Erich Hoyt has spent much of his life on or near the sea, working with whales and dolphins and marine conservation. An award-winning writer, he has written 15 books and hundreds of magazine articles on whales, dolphins, as well as ants, insects, wild plants and other subjects.

Hoyt is currently Senior Research Fellow with WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society in the UK and among other things directs the first orca study in eastern Russia (in Kamchatka), a collaboration between Russian and Japanese researchers. The project recently won the prestigious Klüh Prize for Innovation in Science ($10,000 prize) from Germany.

Hoyt has researched and written numerous scientific and conservation reports as a consultant and advisor for international conservation groups and governments and is considered an authority on whales and dolphins, marine-protected areas and marine conservation, whale watching and ecotourism. He has twice represented the United Kingdom at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) annual meetings and has written commissioned reports presented at the IWC Scientific Committee. He has lectured and worked extensively on conservation projects in Japan, Taiwan, Iceland, Mexico, and throughout the Caribbean. He has also served as a visiting lecturer at the Ohio State University, the University of Edinburgh, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Hoyt's magazine and newspaper credits include: National Geographic, New Scientist, Canadian Geographic, The Sunday Times (London), The Guardian, The New York Times, International Wildlife. Twice a James Thurber Writer-in-Residence, and a Vannevar Bush Fellow at MIT and Harvard in 1985-86, he has won various magazine and book awards.

Two of his recent adult nonfiction books, The Earth Dwellers and Insect Lives, have been optioned for films. His books for children include Whale Rescue, Meeting the Whales and Riding with the Dolphins (all published by Firefly Books) and Extinction A-Z. His first book, Orca: The Whale Called Killer is still in print after 24 years and was recently translated into Japanese. His other books have been translated into Chinese, German, Danish, Spanish, French, Italian and other languages.

Hoyt is a charter member of the Society for Marine Mammalogy, as well as a long-time member of the Writers' Guild, the American Society of Journalists & Authors and the Society of Authors. An American-Canadian dual citizen, for the past decade Hoyt has lived in Scotland with his family including four children aged 6 to 16.

Whale Rescue
Changing the Future for Endangered Wildlife
(Firefly Animal Rescue)
by Erich Hoyt

"With good science and history and a clear, fresh voice, Hoyt guides the reader straight down the ocean to the bottom and least known part of Earth."  Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor at Harvard, author of The Diversity of Life, Consilience, and the Pulitzer-prize winners On Human Nature and The Ants (with Bert Hölldobler)