Ricardo Sagarminaga van Buiten is skipper and marine biologist dedicated to the conservation of the sea since 1984. In 1989 he was cofounder of Alnitak and 1999 of the Spanish Cetacean Society.

He is currently Programme Manager at Alnitak, working on the development of technological measures to mitigate the risks of noise pollution, vessel strikes and interactions with fisheries.

As skipper and principal investigator of Toftevaag, the research vessel of Alnitak, Ricardo Sagarminaga van Buiten has co-directed dozens of research projects, doctoral and master thesis, being author and coauthor on numerous scientific papers. But his main role at Alnitak has been in the integration of science in public policy through frameworks of the United Nations, the European Union and the CMS and CITES conventions. Under these frameworks, he has worked in collaboration with OceanCare since 2007, and since 2010 OceanCare has actively supported Alnitak’s work.

Selected Ashoka Fellow in 2014 for his achievements in stakeholder engagement in marine conservation, Ricardo Sagarminaga van Buiten’s main focus at present is on illegal fishing (IUU) and abandoned and discarded fishing gear and finding solutions for the conservation of affected sea turtle populations and food security through the management scheme of marine protected areas in Europe and Africa.