Arranging Talks

I often give talks and illustrated presentations about my work. Venues have included the IUCN World Conservation Congress (Barcelona), Edinburgh Book Festival, the Wrexham Science Festival (Wales), The Deep, Scottish Seabird Centre, Lamalera Indonesia, Edinburgh Zoo, to meetings of Flora and Fauna International, Montreal Zoological Society (Canada), the European Cetacean Society, the Holarctic Marine Mammal Conference (Crimea), Trent University (Canada), Ohio State University and Evergreen College (US) and to many school, conservation and other groups mainly in the UK, US, Canada and Japan.

I usually present an illustrated talk for 20-40 minutes (up to an hour), followed by questions and book signing. General audience topics include:

Orca: The Sociable Whale

Whale Watching around the World

The Science of Nature Writing and the Nature of Science Writing

Creatures of the Deepest Seas

I also give more specialized lectures at international conferences and workshops on:

Marine Protected Areas for Whales and Dolphins

Best Practice Whale Watching and Marine Ecotourism

Establishing & Marketing High Quality Whale Watching

and other topics.

Reduced rates are given to conservation groups. For more information, please enquire.

Workshops

I sometimes collaborate with colleagues at WDCS to present hands-on workshops on whale watching, marine ecotourism and marine protected areas. For more information, please enquire.

Future Talks

To be announced.

Some Recent Talks and Presentations

Keynote, First International Conference on Marine Mammal Protected Areas, Maui, Hawaii, 30 March 2009 (www.icmmpa.org)

Convener, Workshop on Mapping cetacean critical habitat areas and turning them into marine mammal protected areas networks, ICMMPA, Maui, Hawaii, 1 April 2009

IUCN World Conservation Congress, Barcelona, 6-8 October 2008

Launching the Global Marine Protected Areas Campaign with WDCS and Team Russia, Volvo Ocean Race, Alicante, Spain, 9 October 2008

Indonesia: Whale Watch Workshop, July 2008

Whale Photo-ID and Acoustic Workshop, St. George’s School, Edinburgh, Scotland, in prep for Antarctic expedition December 2007

Marine Protected Areas in the Black & Mediterranean Seas, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 23 October 2007

Marine Mammals and Marine Protected Areas. Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, Honolulu, Hawaii, 2 July 2007

Marine Protected Areas and Cetaceans: Their potential for noise mitigation, Geographic Restrictions Workshop, Lanzarote, Canary Islands, 4-6 June 2007

Living with Orcas in the Russian Far East. A benefit presentation for the Far East Russia Orca Project. 8 May 2007 (7 pm, Tuesday). Futures Room, St George’s School for Girls, Edinburgh. To contribute funds to the project, please send an

email for more information.

What is needed to make sustainable whale watching and a good cetacean MPA? Keynote Lecture to the 2nd International Workshop on Management and Non-Lethal Use of Cetaceans, La Pedrera, Uruguay, 19th April 2007

Orca Acoustics Talk with Dr. Olga Filatova (FEROP). Scottish Seabird Centre, North Berwick, 13th April 2007

The Lives of Kamchatka Orcas - Wrexham Science Festival, Wrexham, Wales, UK - 29th March 2007

Keynote Talk for Marine Protected Areas symposium, GEF Marine Project - Caldera, Chile - 14th November 2006

Marine Protected Areas workshop for ACCOBAMS Scientific Committee - Monaco - 5th November 2006

Whales of the Mediterranean - Spanish, French, Arabic, Greek, German, Italian and English. Erich Hoyt presented the new multi-lingual versions of the 5-part film as part of the Conservation Cinema at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, in Barcelona, 8 October 2008. The film was well attended and received by conservationists from around the world. This translation project was funded by WDCS and Ocean Care, with the goal of providing easy educational access for the films throughout the Mediterranean basin as well as an example of a regional approach which may help as an example for other marine conservation projects in other parts of the world.  Films may be downloaded free for educational use in quicktime and iTunes formats.

Erich Hoyt Whale Video and Talk Series at the Scottish Seabird Centre, North Berwick, 14th and 21st August, and 4th September 2006

The Scottish Seabird Centre hosted a series of 3 Monday-evening talks with video dispatches from the field in 2006. The presentations featured high quality videos from the field, revealing pioneer whale and dolphin research as well as conservation work.

14th August 2006, 7 pm: The Secret Lives of the Russian Orcas...was a chance to see WDCS’s Far East Russia Orca Project in action, which Erich works with off Kamchatka in the Russian Far East, including rare footage of an orca capture caught on video.

21st August 2006, Monday, 7 pm: Tango Whale Watching in Patagonia, Argentina. On the National Day of the Whales in Argentina in Sept. 2005, the most famous tango band from Buenos Aires played for the whales and more than a hundred people at a unique ocean concert. Filmed by Chris Johnson, PBS Voyage of the Odyssey producer-cinematographer.

4th September 2006, Monday, 7 pm: Japanese Whale Watching, Giant Squid and Expo. In August 2005, Erich and Japanese naturalist Kotoe Sasamori gave presentations and led porpoise watches at the World Expo in Nagoya, Japan. In February 2006, he went to the Ogasawara islands where the giant squid was photographed for the first time. This is a chance to explore Japan’s complex relationship with cetaceans.

Besides the talks, WDCS Whale & Dolphin Workshops, 11th, 12th and 14th August were popular, as was the giant inflatable 100-foot blue whale on the beach on 11th August. For more information about future whale and dolphin events, contact the Scottish Seabird Centre, The Harbour, North Berwick, Scotland, www.seabird.org and the WDCS Wildlife Centre, Spey Bay, Scotland, www.wdcs.org.