Helen Scales

Helen Scales is a British marine biologist, broadcaster, and writer.
Her 2009 book Poseidon's Steed, on seahorses, was described by the reviewer for The Economist as "a fascinating book ... Scales ... explains the myth, biology and ecology of what the Victorians called 'queer fish'." while in National Geographic the reviewer called it "a compelling book about seahorses that makes the case not only for these odd fish but also for the entire ocean."
Scales was awarded a Ph.D. from St John's College, Cambridge in 2005; her thesis title was Exploitation of coral reef fish for the live reef fish trade. She also studied at St John's as an undergraduate and holds an M.Sc in Tropical Coastal Management from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne.
Scales is a tutor for the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education.
In October 2011 she appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity. Her hypothetical donation to this fictional museum was a tank full of seahorses. In 2013 she spoke at a TEDx event, TEDxLSE, at the London School of Economics.

Selected publications

• Poseidon's steed : the story of seahorses, from myth to reality (2009, Gotham Books, ISBN 9781592404742)
• The underwater museum : the submerged sculptures of Jason deCaires Taylor / essays by Carlo McCormick and Helen Scales (2014, Chronicle Books, ISBN 9781452118871)
• Spirals in Time: the secret life and curious afterlife of seashells (2015, Bloomsbury Sigma, ISBN 978-1472911360)