Euan Dunn

• Name — Euan Dunn • Birthplace — Aberdeen, Scotland • Fields — * Ornithology • Evolutionary biology • Population ecology • Marine conservation • Fisheries management • Workplaces — * Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology • Royal Society for the Protection of Birds • Education — Durham University (PhD) • Awards — * Member of the Order of the British Empire (2007) • RSPB Medal (2024)

Dunn was born in Aberdeen into a family with longstanding connections to commercial fishing. His grandfather was a fisherman who worked on the Dogger Bank, while his father became fisheries correspondent and Aberdeen editor of The Scotsman. Dunn studied zoology at the University of Aberdeen before beginning doctoral research at Durham University in 1967 on the feeding ecology of terns on Coquet Island.

Dunn completed doctoral research at Durham University before joining the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at the University of Oxford. At Wytham Woods, he used records from the long-running study of breeding tits to investigate reproductive timing and predation. A 1976 paper examined the laying dates of four tit species, while a subsequent study analysed the relationship between least weasel predation, the density of nesting tits and the abundance of rodents.

Dunn joined the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds as a marine policy officer in 1994 and subsequently became Head of Marine Policy and Principal Marine Adviser. His work included fisheries policy, marine spatial planning, seabird bycatch and the effects of climate change and commercial fishing on marine food webs. • Illustration — A wandering albatross in flight. Dunn contributed to the establishment of BirdLife International's Albatross Task Force, which promotes measures to reduce seabird bycatch in fisheries. He represented BirdLife International on the North Sea Advisory Council and chaired its Ecosystem Working Group. He also contributed to the establishment of BirdLife International's marine programme and its Albatross Task Force, which developed and promoted measures intended to reduce the incidental capture of albatrosses and other seabirds in fishing gear. In 2005, The Independent described Dunn as "one of the world's leading experts on albatross conservation" in its coverage of the effects of industrial longline fishing on albatross populations and the international campaign to reduce seabird mortality. Dunn gave evidence on fisheries and marine environmental policy to committees of both Houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. In evidence concerning the Common Fisheries Policy, he addressed the effects of industrial sandeel fishing and changing marine conditions on seabirds, as well as marine protected areas, fisheries subsidies, discarding and ecosystem-based fisheries management. Dunn became involved in efforts to restrict industrial fishing for sandeels in the North Sea following a fisheries meeting in Norway in 1996. The RSPB subsequently campaigned for restrictions on the fishery because of the importance of sandeels as prey for breeding seabirds. The organisation credited Dunn with playing a significant role in the decisions of the United Kingdom and Scottish governments in 2024 to close industrial sandeel fisheries in English waters of the North Sea and in Scottish waters.

After retiring from the RSPB, Dunn became involved with Cambridge Approaches, a grassroots campaign group concerned with the proposed Bedford–Cambridge section of East West Rail. In a 2025 guest article, he argued that the preferred southern route posed risks to the Eversden and Wimpole Woods Special Area of Conservation and its population of barbastelle bats.

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Dunn has written scientific papers and works of popular ornithology. His books include The Colourful World of Birds and RSPB Spotlight: Puffins. He was also a contributor to the nine-volume The Birds of the Western Palearctic and served for thirteen years as natural-history editor of The Countryman. Dunn has also worked as a natural-history illustrator, producing illustrations for books about birds and marine mammals. Among the works he illustrated was Peter G. H. Evans's Whales, published by Whittet Books in 1990.

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