Hometown: Boston, Massachusetts
Years Diving: 18
Favorite Dive Destination: Bahamas
Why I’m a DAN® Member: To be part of an educated and informed community of resources and expertise like DAN is huge.
As a small boy, was obsessed with big animals and the unknowable vastness of the ocean. His family traveled extensively, including throughout the Caribbean. Despite his curiosity about marine creatures and being comfortable wearing a mask and snorkel, scuba diving intimidated him.
“Looking back, it was my father who was always encouraging me to get into diving because he knew how much I loved the oceans,” Gallagher said. “He created space and opportunities for me to explore my interests.”
Gallagher took a resort course in Aruba and then again in Grand Cayman when he was 12. He earned his full open-water certification in 2002 at age 16. “I realized that I needed to experience the ocean from a different perspective, and that was with scuba,” he said.
As an undergraduate at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore, he focused on getting into medical school. “I’ve always been analytical and loved the process of diagnosing issues and solving problems,” he said. “Even more, I love talking to people, so I think I would have really loved being an M.D.” As he mulled over his future career choice, however, nearly at “the last possible minute” he changed his mind. “I realized I wanted to chase my real passion: marine biology. Today marine biologists are seen as the new astronauts.”
After starting graduate school in the marine science program at Boston’s Northeastern University, Gallagher began learning about the conservation challenges facing imperiled sharks. “The timing was interesting because a major shift was happening in the field of marine biology more broadly. All of a sudden we had a decade’s worth of profound reports coming out showing us how damaged the oceans were,” he recalled. “Some pretty eye-opening research was coming out on shark finning and shark declines. It was a major wake-up call.”
His master’s degree work focused on the stress physiology of sharks in fisheries. In 2010 he entered the doctoral program at the University of Miami, where he worked on shark ecology with Neil Hammerschlag. “We became great friends and shared many common interests in photography, storytelling and even music,” he said. “We accomplished a lot in five years.”
A term paper Gallagher wrote in an environmental economics class at Miami sparked his interest in demonstrating that sharks can play a larger role in local economies when they are protected. “I ended up going down a rabbit hole on the topic while I was researching,” he said. After creating a database that evaluated shark-diving operations around the world, he expanded the work into a peer-reviewed scientific article on the scope and socioeconomics of shark-diving tourism worldwide, which Current Issues in Tourism published in 2011.
While the general public usually isn’t aware of many research papers, Gallagher benefited from the exponential growth of social media and increased concern about sharks. “The notion of shark conservation became popular and better understood by the general public,” he said. “We had a heavily engaged audience for sharing our work online, thanks to social media.
“It was very timely, since the movement to create shark sanctuaries had great momentum,” he continued. “We sent the paper to many of the leading NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] that were working on sharks, and they spread it like wildfire. The response was unbelievable. I was getting emails and phone calls from divers and conservationists around the world talking about how that paper was making a difference. To see the impact of a scholarly work like that, at such an early point in my career, was extremely motivating and demonstrated to me the tangible impact science can have on something much bigger than yourself.”
Since then, Gallagher has been deeply involved in working at the national and international levels to link shark research to policy and advocacy efforts. He does most of his work through Beneath the Waves, the conservation NGO he founded. “We’re engaged in projects ranging from studying the diving of tiger sharks to surveying deep-sea ecosystems and working with local governments to assist with marine protected areas,” he said. “It has been a wild ride — one that has taken lots of hard work and of course some luck.”
Some shark science is well-known to divers — “Sharks keep coral reefs clean, which contributes to a good tourism product for island nations,” Gallagher noted — but other aspects are still not well understood, even by researchers. “Sharks are a unifying species that provide a lot to humanity,” Gallagher said. “They do a lot for us, and we should always remind people of this.”
Beneath the Waves is embarking on a multiyear research campaign in the Caribbean, where Gallagher and his team are working with numerous governments to bolster shark conservation efforts through marine protected areas. “It is very exciting,” he said, “and it also involves a fairly large focus on deep-sea science and use of noninvasive monitoring techniques such as deep-sea drop cameras and environmental DNA. We’re working in many countries where diving is a critical piece of the puzzle.”
Gallagher is grateful for the many influences and inspirations he’s had in his life, including his dad. “I think it’s critical to have someone always pushing you to do things, especially at a young age,” he said. He is also inspired by innovators, builders and entrepreneurs such as Walt Disney and Elon Musk, who take massive risks in pursuit of their vision.
One visionary he admires is Swedish music producer Eric Prydz. “Many people consider him the Beethoven of electronic music,” he said. “His music is really inspiring, but even more impressive are his live performances. He is constantly pushing the boundaries of live music by integrating the latest immersive technologies and visual effects.” If massive productions involving 3D projections, holograms, multistory screens and crowds in the thousands seem a far cry from the vast, immersive silence of the ocean, Gallagher said the similarity stems from Prydz’s ability to curate emotion in an audience: “We’re both storytellers trying to mix our craft with media to make an impact with an audience.”
These varied influences have crystallized Gallagher’s path in building a business focused on ocean science. But most important, he said, are “the amazing people I’ve met through my work. Sharks really do unite us all.”
Explore More
Watch Austin Gallagher’s TEDx Youth Talk, “Face Your Fears: Amazing Things Await.” You can read his research about shark ecotourism at https://blog1.miami.edu/sharklab/wp-content/uploads/sites/28/2018/08/Gallagher-and-Hammerschlag_2011_SharkEcotourism.pdf.
© Alert Diver — Q3/Q4 2020