Alan Friedlander

Over the past 35 years Alan Friedlander has spent > 10,000 hours underwater—from coral reefs to the Arctic and to depths of thousands of meters. He started his career in the early 1980s in the Kingdom of Tonga working to develop sustainable small-scale fisheries. Following this, he obtained an MS in Oceanography from Old Dominion University working on coastal fisheries in Puerto Rico. He then worked for the Territorial Fish and Wildlife agency and the National Park Service in the US Virgin Islands where he conducted research on coral reefs throughout the Caribbean. He is currently Chief Scientist for National Geographic’s Pristine Seas Project where he leads research efforts to help understand and conserve the last wild places in the ocean. Alan’s work on marine conservation range from small-scale community-managed areas to some of the largest protected areas on the planet. His more than 200 scientific publications, 14 documentary films, and numerous popular articles are widely recognized and used for science and conservation. Alan is also currently the Director of the Fisheries Ecology Research Lab at the University of Hawaii. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii and was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Associate with the Pacific Fisheries Environmental Lab in Monterey, California. Alan is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 2006 Duke University Distinguished Conservation Scholar, and along with the Pristine Seas Team, was awarded the 2014 Environmental Hero Award by the Environmental Media Association and the 2016 Crystal Compass National Award from the Russian Geographical Society.