Gabriela Chavez grew up learning about Monterey Bay and it’s ecosystems from her father, Francisco Chavez, one of the founding oceanographers of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)
Following in his foot steps, she went on to work in marine science.
She has worked the Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research and MBARI as a research assistant and at the Sea Education Association as an instructor aboard sailing research vessels
She has worked aboard several research vessels including the Western Flyer, the Rachel Carson, the Robert C. Seamans, and the Corwith Cramer–Analyzing water samples from the Monterey Bay to the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the South Pacific.