Jeremy Shelton
Jeremy Shelton is a freshwater conservation biologist, photographer and National Geographic Explorer based in Cape Town, South Africa. He grew up splashing around in coastal pools and following crabs and tadpoles in a small stream behind his family home in Cape Town, South Africa. Shelton’s father, a marine biologist, encouraged him to study conservation biology at the University of Cape Town. He completed a doctorate in freshwater biology there and soon after joined the staff of the Freshwater Research Centre (FRC), a Cape Town-based non-profit organization as a freshwater biologist and conservationist. After more than a decade of doing research and publishing scientific papers, Shelton started shooting with a camera and soon began to appreciate the need for visual storytelling to support freshwater research and conservation. In addition to freshwater research and bioinformatics, Shelton now leads the FRC’s Fynbos Fish Revival initiative – a collaborative effort to conserve the Cape’s most threatened fishes and their freshwater habitats.