How Surprising Connections Can Save the Ocean
Many marine biologists identify a gateway drug into their obsession, and for Heather Koldewey, it was the seahorse. Who can blame her? Seahorses seem to have evolved not entirely in the ocean, but also by way of a whimsical storybook, in which animal body parts are all mixed up. A fish with the head of a horse? A male that gets pregnant, gives birth, and is monogamous?
Seahorses led her not only to her career as the head of marine and freshwater conservation at the London Zoological Society, but to her efforts as an activist as well. Shortly after getting her Ph.D., Koldewey co-founded Project Seahorse to protect her study subject and the ocean habitats they live in.
Today, Koldewey amplifies both her science and her on-the-ground protection efforts in visionary and critical ways. She was instrumental in getting the Indian Ocean’s Chagos Archipelago designated as a Marine Protected Area, which has helped degraded, which supports local communities in the Philippines by helping them transform abandoned fishing nets into carpeting. Koldewey is helping make biodiversity protection a profitable business—and saving species as she goes.
