Erich Hoyt

Hoyt wrote the first book on whale watching, The Whale Watcher’s Handbook (Doubleday, Penguin, 1984), which zoologist—BBC-TV presenter Mark Carwardine named his number one wildlife-book classic.Carwardine, M. 1995. Natural Classic, BBC Wildlife, July, p79. "When Hoyt wrote this book, he was well ahead of his time…few people had grasped the concept of whale-watching as a major, worldwide growth industry…It has been very influential over the years." Hoyt also wrote the resolution that put whale watching on the International Whaling Commission agenda in the 1990s. That book, as well as his first book about his seven summers in the 1970s and 1980s with killer whales, or orcas, are considered classic whale texts.Publishers Weekly, June 26, 1981, review, p5410] Discover, September 1981, p77-78. Orca: The Whale Called Killer is still in print after more than 40 years.

Among his other books are five written for children and six academic books. Two popular volumes on social insects, The Earth Dwellers, (Simon & Schuster, 1996) and Insect Lives (Harvard Univ. Press, 2002, with Smithsonian entomologist Ted Schultz) broke new ground. In Hoyt's "delightful…multi-layered"Barnett, Adrian. 1998. Review of The Earth Dwellers. New Scientist, Dec. 19. The Earth Dwellers, the "ant’s eye view of life works spectacularly"Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher 1996. Books of the Times: Paragons of Terrestrial Success, The New York Times, March 7, p B5 as Hoyt "fashions the ants into enchanting characters"[https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/erich-hoyt/the-earth-dwellers/] Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 1995 charting "an insect’s course through sex, aggression and foreign policy".Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher 1996. "Books of the Times: Paragons of Terrestrial Success, The New York Times, March 7, p B5 Insect Lives, an American Library Association "Outstanding Book for the College Bound"{{Cite web|url=http://www.librarything.com/bookaward/ALA%2520Outstanding%2520Books%2520for%2520the%2520College%2520Bound|title=ALA Outstanding Books for the College Bound | Book awards | LibraryThing|website=www.librarything.com}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.ala.org/yalsa/booklistsawards/booklists/outstandingbooks/scitech|title=Science and Technology|date=March 15, 2007|website=Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)}} is a "potpourri of fascinating excerpts written by some of the finest insect biologists and naturalists spanning many centuries."Carlson, Albert D. 2003. Review of Insect Lives. Quarterly Review of Biology, June, p239. A deep sea book called Creatures of the Deep (Firefly, 2001) won the American Society of Journalists & Authors, Inc. Outstanding Book Award, General Nonfiction.[http://www.asja.org/for-writers/annual-writing-awards/recipients.php] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808042450/http://www.asja.org/for-writers/annual-writing-awards/recipients.php|date=2014-08-08}} [under "Past Awards"] Retrieved 30 August 2012. A second deep sea book, Weird Sea Creatures, this time for children, was published in 2013. In 2017 Hoyt published Encyclopedia of Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises which "draws on more than 40 years of scientific interactions with these intelligent and fascinating creatures," according to Library Journal: "Hoyt writes movingly on life cycles, the future for these animals and how readers can get involved in protecting them."[http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2017/11/books/nonfic/nonfiction-on-insect-sculpture-cetaceans-paul-robeson-and-samurai-xpress-reviews/] Library Journal, November 16, 2017

Hoyt is currently Research Fellow with WDC, Whale and Dolphin Conservation[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17783603] "White killer whale adult spotted for first time in wild". BBC News. 23 April 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2012. and Director of Marine Mammals for marinebio.org.{{cite web |url=http://marinebio.org/marinebio/ |title= MarineBio & Our Mission ~ MarineBio Conservation Society|website=marinebio.org |access-date=30 August 2012}}{{title missing|date=May 2022}} He also leads WDC's Global Marine Protected Areas Programme launched in 2008 by Team Russia as part of the round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race.{{Cite web |url=http://www.wdcs.org/protect/critical_habitat/ |title=Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) - WDCS International - Homes for whales |access-date=2013-02-27 |archive-date=2013-04-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130410044325/http://www.wdcs.org/protect/critical_habitat/ |url-status=dead }} He is an appointed member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission's Cetacean Specialist Group (SSC-CSG) and the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). He is a co-founder and serves on the steering and programme committees of the International Committee on Marine Mammal Protected Areas (icmmpa.org).

The research and conservation project Hoyt co-founded and has co-led since 1999, the Far East Russia Orca Project, has pioneered visual and acoustic monitoring, training of Russian students, and whale conservation in the remote, inhospitable Kamchatka seas, and has produced a number of papers on the communication and behavioural ecology of killer whales.Filatova, O. A., Deecke, V.B., Ford, J.K.B., Matkin, C.O., Barrett-Lennard, L.G., Guzeev, M.A., Burdin, A.M., Hoyt, E. 2012. Call diversity in the North Pacific killer whale populations: implications for dialect evolution and population history, Animal Behaviour 83, pp595-603 {{ISSN|0003-3472}} {{doi|10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.12.013}}Ivkovich, T., Filatova, O.A., Burdin, A.M., Sato, H., Hoyt, E. 2010. The social organization of resident-type killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Avacha Gulf, Northwest Pacific, as revealed through association patterns and acoustic similarity. Mammalian Biology 75:198-210 {{ISSN|1616-5047}} {{doi|10.1016/j.mambio.2009.03.06}} This work has led to improved understanding of the animals' acoustic repertoire and complex social structure, which includes matrilineal family clans, pods consisting of several families, and much larger "super-pods".Sendova-Franks, A. 2012. "Call diversity in killer whales", Animal Behaviour 83, p572 {{ISSN|0003-3472}} A related project which he co-directs, the Russian Cetacean Habitat Project, aims to study and conserve habitat for humpback, killer, fin, North Pacific right and Baird's beaked whales around the Russian Commander Islands.{{Cite web|url=http://www.habitat.russianorca.com/|title=Russian Cetacean Habitat Project|website=www.habitat.russianorca.com}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.russianorca.com/|title=Russian Orcas Homepage|website=www.russianorca.com}} In 2013, he helped launch and became co-chair of the IUCN SSC/WCPA Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force.

Hoyt has been working for whale and dolphin (cetacean) conservation since the early 1970s when his involvement in the first studies of wild killer whales in Canada led to campaigns to create a marine protected area to save their habitat.Levin, A. 2005. "Save the whales’ habitat". BBC Wildlife, March 2005, p67 {{ISSN|0265-3656}}Hoyt, E. 1990. Orca: The Whale Called Killer, Third Edition, Firefly, Toronto and New York, Epilogue. This, he says, "set him on a path," and "30 years, 14 books and hundreds of articles later, he has come full circle to the question that he addresses so thoroughly in the research for Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises," published first in 2005, with a completely revised and expanded second edition in 2011: "What does it mean to save the whales if their habitat is left unprotected?"Hoyt, E. 2011. Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises: A World Handbook for Cetacean Habitat Conservation and Planning. Earthscan/Routledge and Taylor & Francis, London and New York, 464pp. + 13pp prelims + 12pp plates, {{ISBN|978-1-84407-763-2}} This work, as well as the supporting website (http://www.cetaceanhabitat.org) "details the current state of cetacean conservation globally"Ryan, S. 2005. Tourism in Marine Environments 2(1):49-50. {{ISSN|1544-273X}} identifying and helping to conserve whale, dolphin and other important biologically diverse habitats in marine reserves and protected areas in the national waters of the world and on the high seas (international waters).{{cite web |url=http://www.cetaceanhabitat.org |title= Official website |website=www.cetaceanhabitat.org|format=PDF|access-date=2020-10-31}}

Erich Hoyt's work is "very much at the forefront of work on marine protected areas," [http://www.wild.org/blog/new-resource-on-marine-protected-areas/] Loose, E. 2011. "New resource on Marine Protected Areas" [Retrieved 2 Oct. 2012] [driving] the shift from taxon-oriented protectionism (e.g., the Marine Mammal Protection Act) to more ecosystem-oriented approaches to conservation [and] marking...the growing relative importance of marine conservation vs. terrestrial conservation."Nawojchik, R. 2005. Aquatic Mammals 31(4):481 {{doi|10.1578/AM31.4.2005.481}}

At the same time, Hoyt continues to work on a wide variety of other conservation projects such as multi-disciplinary exhibitions and symposia as well as writing and speaking related to Japanese whaling, whale watching and ocean conservation.Morikawa, J. and Hoyt, E. 2011. "Of whales, whaling and whale watching in Japan: A conversation." In P. Brakes and M.P. Simmonds (eds) Whales and Dolphins: Cognition, Culture, Conservation and Human Perceptions, Earthscan/Routledge and Taylor & Francis, London and New York, pp89-99, {{ISBN|978-1-84971-224-8}} In 2010 he co-founded the Beautiful Whale Project and helped to organize and introduce a symposium devoted to "New Tales about Whales in Science, Society and Art" at the United Nations University, Tokyo,{{cite web | title=beautifulwhale.com | website=beautifulwhale.com | date=2019-12-12 | url=http://www.beautifulwhale.com/bwp/Symposium.html | access-date=2020-10-31}} as well as the "Eye to Eye with the Whale" exhibition of life-size photographs of Bryant Austin at Temporary Contemporary Gallery in Tokyo, both in December 2010.{{cite web | title=beautifulwhale.com | website=beautifulwhale.com | date=2019-12-12 | url=http://www.beautifulwhale.com/bwp/Tokyo_Exhibition.html | access-date=2020-10-31}}{{Cite web |url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fq20101210a2.html |title=Life-size whale pics will leave viewers in awe | the Japan Times Online |access-date=2013-02-27 |archive-date=2010-12-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101214170604/http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fq20101210a2.html |url-status=dead }}

A Canadian-US dual citizen, he lives in Bridport, England, with his wife and four children.

In 1985 and 1986, Hoyt was a Vannevar Bush Fellow in the Public Understanding of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and, in 1992 and 2000, served as James Thurber Writer-in-Residence at the Thurber House in Columbus, Ohio.Matthews, Tracey. 2006. Contemporary Authors new revision series: Vol. 142 bio-bibliographical guide to current writers in fiction, general nonfiction, poetry, journalism, drama, motion pictures, television, and other fields, Gale, Detroit. In 2013, Hoyt won the Mandy McMath Conservation Award at the annual conference of the European Cetacean Society in Portugal for his body of work including books, papers and work on marine conservation.{{cite web | title=Setubal - Erich Hoyt wins the Conservation Award REV | website=Somewhere Far Away...: Setubal | date=2013-04-10 | url=http://mrsimmondssays.blogspot.com/2013/04/setubal-speeches-2-erich-hoyt-wins.html | access-date=2020-10-31}}

Hoyt was awarded an OBE in the 2025 New Year Honours for "services to marine conservation".{{Cite web |title=New Year Honours 2025 Overseas and International List: Order of the British Empire |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-year-honours-2025-overseas-and-international-list/new-year-honours-2025-overseas-and-international-list-order-of-the-british-empire |access-date=2025-02-13 |website=GOV.UK |language=en}}

• Planktonia, Firefly, Toronto & New York (2022) {{ISBN|9780228103837}} (also published in Japanese)
• Encyclopedia of Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises, Firefly, Toronto & New York (2017, rev.2023) {{ISBN|1770859411}}, {{ISBN|9781770859418}}, {{ISBN|9780228104353}} (also published in Japanese)
• Creatures of the Deep, Firefly, Toronto & New York (2001, 2002, rev.2014, rev.2021) {{ISBN|1552093409}}, {{ISBN|9781552093405}}, {{ISBN|1770852816}}, {{ISBN|9781770852815}}, {{ISBN|9780228103295}} (also published in Chinese)
• The Earth Dwellers, Simon & Schuster, New York; Touchstone, New York; Mainstream, Edinburgh and London (1996, 1997, 1998); {{ISBN|0684810867}}, {{ISBN|9780684830452}}, {{ISBN|1840180870}}, {{ISBN|1840181737}} (also published in Chinese, Hainan Publishing House, {{ISBN|7544303225}} and {{ISBN|9787544303224}}; Japanese, Kadokawa Haruki Jimusho, Tokyo, {{ISBN|4894560402}})
• Sharks and Whales, Fog City Press, San Francisco, CA (2002) {{ISBN|1877019038}} (co-editor and co-author with Leighton Taylor and Mark Carwardine)
• Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises, Time-Life/ Discovery Channel, New York; HarperCollins, London; Reader's Digest, Sydney, Australia; Fog City Press, San Francisco (1998-2008) {{ISBN|078355284X}}, {{ISBN|9780002201056}}, {{ISBN|9781740896603}} (also published in Danish, Gads Forlag, Copenhagen, {{ISBN|9780002201056}}; in Italian, Instituto Geografico de Agostini, Novara, {{ISBN|8841563621}}; in Spanish, Ediciones Omega SA, Barcelona and Planeta, Buenos Aires, {{ISBN|8428211639}} and {{ISBN|950490145X}}; in Germany, Könemann, Cologne, {{ISBN|3829056656}}; in Dutch, Könemann, Cologne, {{ISBN|978-3-8290-6758-4}}; in French, Könemann, Cologne, {{ISBN|2743465565}} (Co-editor with Mark Carwardine; co-author with Mark Carwardine, E. Fordyce, P. Gill)
• Seasons of the Whale, Nimbus, Halifax; Chelsea Green, Vermont; Mainstream, Edinburgh; WDCS, Bath; Humane Society of the US, Washington, DC (1990, 1993, 1998, 2013) {{ISBN|093003130X}}, {{ISBN|0921054521}}, {{ISBN|1851583173}}, {{ISBN|1851583254}}, (also published in French as Les Saisons de la Baleine, {{ISBN|2890003302}})
• Orca: The Whale Called Killer, Dutton, New York; Robert Hale, London; Firefly, Toronto & New York (1981, 1984, 1990, 1998, rev.2019) {{ISBN|0525229701}}, {{ISBN|0920656293}}, {{ISBN|0709042310}}, {{ISBN|978-0-920656-25-9}}, {{ISBN|9780228102298}} (also published in Japanese, {{ISBN|4886223095}})
• The Whales of Canada, Firefly, Toronto & New York (1984, 1988, 1990) {{ISBN|0920656331}}
• The Whale Watcher’s Handbook, Penguin, Toronto; Doubleday, New York (1984, 1987, 1991); {{ISBN|0385190360}}, {{ISBN|0140070648}} (also published in German as Alle Wale der Welt, {{ISBN|3922965474}})

• Weird Sea Creatures, Firefly, Toronto & New York (2013) {{ISBN|9781770851917}}, {{ISBN|9781770851979}}
• Whale Rescue, Firefly, Toronto & New York (2005) {{ISBN|9781552976005}}, {{ISBN|1552976017}}
• Riding with the Dolphins, Firefly, Toronto & New York (1992) {{ISBN|0921820577}}, {{ISBN|0921820550}}
• Extinction A-Z, Enslow, Hillside, NJ and Aldershot, UK (1991) {{ISBN|089490325X}}
• Meeting the Whales, Firefly, Toronto & New York (1991) {{ISBN|0921820259}}, {{ISBN|9780921820239}}

• Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises: A World Handbook for Cetacean Habitat Conservation and Planning. Earthscan/Routledge and Taylor & Francis, London and New York (2011) Revised 2nd edition. {{ISBN|1844070638}}, {{ISBN|1844070646}}
• Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises: A World Handbook for Cetacean Habitat Conservation. Earthscan, London and Springfield, Virginia, USA (2005) {{ISBN|1844070638}}, {{ISBN|1844070646}}
• Marine Mammals of Russia. Kirov, Kirov (2009) Морские млекопитающие России. (with A.M. Burdin and O.A. Filatova) {{ISBN|9785881868505}}
• The Killer Whales of Eastern Kamchatka, Alaska SeaLife Centre (2006) (with Alexander Burdin, Hal Sato and Olga Filatova) {{ISBN|0978543629}}
• Whale Watching 2001: Worldwide Tourism Numbers, Expenditures, and Expanding Socioeconomic Benefits. International Fund for Animal Welfare, Yarmouth Port, MA, USA. {{ISBN|1901002098}} and {{ISBN|9781901002096}}
• The Performing Orca—Why the Show Must Stop. An in-depth review of the captive orca industry, WDCS, Bath, UK (1992) {{ISBN|0951907808}}
• Conserving the Wild Relatives of Crops, Addison-Wesley Iberoamericana, México; IBPGR-United Nations FAO, Rome; WWF-Int’l and IUCN, Gland, Switzerland (1988, 1992) {{ISBN|2-88085-072-X}} (also published in French as La Conservation des Plantes Sauvages Apparentées aux Plantes Cultivées, {{ISBN|2880850738}}; in Spanish as Conservando los Parientes Silvestres de las Plantas Cultivadas, {{ISBN|0201518503}}; in Portuguese as Conservaçao dos Parentes Silvestres das Plantas Cultivas, {{ISBN|0201518694}}; in Chinese, {{ISBN|7 305 00918 0}})

• Insect Lives. Stories of Mystery & Romance from a Hidden World. Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge; John Wiley & Sons, New York; Mainstream, London & Edinburgh (1998, 1999, 2000, 2002) (with Ted Schultz) {{ISBN|9780471282778}}, {{ISBN|1840180889}}, {{ISBN|9780674009523}}

• Whales and Dolphins: Cognition, Culture, Conservation and Human Perceptions, Earthscan/Routledge and Taylor & Francis, London and New York (2011) {{ISBN|9781849712255}}
• Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, 2nd Ed., Academic Press, San Diego, London (2009) {{ISBN|9780123735539}} and Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, Academic Press, San Diego, London (2002) {{ISBN|9780125513401}}
• Ecotourism: Focus on Wildlife and Local Communities, Icfai University Press, Hyderabad, India (2008) {{ISBN|9788131419373}}
• Between Species: Celebrating the Dolphin-Human Bond, Sierra Club, San Francisco (2003) {{ISBN|1578050707}}
• Encyclopedia of the Biosphere, Gale, Detroit (also in Spanish and Catalan) (2000) {{ISBN|9780787645069}}
• Tools of the Writers’ Trade, Harper Collins, New York (1991) {{ISBN|0060163631}}
• The Greenpeace Book of Dolphins, Random Century, London; Sterling, London (1990, 1991) {{ISBN|0712630511}}, {{ISBN|0806974842}}, {{ISBN|0806974850}}
• Political Life in Canada, Prentice-Hall, Toronto (1983) {{ISBN|0136843735}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.erichhoyt.com Official website]
• [https://twitter.com/erichhoyt Twitter]
• [http://www.russianorca.com Russian orca work]
• [http://www.cetaceanhabitat.org Scientific and conservation work with Cetacean Habitat]
• [http://www.whales.org Scientific and conservation work with WDC]
• [http://www.marinebio.org MarineBio.org]
• [http://www.marinemammalhabitat.org IUCN SSC-WCPA Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force]

{{Animal welfare}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoyt, Erich}}

Category:1950 births

Category:American animal welfare scholars

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Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire