Save Our Seas magazine article (2017).

Our knowledge of sawfishes may be limited, but we can be fairly sure that they were once far more abundant than they are today. In a bid to establish just where they occurred, where they no longer occur and where they may be just hanging on, Ruth Leeney is conducting interviews with artisanal fishers – and in Madagascar has found ‘the king’.

Save Our Seas magazine article (2019).

In recent times we have woken up to the fact that sawfishes are now the most endangered fishes in the ocean. In past centuries, though, they were familiar to many societies that lived along coasts and major rivers in the tropics and, moreover, were incorporated into their stories and belief systems. Ruth Leeney and Matthew McDavitt look at how sawfishes featured in the physical and spiritual worlds of people around the world. ​

Save Our Seas Foundation blog post (2020).

All about mermaids' purses - the egg cases produced by skates, chimaeras and some sharks - and how they can help us learn more about these animals. ​

Save Our Seas magazine article (2022).

As COVID-19 swept around the world, humans' lives changed significantly, as did the lives of many other species. But was the pandemic good news for the oceans' inhabitants, or is the real story more complex? ​

Africa Geographic magazine article (2013).

The story of the rescue attempt of a pygmy right whale calf in Namibia. ​

Save Our Seas magazine article (2018).

Fearing that she would be the researcher writing an obituary for sawfishes, Ruth Leeney turns her attention from Africa to Papua New Guinea in her search for these quasi-mythical creatures. They’re no myth, she finds with relief, yet their standing in local culture seems to have become as shaky as their survival in real life.

The Marine Biologist magazine article (first published 2016).​

I wrote a number of articles for NGO Blue Ventures, to profile some of the many inspirational women working on fisheries management and marine conservation in Indonesia. 

The blog series is available here. ​

Save Our Seas Foundation blog post (2015).

Sawfish research in Madagascar, and its parallels with detective work. ​

Save Our Seas Foundation news article (2018)

Four years after the first sawfish conservation strategy was released, what have its impacts been so far? An overview of the many sawfish projects supported by SOSF since the strategy’s release and an assessment of progress. ​