Affiliation: president of MedSharks; co-coordinator of LIFE European Sharks project

Eleonora de Sabata is an Italian marine science photo-reporter, conservationist and researcher. With her first-hand experience of the seas, passion for research and ability to engage citizens and Institutions, in 35 years she contributed to increasing environmental awareness among the public, improving scientific knowledge as well as inspiring new environmental regulations. Throughout her career, Eleonora has focused and specialised on marine issues. A contributor to all major Italian ocean magazines for decades, she has often featured in international media, including the Financial Times and National Geographic Magazine and collaborated with BBC, Arte, Discovery Channel. She is the author of several books on marine animals; and curated exhibitions on sharks, tunas and marine litter and. A TEDx speaker, she is a regular guest lecturer in events and conferences and often appears on TV as an expert commentator on marine environmental topics. Eleonora worked for several European conservation projects, and she successfully coordinated Clean Sea LIFE – a flagship project of the European Union’s LIFE programme, voted bestenvironmental project in the EU in 2022. She is currently working on the LIFE European Sharks project, an ambitious effort to safeguard Mediterranean sharks and rays. Eleonora’s passion for discovery led her to develop marine citizen science in Italy, harnessing the observational power of ocean communities to advance science. Over 25 years, her ongoing initiative Osservatorio Mediterraneo, the first of its kind in Italy, produced scores of scientific articles and inspired three new research projects on endangered sharks (namely: sandbar sharks and guitarfish in Turkey; basking sharks, nursehound sharks and eagle rays) that she carries out with MedSharks, the Italian NGO she co-founded in 2001. A public figure in the Italian diving community, she regularly involves diving clubs, training agencies and divers in her citizen-science research and conservation projects- In 2021 Eleonora established MedFever, a network of diving centers monitoring climate change and mass mortality events around the Tyrrhenian sea.In collaboration with research groups throughout Europe, she published scientific papers in the fields of marine ecology, geology and oceanography. Two new species of mollusks (Jujubinus eleonorae and Alvania desabatae) were described from samples collected by herself or within Osservatorio Mediterraneo, and named after her. For these activities she has received support from European programmes, including the LIFE programme and Erasmus+, Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco, Project Aware, Save Our Seas Foundation, LUSH and other private sponsors.