Mission Blue is officially launching its Science Initiative, a new organisation-wide effort to strengthen protection and restoration across the global Hope Spot network by connecting place-based leadership with credible, practical, and usable science.
Led by Chief Scientist Dr. Tessa Hempson, the Initiative is designed to ensure that scientific insight is directly connected to conservation outcomes. It positions Mission Blue as a catalyst, convener, connector, facilitator, and multiplier, linking world-class expertise with the Hope Spot Champions protecting some of the most important places in the ocean.
The Initiative begins with two flagship programmes: Charting the Blue and Listening to the Ocean. Both will work with selected Hope Spot Champions and leading scientific partners to co-design pilot projects that support local conservation priorities while contributing to a broader global understanding of ocean life.
Charting the Blue is Mission Blue’s biodiversity mapping programme. Using environmental DNA, or eDNA, scientists can detect traces of genetic material left behind by marine life in seawater, from plankton and invertebrates to sharks, rays, and marine mammals. This non-invasive approach can help Hope Spot Champions establish up-to-date biodiversity baselines, detect rare or hard-to-see species, and generate strong evidence to support protection and management decisions.
Listening to the Ocean uses passive acoustic monitoring to understand marine soundscapes. Sound is one of the ocean’s most important sensory channels: marine species communicate, navigate, feed, and reproduce through sound, while human activity increasingly reshapes acoustic habitats. By listening over time, this programme can reveal patterns of species presence, behaviour, ecosystem condition, and human pressure that traditional monitoring may miss.
Together, these programmes mark a new chapter in Mission Blue’s Wish–Act–Protect journey. They are not simply about collecting data. They are about equipping Hope Spot Champions with evidence that can inform policy, strengthen advocacy, guide management, support restoration, inspire communities, and build donor confidence.
As the Science Initiative grows and expands its programme offerings, it will help build comparable datasets, support science aligned with global commitments such as 30×30, and strengthen Mission Blue’s role as a trusted science-to-protection actor.
With science as a bridge between knowledge and action, Mission Blue is helping reveal what the ocean needs, and mobilising the protection it deserves.
Meet Mission Blue’s Chief Scientist, Dr. Tessa Hempson
Science Programmes
Our College of Experts
The College of Experts advisory panel brings together leading scientists and experts to provide trusted guidance, strengthen our programmes, and ensure that the science drives meaningful ocean protection.
Dr. Jason Wood
Principal Scientist & Deputy Director
Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU), University of St Andrews, Scotland
College of Experts
Prof. Heather Koldewey
Head of Ocean and FAIRER Conservation
Tropical Marine Ecology, Regional Capacity Building
Zoological Society of London; Bertarelli Foundation
Heather is Head of Ocean and FAIRER Conservation at the Zoological Society of London, Honorary Professor at the University of Exeter, and a National Geographic Explorer. She leads the Bertarelli Foundation’s Indian Ocean Marine Science programme, a UN Decade-endorsed Action that connects scientists across disciplines to protect and restore marine biodiversity, including coral reefs, seabirds, and sharks. Through collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and expanding access to marine science, the programme is driving innovative solutions for a thriving ocean.
Prof. Alex Rogers
Deputy Director Strategic Sciences Programmes and Partnerships
Deep Ocean Biodiversity, eDNA
National Oceanography Centre
Alex is a marine ecologist who is interested in how biodiversity is distributed in the ocean, especially in the deep sea and on deep tropical coral reefs. He is also interested in human impacts on the ocean and how to manage human activities to mitigate or reduce degradation of marine ecosystems. His work has taken him to the Atlantic, Caribbean, Indian, Pacific and Southern Oceans as well as Arctic Seas investigating coral reef ecosystems, both in shallow water and the deep sea, seamounts, deep-sea hydrothermal vents and hydrocarbon seeps. Alex has worked with governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations on human impacts, especially those from deep-sea fishing and climate change, and on the development of policy solutions to such problems. Alex published the book The Deep: The Hidden Wonders of the Ocean and How to Protect Them .
Dr. George Shillinger
Executive Director and President
Movement tracking – turtles
Upwell Turtles
Dr. George Shillinger is the Executive Director, co-founder and lead scientist for Upwell Turtles. He is also a founding board member and Treasurer for MigraMar, a member of the IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group, and the Board Chair and 2026 Host of the West Coast Sea Turtle Society. George has a PhD in Marine Biology and an MS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Stanford University, an MBA from the Yale University School of Management, and a BA in the Biological Basis of Behavior from the University of Pennsylvania.
George develops scientific partnerships and leverages data to set conservation priorities, build support in key constituencies and advance protections for turtles at sea. He has worked in international environmental conservation since 1986, and has extensive expertise using satellite and acoustic tags, remotely-sensed environmental datasets, and fisheries datasets, to track, interpret, and predict the movements and behaviors of sea turtles and other pelagic predators, including billfish, sharks, and tuna.
As a co-founder of the first-ever Great Turtle Race in 2007, he used satellite-tracking data to raise global awareness for critically endangered East Pacific leatherbacks. George also launched Upwell Turtles’ “Lost Years Initiative” which endeavors to refine the development of novel electronic tags for deployment on early-stage sea turtles, with the aim of addressing knowledge gaps in sea turtle ecology and conservation biology.
Through his role with Upwell, George has developed numerous international research partnerships on various themes (e.g. electronic tracking, in-water monitoring, population and species distribution modeling, health and body condition, biotelemetry, bycatch assessment and mitigation, and efforts aimed at recovery of highly imperiled sea turtle populations.
Dr. Jessica Stella
Chief Scientist
Coral Reef Ecology
General Organization for the Conservation of Coral Reefs and Turtles in the Red Sea (SHAMS)
Jessica is a marine ecologist with a strong focus on the effects of climate change on the reef system. Her foray into the marine sphere started at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo, and the Bermuda Zoological Society, helping to establish the baseline monitoring program for coral reefs and seagrass (Project Bream), and assisting with green turtle population studies as part of the Bermuda Turtle Project. She earned a PhD from James Cook University for her research on the effects of climate-change on coral-reliant invertebrates. She has a broad knowledge of coral reef invertebrate taxonomy and an in-depth knowledge of invertebrates that specialise on live coral. She has worked in natural resource management for the past 14 years, at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority in Australia, focusing on assessing and communicating reef health events, such as mass bleaching, and developing the GBR Outlook Report 2019, the GBRMPA’s Science Strategy, and representing science for management on two fisheries working groups (QLD Sea Cucumber and Coral fisheries). More recently, she has been serving as the founding Chief Scientist at the General Organisation for the Conservation of Coral Reef and Sea Turtles in the Red Sea, a new government organization in Saudi Arabia, establishing baseline monitoring and impact assessment programs and science governance needed to ensure evidence-based decision making. She is an experienced science communicator with a passion for making science accessible to broad audiences.
Dr. Arthur Tuda
Executive Director
Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association
Arthur Tuda is the Executive Director of the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA), a leading regional organisation advancing marine science and its application to policy and practice across the Western Indian Ocean. His work sits at the interface of science, policy, and implementation, with a strong focus on strengthening the effectiveness of marine protected areas, ecosystem-based management, and regional cooperation.
Arthur has been instrumental in driving initiatives aligned with global frameworks, such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and in supporting countries in translating commitments into action. He has also championed efforts to professionalise the marine conservation workforce, recognising that effective conservation depends on skilled and supported practitioners.
He serves on the Mission Blue Hope Spot Council and brings a systems-oriented perspective to advancing resilient and impactful ocean conservation.
Keith Vangraafeiland
Senior Principal GIS Engineer
GIS, Esri
ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World
Keith VanGraafeiland is a Senior Principal GIS Engineer at Esri, serving as the Ocean Content Lead for the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World. With over 18 years of experience, Keith specializes in marine and environmental GIS solutions, remote sensing, and the application of advanced data science techniques to solve real-world challenges. As a leader in Ocean Data Science, Keith develops innovative workflows that transform complex scientific and observational data into actionable insights for researchers, policymakers, and the broader GIS community.
Dr. Dawn Wright
Chief Scientist
Deep Ocean Science, GIS
Esri
Dawn Wright is Chief Scientist of Esri. She works to strengthen the scientific foundation for the company’s products and services. Notably, Dawn led the team that created the Ecological Marine Units (EMUs), a 3D digital ocean that creates better understanding of marine environments and how to plan for more sustainable activities there in the wake of climate change. Dawn joined Esri in 2011, and has written and contributed to some of the most definitive literature on marine geographic information system (GIS) technology. An elected member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, as well as the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, she earned her doctorate in Physical Geography and Marine Geology from UC Santa Barbara. In 2022, Dawn became the first Black person to visit the Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean, the deepest and most unexplored place on planet Earth.
At least 30%
protection by 2030
By 2030, the global commitment is clear: protect at least 30% of the ocean and advance active restoration across another 30%—safeguarding what remains and recovering what has been lost.