Professor James Thorburn is protecting Scotland's seas through The SharkScape Project.
Making waves with sharks, skates and rays
As Professor of Applied Marine Ecology at Edinburgh Napier University, James Thorburn dedicates his time to protecting and restoring Scotland’s marine environment. Through focusing on the behaviour, movements and conservation needs of sharks, skates and rays, James is researching and learning to understand some of the most important yet vulnerable species in our seas.
"My area of research is sharks, skates and rays, collectively known as the Elasmobranch. Most people associate this group of animals with the tropics or warm parts of the earth, but we have over 60 species here in Scotland."
The SharkScape Project
In 2025, James became the lead researcher on SharkScape, an ambitious Scotland-wide project exploring the distribution, ecology and conservation needs of sharks and skates in Scottish water. The initiative, which is part of Napier's Innovation Hub, brings together experts from multiple institutions to identify knowledge gaps, analyse existing data and deploy innovative methods such as tagging technologies, environmental DNA analysis and underwater video surveys.
"One of the most important aspects when it comes to managing and conserving this group of animals is understanding where they go and the habitats they are using. One of the ways that we achieve this is through the use of small electronic tags that we attach to the animals.
"These tags provide data that allow us to recreate the animal's movements throughout the oceans. Already we're seeing massive connectivity between Scottish waters and the rest of the North-East Atlantic, with some of these individual animals travelling from Scotland down to places like the Mediterranean, the Azores or other parts of the North-East Atlantic, demonstrating Scotland's importance in the wider ecosystem."
James has developed a strong reputation within the marine science community through working with Napier and collaborating with government bodies and conservation organisations across the UK. James' work helps build a clearer picture of life beneath the waves, providing evidence that supports conservation planning, fisheries management and the protection of critical marine ecosystems. By combining innovative research techniques with practical conservation objectives, he is helping to address some of the most pressing challenges facing marine biodiversity today.