Andrea Marshall is marine biologist and National Geographic Emerging Explorer. She founded the Marine Megafauna Foundation and leads research on globally threatened manta rays, as well as having discovered two new species.

We hear about her experiences of life in the field in Mozambique. Her scientific programme on ­manta rays in southern Mozambique has been ­underway for the past 15 years. Only now, a decade and a half since she started in Mozambique, she can really start to contribute to the conservation agenda for manta rays there.

This is the largest and most important manta population documented in Africa. Saving this population matters. So while all of this may seem like an impossible task, she believes it’s one worth fighting for — if she is ­successful, she will not only have documented the decimation of a major population of these rays, but she can also monitor their rebirth.