OSCAR ELTON SETTE: FISHERY BIOLOGIST 



Patricia Powell* 



The twentieth century marked a turning point 

 in the development and advancement of many 

 scientific disciplines. Pioneer leaders at this 

 time turned to research, focusing their explor- 

 ations on ways and means of increasing man's 

 knowledge about himself and of the world in 

 which he lives. Within a lifetime, these leaders 

 made an impact on society that changed social 

 and economic structures and continues to do so. 

 Oscar Elton Sette, fishery biologist, is one of 

 this select group. His contributions to marine 

 fisheries and his astute administration of fishery 

 research places him among the foremost of his 

 contemporaries. He pioneered research in two 

 oceans. He was among the first to expand the 

 concept of fishery biology to include other disci- 

 plines, and succeeded in integrating this science 

 with those of oceanography and meteorology, ele- 

 vating it to a major status and advancing its 

 economic importance worldwide. 



A midwesterner by birth, Sette spent his early 

 years in an environment quite diflferent from that 

 which was to hold his attention for more than 

 fifty years. His parents, Martin and Louise, 

 lived in Clyman, Wisconsin, where his father 

 owned a retail lumber business. On March 29, 

 1900, their fourth child Oscar Elton Sette was 

 born. The Settes also had two daughters and 

 another son. A few years after Elton's birth, 

 the family moved to a small town of Juneau, 

 Wisconsin, for business reasons. 



It was in Juneau that Elton, as he preferred to 

 be called, learned reading, writing, and arith- 

 matic; and developed a lasting love of nature, 

 together with a scientific curiosity concerning 

 all living things. He says his great love was for 

 "natural history studies," particularly those of 

 butterflies. At a very early age, he collected 

 butterflies which he classified, and had a truly 

 remarkable collection of Lepidoptera by the time 



* California Department of Fish and Game, 350 Golden 

 Shore, Long Beach, CA 90802. 



he finished high school. He has continued to col- 

 lect these insects throughout his life, and when 

 work pressures were great in later years, claims 

 this hobby afforded the release he needed to pre- 

 vent ulcers. He also collected stamps. 



Martin Sette always wanted to retire on a 

 lemon ranch, and with this in mind bought five 

 acres near Chula Vista, California. Later he 

 bought another five acres. When some of his 

 investments went "sour," he decided to live on 

 the ranch and grow lemons. The family moved 

 to southern California in 1910. During some 

 lean years that followed, Elton's mother, who 

 firmly believed in the principle of "waste not, 

 want not," instilled a sense of frugality in her 

 children. This quality, which Mr. Webster de- 

 fines as "careful management of resources," has 

 been reflected in her son's thinking down the 

 years. 



Between the ages ten and sixteen, Elton was 

 kept busy with school activities and the pursuit 

 of his hobbies. He graduated from the eighth 

 grade when he was twelve, then attended high 

 school in National City, California, for fouryears. 

 He was an outstanding student and planned to 

 enter college, expecting to get a degree from 

 the University of California at Berkeley in En- 

 tomology. However, fate, by the name of Elmer 

 Higgins, stepped into the picture in 1916. Owing 

 to a chain of circumstances in which Dr. Higgins 

 played a part, Elton's plans for college did not 

 materialize. Instead of becoming a "bug-hunt- 

 er," his interest was diverted from butterflies to 

 fisheries. His first encounter with this gentle- 

 man came during his senior year in high school. 

 The following is a quote from an anectodal re- 

 view of Elton Sette's career as written by Elmer 

 Higgins: 



"My first contact with Elton Sette occurred in Sep- 

 tember, 1916, when a trim, compact, boy in knickers 

 and shirt filed into my chemistry classroom and lab- 

 oratory with a couple dozen other students in National 

 City (Calif.) High School. I was a 'freshman' science 



Manuscript accepted May, 1972. 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 70. NO. 3, 1972. 



525 



