Mary Shodipo

Bio: Mary Shodipo is a National Geographic Explorer and published scientist pursuing a master’s in Marine Biology at Silliman University, in the Philippines. Mary had a very diverse background, spanning the social sciences, fine art and music. Mary decided to study marine biology after volunteering at the Thresher Shark Conservation and Research Project in the Philippines during the summer 2012. In 2014 she moved to the Philippines and began her scientific journey in earnest. Her passion in conservation and reef fish led her to be particularly interested in the effects of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) on fish biodiversity and abundance. After volunteering as research assistant for a fellow student that was studying reef fish parasites, she learnt about their importance and influence in the ecosystem and that they are majorly understudied. Combining this with her interest in MPAs and reef fish, Mary is working on the first study to examine the combined effects of fishing pressure and coral cover on the most common external parasite of coral reef fishes, gnathiid isopods and will do so in the most biodiverse marine region in the world, the coral triangle.

Publications

(2) Shodipo, MO, Duong, B, Graba-Landry, A, Grutter, AS, Sikkel, PC (2020) Effect of acute seawater temperature increase on the survival of a fish ectoparasite. Oceans. 1:215-236.

(1) Shodipo, MO, Gomez, RDC, Welicky, RL, Sikkel, PC (2019) Apparent kleptoparasitism in fish-parasitic gnathiid isopods. Parasitology Research. 118:653-655.