Erich Hoyt

About

Erich Hoyt has spent 4 decades working with whales to understand their daily lives and to protect their habitat in the oceans. As Research Fellow with Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) from 2004-2025, Hoyt founded and led its Healthy Seas programme. He currently co-chairs the IUCN Marine Mammal Protected Areas Specialist Group which is rolling out a global scientific tool to map the habitats of 130 marine mammal species. Hoyt has authored 27 adult nonfiction books including Creatures of the Deep; Insect Lives; The Earth Dwellers—Adventures in the Land of Ants; Orca: The Whale Called Killer; Planktonia, Strange Sea Creatures and Encyclopedia of Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises. His books, including 5 for children, have been translated into 15 languages in 25 countries. He has written for National Geographic, Sunday Times, The Guardian, The New York Times, Defenders, BBC Wildlife, Natural History and has more than 60 peer-reviewed papers. Hoyt received the Mandy McMath Award from the European Cetacean Society for his body of work on marine conservation. He is a former Vannevar Bush Fellow in the Public Understanding of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was twice a James Thurber Writer-in-Residence at the Thurber House in Columbus, Ohio. He has won many book and article awards including ASJA's Nonfiction Book of the Year for Creatures of the Deep and, in 2024, for Planktonia. In 2025, he was recognised in the UK New Year's Day Honours, receiving the award of OBE as a whale researcher and author ''for services to marine conservation''. A Canadian-American dual citizen, he lives in Dorset, England, with his wife Dr Sarah Elizabeth Wedden, a developmental biologist, and their children.