Alex Hearn

Marine biologist Alex Hearn has spent two decades working in marine conservation in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. After completing his degree in Oceanography at Southampton University, and his MSc and PhD in Heriot-Watt’s Orkney campus in 2002, he left the windswept islands of northern Scotland to fulfill every marine biologist’s dream to work in Galápagos. In 2006 he spearheaded the development of a shark research program that has become a core piece of marine conservation in the region today. He has published over 70 peer review research articles and a dozen book chapters. As a National Geographic Explorer, he has studied the movement patterns of hammerhead, silky and whale sharks in Galápagos and their connectivity to other islands and coastal areas in the region.

In 2015, Alex joined Ecuador’s leading academic institution, Universidad San Francisco de Quito where, in 2002, he led the scientific research to create Ecuador’s open ocean Hermandad Marine Reserve. He became Mission Blue Hope Spot Champion for Galápagos in 2020 and is a founding member of the regional MigraMar network of scientists working to protect endangered marine migratory species. In his free time, Alex can be found glued either to a harmonica, picking out Bruce Springsteen tunes, or to his binoculars, looking out for hummingbirds and tanagers in the Andean cloud forest that has become his home.