14 Sept 2026
How a Three-Month Trip Turned Into a Career in Sharks
Dr. Clova Mabin never set out to become a shark educator. She grew up on Scotland's windswept, freezing beaches with no TV until she was 13, which meant a childhood spent outside with her nature-loving father, and an honors degree in zoology from the University of Edinburgh that ended up focused on bird behavior, not the ocean, simply because no marine supervisor was available. A three-month marine conservation placement in Madagascar gave her a first taste of the field. A chance meeting with a South African at a Scottish aquarium turned what was meant to be a three-month trip to South Africa into 21 years and counting. Today she's the Education Centre Director at the Save Our Seas Foundation's Shark Education Centre in Kalk Bay, leading a team that's grown from six people to more than a dozen.
Andrew and Dave trace the whole winding route with her: two weeks with ragged-tooth and tiger sharks on South Africa's East Coast and two and a half months working alongside Michael Scholl aboard the White Shark Trust's research vessel in Gansbaai, a detour into wildlife filmmaking that included a National Geographic shoot and three and a half years working under a longtime BBC Natural History Unit cinematographer, and a pivotal moment watching a mass whale stranding near her home in Hout Bay that made her question whether chasing dramatic film footage was really the work she wanted to do. From there it was a master's in conservation biology at the University of Cape Town studying invasive species hitching rides on yachts, a solo-adjacent transatlantic sailing crossing from Martinique to the Azores as a break between degrees despite never having spent a night at sea before, and a PhD at Stellenbosch spent leading a team that pulled 36,000 invasive European shore crabs out of a harbor whose official population estimate was 6,000, research that fed directly into South African invasive species legislation. She finished writing it up nine months after her first daughter was born.
Clova also talks candidly about applying for a different role at Save Our Seas and not getting it, only to be asked to step into the director's chair six months later, starting the job four months pregnant with her second daughter, and what it's meant to grow an education team into portfolios covering facilities, digital engagement, a nutrition program that feeds the school groups who visit, and a new research arm focused on how ocean connection shapes kids' lives. It's a conversation about what an unconventional, occasionally "unhinged" career path can look like when you say yes to almost everything that comes your way.
Takeaways:
Clova Mabin is the Education Centre Director at the Save Our Seas Foundation Shark Education Centre in Kalk Bay, South Africa, a role she's held since 2019 after previously applying for and not getting a different position there.
Her path to shark education ran through bird behavior research, invasive species work, a transatlantic sailing crossing, and several years in wildlife filmmaking, not a straight line through shark biology.
Her PhD team removed roughly 36,000 invasive European shore crabs from a harbor with an official population estimate of 6,000, research that directly informed South African invasive species legislation.
A mass whale stranding near her home in Cape Town became the turning point that pushed her out of wildlife filmmaking and back into graduate school.
The Shark Education Centre's team has grown from six people to more than a dozen, now organized into education, facilities, digital engagement, nutrition, and a newly added research arm.
Save Our Seas Foundation Shark Education Centre (Kalk Bay)
Website: saveourseas.com/sosf-shark-education-centre
Instagram: @sharkeducationcentre
Facebook: SOSFsharkeducationcentre
TikTok: @sharkeducationcentre
LinkedIn: Shark Centre
X (formerly Twitter): @sharkcentre
Save Our Seas Foundation (global)
Website: saveourseas.com
Instagram: @saveourseasfoundation
Facebook: saveourseasngo
YouTube: youtube.com/saveourseas
LinkedIn: Save Our Seas Foundation
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Dave:
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