Roger Proudfoot is the UK Environment Agency’s Estuary and Coast Planning Manager for England and Chair of the UK Healthy Biologically Diverse Seas Evidence Group (HBDSEG). 

 

Roger has had a life long passion for marine wildlife and was originally motivated to be a marine biologist to help “save the whale”, graduating as a Bachelor of Science at Newcastle University in the North East of England.

He has 30 years’ experience of marine environmental monitoring, assessment and management. He has been instrumental in the protection and improvement of estuarine and coastal waters through the implementation of European legislation including the Water Framework Directive. More recently he has overseen the reporting of the state of biodiversity for the UK Marine Strategy. Roger continues to lead and shape the Environment Agency’s approach to the management of England’s near-shore seas and estuaries and more widely, UK seas.

Roger is keen to explore and understand what more we can do to restore some of the benefits that our marine ecosystem once provided as well as its intrinsic value, lost through over exploitation and now threatened by man-made climate change.

He has been inspired by the Great Whale Conservancy’s work in the Sea of Cortez in Baja and beyond. He is a regular visitor to on board Michael and Delphi's research boat.