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Marta Diaz Palacios

Alumni

Fascinated by nature since she was young and growing up in a family full of biologists, Marta developed a love for the sea in the green Asturianas coast in Spain. She graduated as a marine biologist from the Univesidad de La Laguna, in the Canary Islands. Combining her passion for the sea, conservation, and traveling, she has collaborated with numerous research projects studying the different species of aquatic animals threatened in countries including Indonesia, Brazil, New Zealand, Ecuador, and Mexico. In 2019 she finished her master’s degree at the Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas (CICIMAR) with her thesis about the habitat use and index of resident juveniles of Mobula Munkiana in the Espíritu Santo Archipelago, Baja California Sur with Dr. Mauricio Hoyos. In October 2016 Marta became a student of Pelagios Kakunjá. She developed her PhD project at CICIMAR with a research about incidental fisheries of mobulas in Baja California Sur and the Eastern Tropical Pacific. She is the founder of Mobula Conservation and obtained her PhD in January, 2024.

Published papers:

Description of first nursery area for a pygmy devil ray species (Mobula munkiana) in the Gulf of California, Mexico