Gabriela Ochoa

I am redefining what it means to explore and push boundaries in my own country, Honduras. Shifting the narrative that we can be explorers and storytellers. Additionally, empowering indigenous and local voices to lead extraordinary discoveries and perceptions changes that can shape the new generation of ocean stewards in Honduras. Pushing the boundaries also beyond geography and into power dynamics, gender and identity.

In the last three years, I have grown an all Honduran organization in one of the most difficult countries to be an environmental activist. We have grown from a one woman team to a team of five and have explored some of the most remote locations in our country. We have pushed the boundaries becoming the first Honduran conservation organization working with sharks and first in the Miskito territory. At a policy level, we have changed history becoming the first organization to advise the Honduran Government at a CITES COP meeting, a historic moment for sharks and rays worldwide.

Our research has been transformed in peer review publications, grey-literature, reports and outreach material which has reached hundreds of people. Beyond just sharing knowledge, our work has been instrumental in filling critical knowledge gaps in Honduras.

In 2016, our now-Project Coordinator and Miskito Biologist Wildres Wood convinced her brother-in-law (a shark fisher) to take us to the Miskito Cays, 90km off the Honduran coast. We traveled overnight, 18 hours on a lobster boat, to a tiny cay called Katsikumi to understand the scale of illegal shark fishing. As we arrived, the fishers proceeded quickly to set their gillnets and longlines, while the team of biologists set camp. The next morning, I remember seeing the first boat getting close to shore. I waded into the water to meet it and see the catch, the boat was filled to the rim with dead sharks. One of them was a 3.8m pregnant great hammerhead, whose jaw now sits in the ilili office and is used for education purposes. 

Over the next few days, we would measure over 400 dead sharks. My colleagues would often tell me to hold my tears back. The truth is the fishers were not the bad guys, they were part of this endless cycle of poverty, lack of opportunities and lack of inclusion. The sharks were bystanders in this issue, it was clear to me there was a huge problem and that the shark sanctuary legislation was just a nice accolade but not practical in reality. For years, I could not get this out of my mind but I was too scared to start my journey. In 2022, I finally registered ilili, and embarked on this epic journey.