Janis Argeswara
Project Leader, Indonesia
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janis.argeswara[@]marinemegafauna.org
Research Interests
Janis grew up obsessing with large animals, both marine and terrestrial. One of the animals that caught her heart was the whale shark. Even though she hasn’t had the chance to see a whale shark for herself, she did get the chance to work with manta rays for her undergraduate thesis. She has been working on MMF projects since 2019, focusing on manta rays and sea turtle demographics and dynamics, anthropological and environmental threats, and citizen science. She has also been leading the manta ray reproductive ecology project for the past two years. She is currently working on her Master’s thesis, on reef manta ray abundance in a key reproductive habitat.
Education
2024 Master of Science, Biological Sciences
Florida International University, FL, USA
Thesis title: Estimating the Abundance of Threatened Reef Manta Rays Using Capture-Mark-Recapture Methods
2019 Bachelor of Marine Science, Marine Science
Udayana University, Bali, Indonesia
Thesis title: Microplastics Characteristics in the Manta Ray Feeding Ground, Big Manta Bay, Nusa Penida
Biography
Janis was born and raised in Indonesia’s capital city, Jakarta. With limited access to the ocean, her family instead went to the public pool every other weekend and only visited the beach during holidays. Even with the rare chances she had to taste saltwater, her interest in the ocean began. She visited the local ocean aquarium to fulfill her curiosity, was introduced to sea turtles during her first trip to Bali, and eventually took her SCUBA diving course in high school. Obsessed with being underwater, she figured majoring in marine science would be one way for her to dive a lot. Thus, her journey in marine science began.
After finishing her Bachelor’s degree, she joined the MMF team as a research assistant after a few visits to the program during her university courses. After more than a year of dedicating her time to the ocean, she finished her PADI rescue course, traveled to Sangalaki and Komodo, passed her PADI freediver course, and received several grants for her new project on manta ray reproductive ecology. She’s looking forward to continuing her marine science and conservation journey, hopefully by doing her Masters’ degree soon.
Janis enjoys both being in the field and in the office (or lab!). When she’s in neither location, you can usually find her either watching a movie, munching on something savory, or talking to Kikoman, her dog.
Current MMF projects
Janis is based in Bali, Indonesia, where she focuses on manta rays, sea turtles, and microplastics. Her work involves conducting field surveys, lab work, as well as time in the office managing, processing and analyzing data, and writing scientific papers.
Projects include:
Indonesia Manta Ray Program
Manta Ray Reproductive Ecology
Indonesia Sea Turtles Program
Media
Featured papers
What's in the soup? Visual characterization and polymer analysis of microplastics from an Indonesian manta ray feeding ground. 2021. Argeswara J, Hendrawan IG, Dharma IGBS, Germanov ES. Marine Pollution Bulletin.
Microplastics on the menu: plastics pollute Indonesian manta ray and whale shark feeding grounds. 2019. Germanov ES, Marshall AD, Hendrawan IG, Ryan Admiraal, Rohner CA, Argeswara J, Raka Wulandari, et al. Frontiers in Marine Science 6.
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