About Me

Hello, I am Abhishek Jamalabad, an ocean-addict by chance and (hence!) a marine biologist by choice.

The sea to me is a whole different world that holds undiscovered secrets and untold stories. It has now become an oft-quoted fact that we know the moon better than we know our own oceans. Indeed, in those great depths and over the vast endless blue, there is more to see than we will ever be able to. There is a great, great deal of marine life waiting to be found here in India itself, where a huge proportion of our seas lies virtually unexplored.

As a early-career researcher, my broad interest lies in finding out how people perceive and interact with the sea and its wildlife, and what implications those interactions have upon the animals as well as the people. More specifically, the animals I study are marine mammals, with my focus currently on coastal species such as the Indian humpback dolphin and how they interact with fisheries. But like any other marine biologist, I perpetually yearn to learn as much as I can about the sea and all marine creatures in every respect, and this frequently leads me to stroll beaches day and night, clamber about rocky shores, dunk my face into tide-pools and hitch unplanned rides on fishing boats.

I’ve had some fantastic sights and experiences at sea over the few years I’ve spent exploring it – things that would be worth a lot more if I could tell and show them to as many people as I can reach out to.

This blog is where I hope to put up some of those accounts as short reads, quick snippets and photographs. Your comments, suggestions, ideas and questions are eagerly awaited.

Thanks for your interest, and thanks for stopping by to look!

 

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All the content you see on this site is original unless otherwise stated. I am open to letting anyone use my photographs – just drop me a message if you’re interested.

To get in touch, you could either send me a message here on WordPress, or reach me at abhishek.jamalabad@gmail.com. We could also keep in touch via Facebook and Instagram; the links to those profiles are on the right hand side of the homepage. You can choose to follow this blog via email (from the homepage) to receive email notifications about new posts.

Want to know more about the marine mammals of India? Want to report a sighting you’ve had yourself? Head to this incredible website  –  http://www.marinemammals.in/ 
And to check out the ongoing efforts to study the humpback whales of the Arabian Sea, take a peek here –   https://arabianseawhalenetwork.org/
Interested in reading  a diverse array of articles on coastal science, conservation, ecology and societies? Hakai Magazine is one resource I VERY highly recommend –  https://www.hakaimagazine.com/

My current work is supported by The Rufford Foundation, the Ravi Sankaran Fellowship Program via the Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation, and Terra Marine Research Institute  – India (in addition to constant support from the independent marine mammal research community in India).