Having retired from his post at the Marine Biological Association in 2007 , he continues to contribute to work there as an Associate Fellow , in addition to pursuing his passions for marine biology , diving and photography . He was Chair of the Lundy Field Society from 2008 to 2019 , and of Plymouth Sound BSAC from 2017 to 2019 .
Of science and exploration
Keith has authored or co-authored 98 papers in scientific journals , books and conference proceedings and authored or co-authored about 89 limited circulation reports as well as numerous magazine articles . Among his key books are Marine biodiversity conservation : a practical approach , published in 2014 which describes the science that underpins marine biodiversity conservation . Possibly his most accessible book is Exploring Britain ’ s Hidden World : The Natural History of Seabed Habitats , with underwater photos from all around Britain , published by Wild Nature Press in 2018 .
His ongoing work has him contributing to annual reports on ‘ The State of South- West Marine Ecosystems ’ and lecturing on marine conservation to Masters students . He continues to be frustrated by what he sees as the often poor application of science to marine environmental protection and management .
“ The whole Highly Protected Marine
PHOTO : NEIL HOPE
Areas exercise has just stuttered along ,” Keith says . “ I don ’ t know why it ’ s taken so long , and come up with a fairly mixed bag of candidate HPMAs . Whereas HPMAs should be actually helping with fish recovery , in terms of overexploited stocks . They should be helping with the recovery of species whose populations have been damaged , particularly by mobile fishing gear and netting . And we ’ re not seeing that happening . We ’ re not seeing a better understanding of which species are fragile , sensitive to human activities .”
He is one of the few people ever to have dived Rockall , an uninhabitable granite
In the James Eagan Layne
islet situated 187 miles west of St Kilda . The trip was organised by a well-connected friend who knew the head of fisheries in Scotland . He in turn was willing to send out a fisheries protection vessel on a trip to Rockall – in June of 1988 – with a recompression chamber welded to its deck .
In addition to carrying out three ” fascinating ” dives on the current-blasted reefs of the Rockall Plateau , Keith managed to get onto the foreboding rock itself . “ We had this really big swell and the fisheries protection vessel crew worked out that they could push you out of a RIB at the top of the swell . We jumped , they reversed and we ran up the slope and then had to climb the rock , which involves climbing underneath an overhang .
“ We got to the top of rock , where we did an intertidal survey on the marine life growing on the shore there . When we came to get off , we all had our drysuits on and I wasn ’ t going to traverse that overhang again . So we just jumped off a ledge , straight into the ocean .... we got our samples and they were properly catalogued and preserved at the Nation Museum in Edinburgh . The way things are these days with restrictions , you ’ d be very lucky to be able to conduct that sort of exercise again .” �
Showing a cetacean tracking sonar
Keith and buddy David Connor at Hasselwood Rock , Rockall
37