Alan Longhurst began his career in fisheries science, but is best known as a biological oceanographer, being the first Director of the Southwest Fisheries Science Center of the US NMFS in La Jolla, California, and later the Director-General of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Nova Scotia, Canada. He produced the first estimate of global plant production in the oceans using satellite imagery, and also quantified vertical carbon flux through the planktonic ecosystem. More recently, in reaction to disastrous Canadian management of NW Atlantic cod stocks, he has offered a number of critical reviews of several aspects of fishery management science. He retired in 1995 and now divides his time between south-west France and Nova Scotia.