Johanna Zimmerhackel is a postdoctoral fellow at the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment of the University of Western Australia. She currently works on the economic value of marine infrastructure in Western Australia as well as on a project that assesses the external costs caused by marine plastic pollution. 

Johanna's PhD project focused on the socio-economics of the shark-dive tiurism in the Maldives and Borneo to identify management strategies with best outcomes for shark-dive tourism, fisheries and shark populations. Johanna holds a Master of Science in Marine Ecosystems and Fisheries Science from the University Hamburg, Germany where she studied the bycatch of a small-scale fishery in the Galapagos. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Hamburg University.

Her general research interests are marine related issues associated with fisheries, ecotourism and plastic pollution with a focus on multi-disciplinary approaches that integrate biological and socio-economic aspects in management and conservation strategies.