Team

Core team

Stella
Diamant

Project Founder & Lead researcher

Stella first worked in Madagascar in 2011 and fell in love with the country. A biologist with a MSc from Imperial College London, she saw her first whale shark in 2014 in Nosy Be and as a result decided to set up the project. Since then, Stella works full-time on the project.

Léa
Gonçalves

Project Coordinator

Léa has been working for over 10 years in project management in the finance sector. After volunteering with MWSP in 2018, Léa joined the team and has helped secure funds for the education programme.

Bruno
Hélio Benjara

Education Officer

Bruno was born in Nosy Be and is very involved with the youth community on the island. He leads our education programme, the "Guardians of the Oceans", where he delivers the school programme and leads the Saturday activities.

Léonce
Costika Fidiarisandratra

Scientific Assistant

Léonce is a master student at the Institut Halieutique et des Sciences Marines (IH.SM). He is studying the spatio-temporal distribution of whale sharks in Nosy Be.

Claire
Eloy

Data Assistant

Claire first came to Nosy Be in 2016 and since has been involved with the project, helping us process photo-IDs from France through the season.

Project supervisors

Simon J. Pierce, PhD

Principal Scientist at the Marine Megafauna Foundation

Simon began working on whale sharks in 2005 off Tofo, Mozambique and co-founded the Marine Megafauna Foundation in 2012. His international work on the population ecology and management of this iconic species has made him a world expert on whale shark conservation.

Website

Jeremy J. Kiszka, PhD

Assistant Professor at Florida International University

Jeremy currently leads a number of research projects on the ecology and behaviour of sharks, and other large marine vertebrates in the Western Indian Ocean. He leads his own lab at FIU and also serves as an expert for the Shark Specialist Group of the IUCN.

Website

Thanks to our previous volunteers and staff-both in the field and remotely !

Tine Hollevoet

Lorrie Carassini

Noella Wai

Frédéric Barbotin

Tiana Haingo Andriamampionona

Vincent Bourdin

Mariana Perez

Marion Lovat

Robin Bally

Ingrid Richioud

Cédric Pfeiffer

Vincent Frasse-Mathon

Matthieu Bonhomme

Flore Meyerstein

Valérie Gagnolet

Guillaume Lechat

Amir Serhane

Laura Atchama

Simona Auteri

Marcel Caro

Magali Caro

Marie-Amélie Vidal

Romain Boucly

Mélina Lin

Agathe Gastaldi

Blaise Vincent

Juliette Eyraud

Amandine Pauvert

Tine Hollevoet

Léa Gonçalves

Alexandra Salmon-Lefranc Gennai

Chantal Dherbecourt-Solau

Fanny Floirat-Lohyer

Chloé Paré

Diane Bécu

Luna Payet

Raphaël Jarnias

Kelly Morvan

Mylène Richard

Carole Perrin

Fadia Al Abbar

Juliet Cussaguet

Mario Clemente

Florian Barnaud

Stéphane Gennai

Guillaume Bonnaud

Pierre Denneulin

Michaël Coconi

Arnault De Peretti

Jens Paulsen

Vincent Quiquempois

Joshua Rambahiniarison

On-site partners

Marine Megafauna Foundation

Partner NGO

MMF has been supporting our scientific training since the project's inception. We also collaborate on developing the educational program together.

Website

MADA Megafauna

Partner NGO

We collaborate with MM on both our volunteer and education programme, and have initiated together the "Guardians of the Oceans" movement on Nosy Be.

Website

Wildlife Conservation Society

Partner NGO

WCS is the leading organisation for shark conservation in Madagascar. Since 2019 we share our data to support local conservation initiaitves

Website

Les Baleines Rand’eau

Partner Operator and Co-founder

LBR have been instrumental to the project, and have collected data for us in 2015. Since they support MWSP’s field season.

Website

Safari Baleine

Partner Operator

Since 2018, we collaborate on the volunteer program with Fanja, Yasmina and Nahema from local operator Safari Baleine, who operate whale shark tours from neighbouring island Nosy Komba.

Website