As a passionate advocate for the marine environment Ralf Sonntag worked in different roles to protect both the marine and the terrestrial environment both for the people depending upon it and for the animals living there.

After finishing his doctorate at the University of Bremen, he started his career as a whale biologist and played a lead role in creating the first small cetacean sanctuary off the islands of Sylt and Amrum (Germany).

He continued this work first as Greenpeace campaigner and later as director of IFAW-Germany. This involved both marine conservation globally but also terrestrial work in Africa and Germany. Currently he works for several big NGO’s as consultant in the political arena of conservation conventions like CITES, CCAMLR or CMS.