About us
We’re an ocean-loving couple from Australia (Mads) and New Zealand (Simon). Mads is a conservation designer, and Simon is a shark biologist and wildlife photographer. We both work in conservation, and most of our local and international travels revolve around wildlife photography or scuba diving - we’ve racked up a combined 2500+ dives over the past 20 years or so!
We’ve created this site as a resource for planning your own wildlife-watching adventures, whether they be on land or underwater, along with some tips on photography and useful gear.
Simon Pierce, PhD
Simon is a marine biologist and wildlife photographer from New Zealand. He grew up in rural Taranaki before moving to Wellington to study Ecology, then over to Brisbane to learn about coastal sharks and rays for his postgraduate research.
While he was in Australia, he became great friends with his labmate Dr. Andrea Marshall (who was studying manta rays for her own PhD) convinced me to visit her in Mozambique to check out the whale sharks. That escalated quickly, and we eventually co-founded a marine research and conservation non-profit, the Marine Megafauna Foundation. These days, I’m in charge of a global whale shark research and conservation program at MMF.
Along the way I’ve become rather obsessed with wildlife and underwater photography. My photographs and videos are used quite regularly by international media, like the BBC, National Geographic, Nature, Washington Post, Discovery, New Scientist, and The Guardian. A photo of mine was chosen by Sir David Attenborough as one of his favorite’s from BBC’s Blue Planet II promotions, so I was rapt about that!
Check my full bio page here
Madeleine Pierce
I’m from Brisbane, Australia where I spend most of my days as Communications Director for the Marine Megafauna Foundation. I grew up at the beach and around the water and learnt to dive in 2005 at Stradbroke Island off Brisbane (I first met Simon on my weekend dive trips!). Since then, I’ve visited some world-famous marine areas, including Raja Ampat and Lembeh in Indonesia, as well as great sites like Byron Bay and North Stradbroke Island a bit closer to home in Australia.