Zafer Kızılkaya
Zafer Ali Kızılkaya (born 1969) is a Turkish marine advocate and engineer who is credited for expanding marine protected areas (MPAs) along Turkey's Mediterranean coast. Growing up, he watched Jacques Cousteau documentaries which inspired his admiration for the sea. He has a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Middle East Technical University.
Zafer Kızılkaya
- Nationality
- Turkey
- Occupation
- engineer · conservationist · photographer · researcher · academic · university teacher
- Honours
- Whitley Awards
- Languages
- Turkish
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Zafer Ali Kızılkaya (born 1969) is a Turkish marine advocate and engineer who is credited for expanding marine protected areas (MPAs) along Turkey's Mediterranean coast. Growing up, he watched Jacques Cousteau documentaries which inspired his admiration for the sea. He has a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Middle East Technical University.
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wikidata · Q29995093 · wikipedia · Zafer Kızılkaya
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Identity
After graduating from college, Kızılkaya took interest in commercial deep sea diving and underwater photography. He took his interests to the Pacific Ocean and spent many years exploring its waters while being a marine photographer and researcher in Indonesia. He went on to receive a master's degree in Coastal and Harbor engineering from Middle East Technical University. Kızılkaya's efforts to advocate and protect Turkey's coast stemmed from Turkey's marine ecosystem being under serious threat and facing a lot of damage due to several different factors like Climate change, illegal fishing, as well as overfishing and an increase in tourism. The Mediterranean sea is known to be the most over fished sea in the world. Kızılkaya had hopes to transform Turkey's ravaged marine regions into more effective and developing conservation areas. Kızılkaya was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2023, given annually to six environmentalists who work in different continents. Kızılkaya is the first Turkish recipient of the prize. Currently, he is the president and co-founder of an NGO named "Akdeniz Koruma Dernegi" ("Mediterranean Conservation Society" in Turkish). This NGO focuses on protecting and restoring the marine ecosystems on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.
Zafer Kızılkaya is recorded with the occupation university teacher. Recorded as engineer, conservationist, photographer, researcher and academic.
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Zafer Kizilkaya – Goldman Environmental Prize. 2023-03-03.
- 2.IWSA Zafer Kızılkaya. Iwsa. July 2025.
- 3.Zafer Kızılkaya kimdir?- GazeteİlkSayfa. Gazete İlk Sayfa. 2023-04-25.
- 4.The most over-fished sea in the world. impact.economist.com.
- 5.Lewis, Nell. Environmental hero's mission to save the most over-fished sea in the world. CNN. 2023-04-24.
- 6.Weaver, Lex. Environment. The World. April 24, 2023.
- 7.Restoring marine ecosystems in south western Turkey: an interview with Zafer Kizilkaya – The Endangered Landscapes Programme. www.endangeredlandscapes.org.
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