Fabian Ritter was born in Hannover in 1967 and grew up in Southern Germany. After studying biology at the University of Bremen, he moved to Berlin in 1996, where the father of two sons still lives today.
He turned his fascination for whales and dolphins into a profession with his studies. After he participated in several European dolphin research projects, he was co-founder of the association M.E.E.R. in 1998. The association is nationally and internationally active in the protection of the sea and its inhabitants and made itself an international reputation, especially with the award-winning project MEER La Gomera on the Canary Islands - an example for the sustainable design of whale watching tourism. Fabian Ritter is still active today as chairman and scientific director of the M.E.E.R. association.
Since many years Fabian Ritter is also a member of the scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and is not only there considered an expert for whale watching as well as for whales & dolphins and their protection. Since the end of 2012 he has held the position of Ship Strike Data Coordinator at the IWC, where he is responsible for data management on ship-whale collisions.
Besides publishing numerous scientific articles and reports, Fabian Ritter is also the author of four books. He works as a freelance scientific consultant. In addition, he has been successfully leading practical courses in behavioural biology on La Gomera for many years, gives lectures regularly and accompanies expedition cruises to many parts of the world. During his travels he visits the tropical and subtropical regions as well as Antarctica, where he specializes in photographing whales, dolphins and other marine animals.
Since 2012, he has also been working for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), where he is campaign manager and has been intensively involved with the topic of marine protected areas. In this context, his main focus is on the protection of harbour porpoises in German waters.