He was a professor of biology, and the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Chair in Fish, Fisheries, and Oceans at Dalhousie University.

[3] After graduating from Memorial, Hutchings first worked at the University of Edinburgh and at Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.

He later joined the Department of Biology at Dalhousie University in 1995, eventually becoming Killam Memorial Chair in Fish, Fisheries and Oceans.

He authored three books (including A Primer of Life Histories: Ecology, Evolution, and Application, published the year before his death), as well as more than 250 journal articles.

[3] He was called to testify before the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans on multiple occasions, including in December 1997,[5] March 2012,[6] as well as May and October 2016.