Callum Roberts (biologist)

Career

Roberts' work examines the impact of human activity on marine ecosystems, particularly coral reefs. 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 in Saudi Arabia, and has also worked in the Maldives and on the Great Barrier Reef.

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.

Since 2011 Roberts has written occasional opinion editorials for The Guardian on various marine conservation topics, including overfishing. He has also appeared in the documentary films The End of the Line (2009) and Seaspiracy (2021) and was chief scientific adviser to the BBC's 2017 documentary series Blue Planet II.

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).