Ernest William Lyons Holt

Ernest William Lyons Holt or E.W.L. Holt (17 October 1864 – 10 June 1922) was an eminent English marine naturalist and biologist who specialized in ichthyology, the study of fish. His work helped lay a scientific foundation for the fishery management in Ireland, and together with William Spotswood Green, he strongly influenced the development of the Irish Fisheries in its early years.

Holt was born in London and was educated at Eton, where he won a prize in biology. After school, he decided on a career in the British Army, enrolling at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and after completing his officer training was commissioned into the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. He participated in the Nile Campaign (1884/85) and then in the Third Burmese War of 1886/87. During that latter campaign, he fell sick and was invalided home. Back in civilian life, Holt began studying zoology at the University of St. Andrews in 1888.

Two years later, he participated as assistant-naturalist in a fishery survey on the west coast of Ireland, organized by the Royal Dublin Society. This expedition was led by William Spotswood Green, with whom Holt would work together for much of his later career. That survey made Holt's name as an ichthyologist; he published not only several papers on the eggs and the early larval stages of fish but also wrote the general report of the expedition. As a result of Green's and Holt's work, the government instituted a formal program of fishery surveys under the auspice of the newly formed Congested Districts Board in 1892. Green became the board's Chief Inspector of Fisheries, while Holt participated as a scientific advisor, although he would leave Ireland for a few years.

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