Dr Alexandros Frantzis is the founder and scientific director of the Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute, a Greek scientific NGO dedicated to the research and conservation of cetaceans in Greece and the Mediterranean. In 1998, his scientific work reached international media worldwide, when he linked for the first time the use of military sonar with atypical mass strandings of cetaceans. This has led to an international conservation movement against sound pollution in the oceans.