Keith Hiscock

Keith Hiscock’s marine ecology and conservation career started in 1969 when he was greatly involved in developing Lundy (Bristol Channel, UK) as a marine protected area including surveys and monitoring around the island. A PhD and the Lundy work morphed into survey work commissioned especially by the then Nature Conservancy Council and while Deputy Director of the Field Studies Council Oil Pollution Research Unit. In 1987, he was appointed Head of the Marine Nature Conservation Review of Great Britain which gathered together much of the information that has subsequently been used in marine nature conservation in Britain.

By 1998, the role that the internet might play in creating a resource of information on sensitivity of species and biotopes for those involved in marine environmental protection and management was becoming clear and the Marine Life Information Network (www.marlin.ac.uk), developed by Keith and others at the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth, came to be.

Keith continues to work in marine conservation and marine ecology including to better understand ‘change’ in marine ecosystems and the reasons for change especially via the South-West Marine Ecosystems (State of South-West Seas) programme. He was awarded an MBE in the King’s 2023 New Year Honours for ‘Services to Marine Conservation’.