RESEARCH & CONSERVATION

While our Dive Center helps you discover what’s below the blue line, our Research Center works to restore the biodiversity of the Caribbean Sea at a time where urgent action is needed.

TAKATA Research Center is an NGO specializing in marine ecology, sustainable coastal management and public awareness. Our organization ensures its work is based on an effective collaboration with the local community and government. Our staff is qualified in ecology, environmental management, and wildlife conservation.

At TAKATA Research Center, our work is organized around three main axes:

• Ecosystem conservation
• Environmental management
• Environmental education

Our Research & Conservation activities are divided into a variety of programs and projects, which are open to interns from universities around the world. We also welcome volunteers throughout the year.

As an active member of the scientific community, our Research Center offers open access to collected data as well as research results. We have a collection of scientific publications created by our researchers and interns. 

Our interactive web map is a scientific tool that displays the health conditions of a variety of study sites in order to share our research with the local community and the world. 

We believe in a fairer world, where human activities do not negatively impact nature. This world and generation is ready for a change that involves a new healthy way of interacting with our planet. Our collective efforts and actions will help to restore and help protect our ecosystems. Each of us should aspire to contribute to creating a healthy and sustainable future, where the importance and fragility of our environment is understood, respected and valued.

The mission: Protecting marine biodiversity through education, research and conservation.

The vision: Creating a sustainable community to ensure the future of our oceans.

The areas of intervention for TAKATA Research Center are organized around the following goals: endangered wildlife and habitat conservation; restoration of key ecosystems; enhancement of social & environmental awareness while creating ambassadors for the underwater world; and implementation of a sustainable coastal development.

  Cassiopea

Co-Founder, Research Center Director,

PADI Ambassadiver & Divemaster

Our Research Center Director, Cassiopea, graduated with a BA in Public Affairs and International Relations and earned a double MA in Biology and Environmental Management from Sherbrooke University, Quebec before going on to establish TAKATA Research Center in 2016. Her vision for the Research Center is to create a model of sustainable coastal development where human activities do not negatively impact nature and the oceans. Cassiopea works closely with the local community in Mahahual and leads a diverse program of research relating to ocean and coastal ecosystems conservation, with visiting interns and collaborators from all over the world.

Nadia

Research Supervisor, Divemaster, PhD candidate

During her undergraduate and graduate studies, she has conducted marine research on fish species of commercial and ecological importance, mainly sharks. The results have been presented in national and international forums, in addition to having given numerous talks, conferences, classes and workshops to specialized and non-specialized audiences, including children, youth and adults. One of her main academic objectives has been to know the population and reproductive dynamics of the bull shark in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, through genetic techniques. Her passion for the sea has also led her to be a professional diver, and she enjoys every recreational dive, but also all those that allow her to learn more about the marine environment and support its preservation. At the Takata Research Center, She participates in the supervision, planning and execution of scientific projects for the monitoring and ecological restoration in Mahahual, in conjunction with other academic and environmental institutions. She also collaborates in the coordination of environmental education activities, supervision and support for students and volunteers, and teaches coastal ecology and reef monitoring courses.

Geovana

Research Supervisor, PADI Divemaster, Dr of Ecology

Geovana has a PhD in marine ecology from CICESE, Ensenada, México. She has an M.Sc. from CINVESTAV, Mérida, México and, a B.Sc. from Instituto Tecnológico, Conkal, México. She completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Rhode Island, USA. Her expertise area is population genetics, ecology, and biology in coral reef ecosystems. Her research focuses on the variations in genetic structure and diversity of populations of marine organisms particularly in the vulnerability of populations and their genetic connectivity. Recently, she has begun collaborations in coral restoration projects integrating genetic diversity studies in restored populations and environmental DNA studies to understand marine biodiversity. Previously, she collaborated on coral reef ecology projects in the Pacific and the Mexican Caribbean. To better understand the marine ecosystem and make a difference by preserving it, she became a scientist diver and marine biologist inspired by her father, who motivated her to learn about the wonderful coral reefs.  At the Takata Research Center, she participates in the supervision, planning and execution of scientific projects for the monitoring and ecological restoration in Mahahual, in conjunction with other academic and environmental institutions. She also collaborates in the coordination of environmental education activities, supervision and support for students and volunteers, and teaches coastal ecology and reef monitoring courses.

 Andres 

Scientific Collaborator, PADI Instructor, PhD candidate

Andres is currently working towards a PhD in environmental sciences at the Institut de Sciences de l’Environnement at Université du Québec à Montréal. He holds a Bachelor´s degree in Anthropology from Université de Montréal, as well as a graduate degree in Environmental Education and a Master´s in Environmental Science from Université du Québec à Montréal. Born in Peru, he has conducted research regarding the (cosmo)politics of indigenous territoriality in the Peruvian Amazon and currently works in environmental conservation in the Magdelan Islands archipelago (Quebec). He also coordinates a political ecology research project being conducted at Université du Québec à Montréal. A PADI Instructor, Andres created our Coastal Ecology Program for diving professionals and directs our Habitat Cartography  Project.

Clara 

Scientific Collaborator, PhD candidate

Clara is a PhD student in anthropology at the CESSMA laboratory at the University of Paris in France. After completing her bachelor’s degree in anthropology at the University of Montreal, she joined a master’s degree in tourism anthropology at the University of Paris Descartes and completed two internships with Takata for the social perception of the environment program. She is now pursuing her research, among other things, on the relationship between environmental protection and citizen involvement. For her thesis, she is particularly interested in the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has changed the way of life of residents in Mahahual. She is also in charge of the environmental social perception program at Takata.

Our team of researchers and scientists at TAKATA Research Center collaborate with a number of universities in Mexico and abroad and we are also involved with initiatives on a local and regional level.

Interns pursuing undergraduate, postgraduate and masters studies join us from:

• Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (Mexico)
• Université de Sherbrooke (Canada)
• Université de Québec à Montréal (Canada)
• McGill (Canada)
• Cégep de Saint-Laurent (Canada)
• Université Paris Descartes (France)
• Université de Montpellier (France)
• École supérieure d´agronomie de Toulouse (France)
• Wageningen University (The Netherlands)
• Holland University of Applied Sciences (The Netherlands)
• Universidad Católica de Chile (Chile)

We collaborate with researchers from:

• CINVESTAV
• ECOSUR
• Universidad de Quintana Roo
• Healthy Reef Initiative (HRI)

We collaborate with a number of local organisations:

• AAK Mahahual
• Menos Plástico es fantástico en Mahahual
• Mahahual Limpio