He began his research career at the federal government's Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, British Columbia, before becoming a Professor of Oceanography at the University of British Columbia from 1972 until his retirement in 1992, and subsequently an Honorary Research Scientist at the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney, British Columbia, Canada.
[1] Parsons was a biological oceanographer with a strong scientific interest in the application of oceanography for the solution of problems in fisheries and ocean pollution.
His lifetime work has been to establish a new ecosystem approach for the management of fisheries using oceanographic information.
He has followed a research program of developing methods, conducting large scale experiments using mesocosms and making observations in the Gulf of Alaska and the Beaufort Sea.
Some of his seminal contributions included his deep involvement in the Controlled Ecosystem Pollution Experiment (CEPEX),[2] his authorship of a widely used textbook [3] and a manual of seawater analysis.