A voice for the “unorthodox” whales of Sri Lanka
Asha de Vos has stopped at nothing in her mission to become a marine biologist. Low on cash after graduating from university in Scotland, she worked in potato fields to save money so she could travel to New Zealand, where she lived in a tent for six months and worked on conservation projects.
She later made her way onto a whale research vessel bound for her native Sri Lanka by writing to the researchers every day for three months, until no turned into a yes. She was permitted to join the vessel on its trip around the globe as a deckhand in the Maldives. She soon became the team’s science intern and was allowed to stay on for Sri Lanka.
On that vessel, she encountered the marine mammals she would eventually dub the “unorthodox whales.” The first and only Sri Lankan to have a Ph.D. in marine-mammal-related research, de Vos has dedicated herself to studying Sri Lanka’s blue whale population and the many threats they face, from ship strikes to pollution. Through a Pew fellowship, she is paving a way for others to follow, building what will be Sri Lanka’s first marine conservation research and education organization. —By Christina Nunez
Read interview at the source: National Geographic – National Geographic Society
Asha De Vos is an Ismaili from Sri Lanka.
Ismailimail 