|
 The Institute
for Fisheries Research was established on February 7, 1930, by the University
of Michigan Board of Regents. In 1973, in celebration of the 100th anniversary
of the beginning of fisheries management in Michigan, Gerald P. Cooper,
then supervisor of fisheries research in the Michigan Department of Natural
Resources, prepared a history of fisheries research. His accounts of people,
activities, and accomplishments for the Institute are included in W. Carl
Latta's 1980 report.
In the
years since 1973 there have been some changes in fisheries research. In
1974, the Grayling Pathology Laboratory and the Hastings Fisheries Research
Station were closed. Fish disease studies were dropped and the staff reassigned
outside of research. A pathologist was transferred to the Wolf Lake Hatchery
at Mattawan to work with hatchery biologists in control of disease problems.
The Hastings staff was also transferred to Wolf Lake Hatchery but continued
to work on research projects. In 1976, Gerald P. Cooper retired and W.
Carl Latta took his place. Carl Latta retired in 1992, and James C. Schneider
served as acting supervisor until Richard D. Clark, Jr. became the next
supervisor of research.
Included
in the anniversary report is a list of students supported either as employees
or fellows while they completed graduate studies in fisheries for a Master's
or Doctor's degree. In its first 50 years the Institute had supported,
guided, and benefitted from 42 Master and 39 Doctoral students. Of the
81 graduate students supported, 22 are or were career employees with the
Michgian Department of Natural Resources.
The Institute
is undoubtedly judged as to its worth on the number and quality of its
publications more than any other thing. In the first 50 years the Institute
staff and students published 476 scientific or popular articles or 9.5
per year. Perusal of the list of publications shows that almost every
aspect of freshwater fisheries management has been considered sometime
in the past. By 1980, in addition to the published reports, the Institute
biologists had prepared 1,877 in-house fisheries research reports for
the use of management and from which many of the published articles have
evolved.
Since
1930 there have been five supervisors of fisheries research--Carl L. Hubbs,
1930-35; Albert S. Hazzard, 1935-55; Gerald P. Cooper, 1955-76; William
C. Latta, 1976-92; and Richard D. Clark, Jr., 1992 to present. Unfortunately
both Hubbs and Hazzard died in 1979. The 1980 research staff, grouped
by research station, is pictured in Figure 2, and some representative
staffs of the past are shown in Figure 3 of Latta's 1980 report.
Fisheries
research in Michigan has thrived. In the early years, the Institute was
a unique organization for there were few biological groups in the country
who addressed fisheries problems. However, with growth of the fisheries
profession, more states and universities developed fisheries research
staff. Today the Institute is only one of many fisheries research groups,
but it has had an illustrious history and, hopefully, it will have an
outstanding future.
For more information, consult the following report, from which the above
was taken:
Latta, W. C. 1980. Institute for Fisheries Research 1930-1980: Fifty
years of fisheries investigations. Michigan Department of Natural Resources,
Fisheries Research Report No. 1882, Ann Arbor.
Last revised 1/12/96.
 |
