Andrew Aitken, founder of Ocean Planet, is a marine and shark research scientist.

Although he was born in Namibia in 1977, he has spent most of his life in South Africa and completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies in the marine sciences at the University of Cape Town in addition to completing a veterinary degree at the University of Pretoria.

Over the last 10 years he has gained a wide wide-range of experience with sharks and the east coast marine environment. He was based at the Natal Sharks Board as an associate researcher for over two years and has acted as a scientific advisor on several occasions for documentaries produced by the BBC and National Geographic. He has an inordinate fondeness for the Sardine Run.