His decades of research into coral reef conservation, artificial reef development, and coastal habitat restoration have produced breakthrough outcomes — including coral nursery methodologies that compress reef colonisation timelines from decades to just a few years. As Marine Science Advisor to Maiso Meriam Mir Ltd, Professor Shashar brings this expertise directly to bear on the waters that surround Mer Island — the Great Barrier Reef system that the Meriam People call Maiso, the very voice that gives this organisation its name. 

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Professor Shashar's connection to the Torres Strait is direct and long-standing. He visited the Zenadh Kes region immediately following the devastating 2016 and 2017 mass coral bleaching events and has continued to research and engage with the region since. Working alongside the Coralz-Envirotech group, he was instrumental in developing the ASQA-accredited courses in Conservation and Restoration of Coastal Habitats — a significant component of which was co-designed on Torres Strait islands.

 

He has delivered workshops and courses across the Torres Strait and Pacific Ocean on phase-shift dynamics and the growing impacts of reef degradation, equipping local communities with the scientific frameworks to understand and respond to what their Traditional Ecological Knowledge has long observed. 

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For Maiso Meriam Mir, the partnership with Professor Shashar represents the meeting point of two knowledge systems — Meriam Mir ecological language and western marine science — that together are more powerful than either alone. The Meriam Mir names for reef species, tidal systems, and seasonal cycles encode centuries of observational precision about the very ecosystems Professor Shashar studies. His advisory role ensures that the Language Centre's eco-linguistics framework is grounded in rigorous marine science, while his respect for community-led conservation affirms that Meriam Elders and knowledge holders remain the ultimate authority over Sea Country.