Originally from Belize, Julie Berry is passionate about diving, research, and marine megafauna.

She is an experienced PADI Instructor who managed Copolla’s Tides Dive Shop at the Turtle Inn in Placencia for 3 ½ years and now co-owns the Coiba Dive Center in Santa Catalina, Panama since 2007.

She started working with Dr. Rachel Graham in Belize from 1999 to 2001, studying whale shark migration in Belize and fish spawning aggregations at Gladden Spit Marine Reserve. After this, Julie was Friends of Nature’s first “Community Researcher” and monitored the Whale Shark Zone in Gladden Spit Marine Reserve as well as monitoring along the entire Belize barrier reef from 2002 to 2003. She currently works with MarAlliance supporting the monitoring and research of species such as whale sharks, manta rays, and other shark species in Coiba National Park.