Spotlight: Frida
Frida Lara interviewed by JJ Ramberg
Frida’s dedication and passion for marine science is nothing short of extraordinary. Her expertise on marine protected areas and the critical role that marine life, such as sharks, play in maintaining the health of our ecosystems is truly remarkable. Her insights have helped to shape the conversation around ocean conservation, and her advocacy for sustainable eco-tourism is a testament to her commitment to creating a better future for our planet. It was an absolute pleasure for our team to be in the company of Frida most recently at IMPAC5 in Vancouver and to have had the opportunity to swim with mantas in Baja alongside such an accomplished and inspiring scientist. She is truly a role model for anyone who cares about the health of our planet and the future of our oceans.
Where does your love for Marine Biology come from?
I am from the Atlantic coast of Mexico, in a little city called Xalapa. Since I was little my dad showed me his love for the oceans. When I was seven, I tried his SCUBA gear for the first time on the surface. The feeling of breathing underwater and observing the fish always stayed with me and when I was 17, I moved to Merida to do my bachelor’s in Marine Biology. Seventeen years later, I have been traveling around the world, learning and sharing my knowledge about sharks and marine conservation.
What drew you to sharks?
I always found a strong fascination with sharks, but it was during my master’s degree, when Professor Rupert Ormond, offered me an internship to work with him and his wife in the research station Darros, a little atoll part of Seychelles. I spent two months diving with sharks, deploying baited cameras, and learning about their ecological importance as top predators in the ocean. A few months later, I met my Ph.D. supervisor at a shark talk in Mexico City, and he offered me a project in Revillagigedo. This is how I ended up living in Baja.
Sharks are very important because they regulate the health of the ecosystem, and they make sure the habitats are balanced, by taking the sick fishes and invasive species away. They are also a very important resource of money and food for some local communities around the world, and in the last years, they have been also economically important in terms of shark diving, providing thousands of jobs around the world.
What are the downstream effects of shark fishing?
Shark fishing has become an important issue around the world because sharks and rays have a slow growth rate, low fecundity, and late sexual maturity, these factors plus the high demand for shark products in the Asian market, have been creating overexploitation of 70% of the species.
In many places around the world, we have lost shark populations, which means a downstream effect on the food chain, some mesopredators can grow with no control, and the whole ecosystem is less productive and more susceptible to the effects of global warming and habitat destruction, being less resilient.
Why are MPAs a good conservation solution?
In order to reduce the fishing effort and focus our conservation strategies, we need to find critical habitats that are important for the shark life cycles, such as the mangroves or coral reefs, where sharks spend their first years after they are born. If we are able to protect these areas and the seamounts where the adults aggregate to find a mate, then we can support the conservation of the species. Therefore, some researchers have claimed that we need to protect at least 30% of the ocean before 2030, to accomplish our conservation goals, and these reserves need to be large and fully protected. To do so we need to work with the local communities and make them our allies, so they make sure the regulations are put into place. It is expected that in 10–15 years, these communities will receive the benefits of the protection, by having more resources to extract them sustainably and by having opportunities to do ecotourism.
What is Orgcas and what makes it so special/important?
Orgcas is a Mexican NGO formed by women with different backgrounds that is working with social communities in Baja California Sur, looking for sustainable activities that can ensure the conservation of marine ecosystems. We are working with Agua Amarga, a shark fishing village that for 5 generations used to catch sharks as their way of living and together we are working on transitioning to other economic activities that are more profitable and better for the environment such as nature-based tourism and science.
What is your job at Orgcas? What do you do?
I am the scientific coordinator of the NGO. My work is to plan all the research components of the projects. If we are doing all these efforts with the community it is important to keep a record of how the ecosystem is responding. We are designing a monitoring program, where we selected 7 species as indicators, such as sharks, mobulas, dolphins, and orcas. We use different techniques to determine which areas are more important, and we also are taking tissue samples to determine the health of the species, so in the future, this information can support a further marine reserve.
How important is it to work with the local community? And if it is, how are you working with them?
In my opinion, there is no real conservation if we don’t consider the communities that rely on marine resources. So we have been involving the community of Agua Amarga in all the research processes, they help us to build the scientific gear, to deploy it and we are also sharing the results with them. So they have a sense of ownership of the efforts done by Orgcas and their community.
We provide them with capacitation in different subjects, we started with a first aid course, so they are able to respond in a medical emergency. They also have been about the ecology of sharks, rays, and turtles and how science can help us to take decisions about our resources.
Soon they will get certified as captains by the Port Navy, and we will also provide more capacitation about ecosystem services, circular economy, etc.
How did you get involved in NewAtlantis?
The Orgcas were introduced by Cristina Mittermeier to New Atlantis, then during the Ocean Summit in La Paz, I had the opportunity to meet the founders, Courtney and Gordon, and show them the study area. I have been working with Jay Gutierrez and our team of local experts to develop a pilot project in Mexico and the Gulf of California.
What gets you excited about NewAtlantis?
I like the fact that the members of Orgcas and the community is going to learn about new monitoring techniques and the captains will get an income not only by doing tourism but will also get benefitted by doing science.
I am also learning a lot about the new economic models and biodiversity credits. I am looking forwards to seeing the results of the pilot project and the way is used to improve the conservation of the region.
You are also a divemaster — can you explain to us how you feel when you are diving? Why do you love it so much?
Diving is a great tool to experience an area, for half of my life I SCUBA for science. I normally go doing and I have a mission, either count fishes, sharks or deploy equipment.
Diving also has allowed me to develop my passion for underwater photography, and use it as a tool to show the beauty of marine ecosystems. I also have a special interest in animal behavior and species interactions, so diving and photography have allowed me to share those moments with my friends, family, and other people.
What is the most incredible thing you’ve discovered/seen either in your scientific work or while diving?
I have been lucky to have a couple of unique moments underwater, probably on the top of my list are seeing a dolphin giving birth and years later diving with a whale in the same dive site, the Boiler, in the Revillagigedo Archipelago. Where I did my Ph.D. I also enjoyed taking the fishermen’s sons and daughters to dive for the first time and showing them why we are so passionate and sharing these places with them.
You can learn more about Frida’s organization, Orgcas through their Instagram.
NewAtlantis seeks to address the twin challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss by aligning community, government, industry, and individual benefit with the improving ecological health of our oceans. Subscribe to our newsletter on our website, or join our Discord to learn more.
