Daniel Fildes

Scientific intern
Daniel Fildes

About Dan

My name is Daniel Fildes and I’m from a small town in Ireland called Dunshaughlin, about 20 minutes from Dublin. My love for the ocean came from family holidays to the west of Ireland where I spent two weeks almost every year, snorkelling, fishing, surfing, kayaking, and exploring rock pools.
It was on holidays in Croatia when I was 16 that I received my open-water PADI scuba diving license with my two brothers. Two years later in Croatia again, with a different dive club, I got talking to one of the dive masters who told me about his time in college studying marine biology. A few weeks later when I returned to Ireland I signed up for the same course and was accepted.
I am going into my fourth and final year of Applied Freshwater and Marine biology in Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology in Ireland. So far in my course I have studied Ecological techniques, Aquatic animal behaviour, Identification of Aquatic animals, and Ecology of aquatic environments, among other modules and subjects.
Aside from my love of the sea and my studies as a marine biology student. I am passionate about all wildlife and I do a lot of wildlife and nature photography. I am currently the official photographer for Dunsany Nature Reserve, Irelands first and largest scale rewilding project in County Meath here in Ireland. I am hoping to break into underwater photography while on placement in South Africa, with the hope of some shots of great white sharks, smaller sharks, rays, and southern right whales.
Along with the knowledge my course has given me, I have also obtained my basic boat handling course, which I hope to better my skillset in while down in South Africa, as well as improving my data collection skills and overall repertoire as a marine biologist. My dream role as a marine biologist would be to work with National Geographic in underwater photography of marine mammals and sharks. I am hoping that Marine Dynamics can improve my skillset to better my chances of becoming a Nat Geo marine biologist. I look forward to meeting the team and can’t wait to get down there!