Jon Dodd

Biography

Jon is an experienced marine biologist who has spent his entire life on the water with a particular focus and affinity for sharks. From his first close encounter with a blue shark at the age of 14, he has been fascinated by sharks and their growing need for greater understanding and management in many parts of the world. Jon tagged his first shark in the 1980s and has been engaged in a wide variety of shark research projects and collaborations ever since. Jon leads the Atlantic Shark Institute and has direct experience investigating a wide variety of shark species, including shortfin mako, great white, common thresher, blue, porbeagle, blacktip, spinner, sandbar and more.

 Jon earned a biology degree from the University of Rhode Island with an emphasis on fisheries and has worked as a volunteer at the NMFS Apex Predator Investigation Lab in Narragansett, RI. Jon has caught and released more than 1,000 sharks and has tagged the majority of those sharks for a wide variety of research projects. He is also a member of the esteemed Explorers Club, NYC. He served on the board of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy for several years, holds an Advanced Open Water dive certification, and has been diving for over 40 years.  Jon also co-founded an education finance company with his brother Steven and managed it for more than 25 years. The company grew to several hundred employees, handled billions of dollars annually on behalf of client schools, and was ultimately sold to one of the nation’s top 10 largest banks.