Jump to content

Petra Deimer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Petra Deimer
Born (1948-03-09) 9 March 1948 (age 76)
NationalityGerman
Occupation(s)Marine biologist, journalist, activist, conservationist

Petra Deimer (born 9 March 1948, in Göttingen) is a German marine biologist, and nature conservationist who has been actively involved in the study and protection of marine mammals, particularly cetaceans, since the mid-1970s.

Career

[edit]

Deimer gained her PhD in marine biology, with a particular focus on sperm whales, at the University of Hamburg.[1] In the late 1970s many species of whale, including sperm whales, were in danger of extinction.[2] As a result of Deimer's actions, the archipelago of Madeira was declared a protection zone for marine mammals, and commercial whaling around Madeira ceased in 1981.[3]

She contributed significantly to the decision of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to ban commercial whaling in July 1982.[4] In 1983 Deimer ensured that the trade in Minke whales was also banned.[5]

Deimer is the founder and president of the Society for the Conservation of Marine Mammals (Gesellschaft zum Schutz der Meeressäugetiere; GSM).[6] She is a member of the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) Scientific Committee, a member of the German government's Species Conservation Advisory Committee, and an advisor to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).[3]

[7] In 2001, Deimer was awarded the Golden Ark for nature conservation by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.[3]

Deimer has written six books, and numerous articles on whales, dolphins, and seals, as well as on environmental conservation more generally. She has also written a book on parrots.[citation needed]

Select Bibliography

[edit]
  • Whales and Dolphins (1998) (English translation of: Wale und Delphine)
  • Parrots: A complete pet owner’s manual (1984) (trans. Rita Kimber) (English translation of: Papageien)
  • Das Buch der Wale (Hamburg, 1983) (The Book of Whales)
  • Das Buch der Robben (Hamburg, 1987) (The Book of Seals)

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Petra Deimer and her whales (in German)
  2. ^ Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, Mar. 6 1973, 27 U.S.T. 1087, 993 U.N.T.S. 243
  3. ^ a b c Golden Ark for the Marine Biologist, Petra Deimer, gsm-ev.de. Accessed 1 June 2024.
  4. ^ International Whaling Commission Schedule, para. 10(e).
  5. ^ C. Epstein, The Power of Words in International Relations: Birth of an Anti-Whaling Discourse (Cambridge, Mass, 2008), p. 159.
  6. ^ Hanse, GSM-ev.de. Accessed 1 June 2024.
  7. ^ Golden Ark for the Marine Biologist, Petra Deimer
[edit]