Derya is a marine scientist specialized in marine protected areas, marine ecology and fisheries management.
She has been working and volunteering on both scientific and civil society platforms to reach out to more
people. Derya has a BSc in Biology and a MSc in Hydrobiology from Ege University. Through her 10 years
experience on wildlife conservation she has led several scientific and social responsibility projects. She is
currently a PhD candidate at Fish Capture and Seafood Processing Technology Department of Ege University.
As part of her PhD research, she has been collaborating with our laboratory on barcoding studies on groupers
pecies of Gökova Marine Protected Area.
She was the coordinator of the project “Establishing Fisheries Restricted Marine Protected Areas in Gökova
Bay”, Turkey during her master’s study, while volunteering on many other nature conservation and social
responsibility projects within the Underwater Research Society. She conducted the ‘Tom&Misha Back to the
Blue” project as field coordinator to rehabilitate and release two bottlenose dolphins left captive in
Hisarönü/Fethiye on behalf of the Born Free Foundation & Underwater Research Society. She worked for
United Nations Development Programme (Turkey) as Project Field Expert for “Strengthening the System of
Marine and Coastal Protected Areas of Turkey Project”. She is also one of the Founder Members of the
Mediterranean Conservation Society.
