Sofia Graça Aranha is a marine biologist and conservation scientist with over 20 years of experience in sharks and rays ecology, fisheries management, and evidence-based marine conservation. Her work focuses on understanding the impacts of fisheries on vulnerable chondrichthyans and developing practical solutions that bridge science, policy, and industry to improve their conservation. She is a Researcher at CCMAR, University of Algarve, where she leads and collaborates on research addressing fisheries bycatch, deep-sea ecosystems, and innovative monitoring technologies. Throughout her career, she has secured competitive research funding (e.g., EEA Grants, FCT, SOSF), coordinated multidisciplinary projects and consortia, and worked closely with fishers, governmental agencies, NGOs, and international partners to translate scientific knowledge into effective conservation actions. She is a member of the IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group, serves as an Assistant Editor of the Journal of Fish Biology and as a Trustee of the Deep-Sea Biology Society. She teaches classes and courses, mentor students, and is also actively involved in public engagement, communicating marine science through television shows, exhibitions, educational initiatives, and policy outreach. Her work has contributed to tackling issues such as shark finning, illegal deep-sea bottom trawling, and the conservation of vulnerable deep-water chondrichthyans.
Sofia is a PI of the project "BASK — Exploring Basking Shark Movement and Fisheries Co-occurrence on the South Coast of Portugal", funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) where she wants to understands basking shark movements in Portuguese waters and beyond.