| Peter Anthony Larkin | |
| Birth Date: | 1924 |
| Birth Place: | Auckland, New Zealand |
| Death Place: | Canada |
| Workplaces: | University of British Columbia, Pacific Biological Station |
| Alma Mater: | University of Saskatchewan, University of Oxford (PhD) |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Charles Elton |
| Known For: | Fisheries science, criticism of maximum sustainable yield |
| Awards: | Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Order of Canada, Order of British Columbia |
| Spouse: | Lois |
Peter Anthony Larkin, (1924–1996) was a fisheries scientist who spent most of his career at the University of British Columbia. After his PhD at the Exeter College, Oxford, he moved to Canada as the Chief Fisheries Biologist of British Columbia, in a joint appointment between the provincial government and the University of British Columbia (UBC). At UBC, he later served as the Head of the Department of Zoology (1972–1975), as the Dean of Graduate Studies (1975–1984), and as the Vice President of Research (1986–1988). He authored some 160 scientific papers. He was also an admired teacher who won UBC's Master Teacher Award in 1971. Outside UBC, he served as the Director of the Pacific Biological Station at Nanaimo (1963–1966).
Larkin was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1965. He was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977, the Fry Medal of the Canadian Society of Zoologists in 1978, and the American Fisheries Society Award of Excellence in 1984. He also received the Order of Canada in 1995, and became a Member of the Order of British Columbia in June 1996.
"Larkin Lectures" are an approximately biannual series of lectures at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia. The series was initiated upon Larkin's retirement. The first lecture was given by Ray Beverton in 1995.
By early 2018, Google Scholar listed more than 900 citations[1] to Larkin's "An epitaph for the concept of maximum sustained yield", an essay based on his keynote lecture at the American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting in 1976.