effects of climate warming on energetics and habitat of the world's largest marine ectotherm
- Climate-driven global redistribution of an ocean giant predicts increased threat from shipping
- Identifying priority sites for whale shark ship collision management globally
- 2022Improving sightings-derived residency estimation for whale shark aggregations: A novel metric applied to a global data set
- Global collision-risk hotspots of marine traffic and the world’s largest fish, the whale shark
- 2021Regional variation in anthropogenic threats to Indian Ocean whale sharks