Ransom Myers: A legend in marine biology finally silenced

By hrynyshyn on March 31, 2007.

Ransom Myers had a habit of telling people what they didn't want to hear. In the 1990s, his employers in the Canadian government didn't like it when he told them overfishing was to blame for the collapse of the northern cod stocks. Three years ago it was the U.S. federal government, in a classic example of its anti-science bias, that removed his recommendations on the importance of habitat protection from a report on west coast salmon stocks. But he kept telling it like it is. Until a brain tumor finally got the best of him on March 27.

At 54, Myers should have had many more years of blowing the whistle on human mismanagement of marine ecosystems. His last paper, which appeared this weekend in Science, "Cascading Effects of the Loss of Apex Predatory Sharks from a Coastal Ocean" was a typical expose on how we still have no idea what we're doing to the world's oceans the wildlife that lives in them.

I never had a chance to meet "Ram," as he was called by those who knew him best. And now I never will. He was one of the great marine biologists of our time. Do yourself a favor and read or listen to an obituary.

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Thanks for this.

Not to diminish its seriousness, I have to admit that, on reading the first two words of the caption, the first thought that came to me is "They've kidnapped PZ." Then I thought, "Oh, it's an early April Fools joke." Context is sometimes quite important. ;-)