Simon Hilbourne

Having started off as a dive instructor during my gap year, my interest and passion move towards the marine animals I was diving with. After completing my MSci degree in marine biology at the University of Southampton, I worked on whale shark research in Mexico and the Philippines. Currently, I am Research and Administration Officer for the Maldivian Manta Ray Project. I have been working in the Maldives with mantas for nearly two years now and have a strong passion for marine conservation and protecting sharks and rays.

Part of my role here is to find new ways we can study the manta rays and answer many of the unknowns surrounding these beautiful animals. Whenever I go out on our research boat and dive or snorkel with manta rays, I am always fascinated and captivated by them. They are one of the largest fish in the oceans, and yet we know so little about them. When I see them leaving the cleaning stations to swim out into the blue, I’m dying to know where they go, what they do, and why they choose to return to the same cleaning station some time later.

With my role in the Maldivian Manta Ray Project and small projects such as this one, I hope to help answer some of those questions for myself and the scientific community as a whole.

April 2018