Rex Ian De Silva MIBiol
Rex Ian De Silva is a Sri Lankan Citizen Scientist active in Biological Field Research and Observational Astronomy. He is a Pioneer Sri Lankan Diver, Underwater and Astro Photographer, Martial Arts Sensei and Writer. He has researched, and is a recognized authority on, sharks, marine life, seabirds and shorebirds (waders). In 1974 he held the unofficial Sri Lanka (Reefcombers of Ceylon) depth record with a SCUBA dive to 240 feet in the Trincomalee Submarine canyon. As an ornithologist, he conducted a landmark 13-year study of seabird migration off the coast of Sri Lanka which was published in the prestigious ornithological journal IBIS. He has a special interest in the Sun, meteorites and minor bodies of the Solar System and from the 1970s to mid-1980s was a volunteer observer for the joint project by the Royal Greenwich Observatory (RGO), United States Naval Observatory (USNO) and the International Lunar Occultations Centre (ILOC) to observe and record Lunar Occultations (Station Ref: SXT 94). Rex De Silva has documented 22 shark species which were previously not recorded from Sri Lanka, and a further three together with colleagues. He has also documenter the first Chimera (Ghost Shark) from Sri Lanka. He is author of the definitive work The Sharks of Sri Lanka and is currently writing his memoirs From Ocean Depths to the Stars as well as An Illustrated History of Diving in Sri Lanka. He is additionally author (or co-author) of approximately 120 scientific research papers, book chapters and other publications. He is a Member of the Institute of Biology, Sri Lanka (MIBiol). In 2013 he was declared an International Legend of Diving; the first and only individual from the Indian Ocean region to be so honoured. He is a Field Investigator for the Global Shark Attack File (GSAF) and is listed in Who’s Who of Sri Lanka (vol II) and Who's Who in the World.
He holds an advanced Black-belt rank (Kudan) in Japanese Karate and continues to train students in the art.
Rex’s Images.
View selected pages from my book THE SHARKS OF SRI LANKA.
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