In 2001, Mr [BRAD Norman], 35, submitted a successful nomination to the Government to have the whale shark listed as a threatened species, and therefore protected in commonwealth waters. Internationally, he assisted in getting the whale shark’s status upgraded to “vulnerable to extinction”.

Mr Norman, working in London for a leading conservation agency, the Marine Stewardship Council, was recently awarded funding from the Rufford Foundation to teach communities in developing countries to replace unsustainable whale shark hunting with sustainable whale shark ecotourism.

BRAD Norman has an obsession with the world’s biggest fish, the whale shark, which has made him one of the pre-eminent authorities on it.

Ningaloo Reef, on the northwest coast of Western Australia, is the only place known to be regularly visited by the whale shark.

It was here that the conservationist and marine scientist from Perth first saw and became fascinated by it. He has campaigned relentlessly to have it protected ever since.

In 2001, Mr Norman, 35, submitted a successful nomination to the Government to have the whale shark listed as a threatened species, and therefore protected in commonwealth waters. Internationally, he assisted in getting the whale shark’s status upgraded to “vulnerable to extinction”.

His work has led to him being chosen as The Australian/Coastcare Coastal Champion.

The competition was sponsored by The Australian and Coastcare, a program of the federal Government’s Natural Heritage Trust, which are both supporting the recreation of Matthew Flinders’s circumnavigation of Australia 200 years ago by the brigantine Windeward Bound.

Mr Norman, working in London for a leading conservation agency, the Marine Stewardship Council, was recently awarded funding from the Rufford Foundation to teach communities in developing countries to replace unsustainable whale shark hunting with sustainable whale shark ecotourism.

“One of the big things is getting the community involved in understanding the marine environment, so the public can help through understanding and concern,” he said. “I try to involve the community in volunteer projects.”

He said he intended to travel back to Australia to take up his prize, which is a berth on the homeward-bound, 14-day leg of the Windeward Bound’s voyage, starting in Port Welshpool on July 10 and ending in Sydney on July 23.

Follow Windeward Bound’s historic voyage in a special liftout of The Weekend Australian.