Gergely is a marine ecologist
with a particular interest in cetacean
ecology. After finishing an M.Sc. in Applied
Zoology in 2000, Gergely spent two years at
the Hungarian Ministry of Environment, where
he coordinated national efforts related to
the Convention on Migratory Species. He
started his marine career by volunteering on
an Arctic expedition conducted by the
Murmansk Marine Biological Institute,
northern Russia. The aim was to collect
tissue samples from free-ranging belugas and
grey seals in the White Sea. He continued as
a Ph.D. student in the marine ecology
doctoral program of the University of Las
Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, researching
the acoustic behaviour of captive and free
ranging bottlenose dolphins with the aim to
determine the carrying capacity of dolphin
vocalizations. He was invited to the Spanish
Navy’s oceanographic vessel ‘Malespina’ for
a study of the underwater acoustic
characteristics of Lanzarote island’s
western coastline after a mass stranding of
beaked whales following a military sonar
test in September 2002. After proving to be
a skilled marine mammal observer and PAM
operator, Gergely was charged to lead a
visual and acoustic cetacean survey in the
Cape Verde Archipelago under the Interreg
III.B project ‘Hydrocarpo’.
Gergely is currently the secretary of an
EU FP 6 project called Biostrat at the
Hungarian Academy of Sciences and is a
freelance MMO and PAM operator. He gives
lectures on marine ecology for
undergraduates at several universities and
is the secretary of Blue World Hungary, an
NGO dedicated to marine environmental
education and research.
Gergely has very strong computer skills
including acoustic analysis, GIS techniques,
html and graphical softwares. He is also a
talented nature photographer, a dedicated
apnea and scuba diver, and is the holder of
a hobby skipper license.
