Dr A. Peter Klimley

A. Peter Klimley is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology of the University of California, Davis and Director of the Biotelemetry Laboratory.  He obtained a M. Sc. in Biological Oceanography from the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Miami and a Ph.D. in marine Biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California, San Diego.

Dr. Klimley’s research interests revolve around the use of telemetric techniques; specializing in the development of behavioral and environmental sensors, computer-decoded telemetry, automated data logging, and archival tags.  He has designed and built multi-sensor ultrasonic transmitters and used them to relate the highly directional migratory movements of hammerhead sharks to local patterns in the earth's geomagnetic field.  He was involved in the development of the first automated tag-detecting monitors and was the first to deploy them in the marine environment to ascertain the degree of residency of hammerhead sharks at a seamount and their emigration in response to local upwelling.  A major objective of Dr Klimley’s Biotelemetry Laboratory is to disseminate innovative remote sensing technology among scientists on an international level.

His telemetric oriented shark studies have been featured in two dozen television documentaries, in a number of countries including Australia, UK, Germany, USA and France.  He recently was featured in a 10-episode television series, "Shark Men," a reality show that brought scientists together with non-scientists to tag large sharks at the Revillagigedos Islands off Mexico and Cocos Islands off Costa Rica. 

Dr Klimley’s research activities has earned him the name ‘Dr Hammerhead’, as he is known to have held his breath while diving up to 100m deep in order to hand-tag hammerhead sharks with a dart gun.