Arzucan “Zuzu” Askin

I work in places where the map is still incomplete – deep-sea canyons, shark nurseries, and culturally rich island communities – and my driving force is to reveal life, knowledge, and stories that are too often overlooked. Growing up between the Mediterranean and the Middle East taught me to see the ocean not just as a scientific frontier but as a cultural one. That lens shaped my mission: to bridge disciplines, communities, and technologies to protect the ancient species and ecosystems that are disappearing fastest.

Much of my work centers on sharks – some of the most ancient creatures on Earth. They have survived five mass extinctions, shaped marine ecosystems for over 400 million years, and carry evolutionary wisdom that predates forests and dinosaurs. Yet today, these time-defying species are vanishing faster than almost any other group of animals. Protecting them feels like safeguarding living prehistory, a lineage that tells the story of resilience, adaptation, and the ocean’s deep memory.

Through the Miyaru – Shark Programme, the first national shark research NGO in the Maldives, we document never-before-seen deep-sea habitats, conducted a groundbreaking collaboration for the world’s first free-swimming tiger shark ultrasounds and identification of the only gestation ground for the species in the Indian Ocean, and train young Maldivian scientists who are now leading conservation efforts in their own communities.

My journey into shark conservation began with a single photograph in an old newspaper. I was a teenager when I saw an image of a great white shark caught in the waters near Istanbul in the 1950s. I was in disbelief, I had grown up thinking sharks lived only in far-off, wilder places, not the coastline I knew so well, and certainly not in my grandparent’s lifetime. Today, the Mediterranean Sea is a desert and most people don’t even remember that it was once home to ancient ocean giants. That loss shaped me and I knew I didn’t want other places to follow the same fate.

After working on projects around the world – including a Fellowship with the World Bank’s West Africa Coastal Area Program – my path eventually led me to the Maldives. Behind the resort imagery, I discovered a true ocean nation: 1,200 volcanic islands, hundreds of uninhabited islands, towering seamounts, and a territory that is 99% water. On my first dives, I found myself surrounded by 31 tiger sharks at once and later witnessed huge aggregations of critically endangered rhino rays. In those moments, I realised I had arrived somewhere extraordinary – a place that felt like the Galápagos of the Indian Ocean. A place that had been completely overlooked by shark scientists.

Sharks have roamed Earth’s oceans for over 400 million years – long before trees, long before dinosaurs – yet in just a few decades we’ve wiped out 71% of global oceanic shark populations. The Maldives remains one of their last strongholds, home to rare aggregations of critically endangered species like rhino rays and the world’s largest aggregation of tiger sharks. To protect and study them, I joined forces with local conservationists to co-found the Maldives’ first national shark research NGO.

In the field I realised something profound: data can measure decline, but only stories can inspire change. Anthroposea grew from that truth – a creative space where ocean stories are told through culture, tradition, and human experience, revealing sharks as part of our shared history.