Dr. Marta D. Palacios is a marine biologist and co-founder of Mobula Conservation. She specialises in the ecology, conservation, and fisheries interactions of mobulid rays in the Mexican Pacific. She holds a PhD from CICIMAR-IPN (Mexico), in collaboration with the University of California, Santa Cruz. Marta has worked extensively with artisanal fishers, NGOs, and government agencies to bridge science and policy, contributing to the identification of critical habitats for mobulids and the development of management plans and potential bycatch mitigation strategies in small-scale fisheries in Mexico.
She is currently part of the Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA) project, supporting the identification of critical habitats for chondrichthyans around the world. As a collaborator with the Manta Trust, Marta led a global assessment of the trade in mobulid meat and gill plates, contributing to the proposal to uplist mobulids to CITES Appendix I.
She had broad field training researching and collaborating with international organizations: Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (Brasil), Department of Conservation (New Zealand), Crystal Divers (Indonesia) and the Charles Darwin Foundation, Manta Trust, and Galapagos National Park (Ecuador).
Marta is a grantee of The Explorers Club, the Shark Conservation Fund, and the Walter Munk Foundation.
