Professor Callum Michael Roberts is a British marine conservation

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual cell, a multicellular organism, or a community of interacting populations. They usually speciali ...

, oceanographer, science communicator, author and research scholar at the

University of Exeter , mottoeng = "We Follow the Light" , established = 1838 - St Luke's College1855 - Exeter School of Art1863 - Exeter School of Science 1955 - University of Exeter (received royal charter) , type = Public , ...

. He was formerly at the

University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...

. He is best known for his research and advocacy related to marine reserves and the

environmental impact of fishing The environmental impact of fishing includes issues such as the availability of fish, overfishing, fisheries, and fisheries management; as well as the impact of industrial fishing on other elements of the environment, such as bycatch. These is ...

Career

Roberts' work examines the impact of human activity on

marine ecosystem Marine ecosystems are the largest of Earth's aquatic ecosystems and exist in waters that have a high salt content. These systems contrast with freshwater ecosystems, which have a lower salt content. Marine waters cover more than 70% of the su ...

s, particularly

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. C ...

s. His research output has examined the benefits of marine reserves and no-fishing zones on sustainable fisheries and biodiversity. He began his career studying reefs of the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries by area, fifth-largest country in Asia ...

, and has also worked in the

Maldives The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives,, ) and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is a country and archipelagic state in South Asia in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India, about from the A ...

and on the

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

. Roberts is also an active supporter of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition. He is the Chief Scientific Advisor to Blue Marine Foundation and an Ambassador for

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wor ...

. Since 2011 Roberts has written occasional opinion editorials for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' on various marine conservation topics, including

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing fish stock), resulting in the ...

. He has also appeared in the documentary films ''The End of the Line'' (2009) and ''

Seaspiracy ''Seaspiracy'' () is a 2021 documentary film about the environmental impact of fishing directed by and starring Ali Tabrizi, a British filmmaker. The film examines human impacts on marine life and advocates for ending fish consumption. The fi ...

'' (2021) and was chief scientific adviser to the BBC's 2017 documentary series ''

Blue Planet II ''Blue Planet II'' is a 2017 British nature documentary series on marine life produced by the BBC Natural History Unit. Like its predecessor, ''The Blue Planet'' (2001), it is narrated and presented by naturalist Sir David Attenborough. After b ...

''. He is the author of two award-winning books, '' The Unnatural History of the Sea'' ( Rachel Carson Award, 2007), which examined the impact of human activity and fishing on marine ecosystems over the last thousand years, and ''Ocean of Life'' (Mountbatten Award, 2013), which covers more recent changes in the ocean and proposes reforms to facilitate their recovery. His latest book is ''Reef Life: An Underwater Memoir'' (2019).

Other work

1999-2003. Member of editorial board of Conservation Biology, published by the Society for Conservation Biology. 1997-2000. Member of Editorial board of journal Animal Conservation, published by Cambridge University Press. 1996. Senior editor of the proceedings of a symposium: "Marine reserves: Function and Design" held at the 8th International Coral Reef Symposium, Panama. 1991-1996. Co-editor of Reef Encounter, Newsletter of the International Society for Reef Studies.

Bibliography

*
The Unnatural History of the Sea
'. Island Press, 2007. *
The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea
'.

Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquir ...

, 2012; Penguin, 2013. *
Reef Life: An Underwater Memoir
'. Profile Books; Profile Books, 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Callum English marine biologists Conservation biologists British oceanographers Fisheries scientists British nature writers Non-fiction environmental writers Academics of the University of York Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century British zoologists