POWELL: OSCAR ELTON SETTE: FISHERY BIOLOGIST 



their evaluation of the sardine data. As a re- 

 sult, the San Francisco Sardine Association and 

 the California Sardine Products Institute en- 

 gaged Sette as a paid consultant from 1942-1947. 

 Their respect for his judgement was so great 

 they followed his advice without question when 

 he said he could not conscientiously recommend 

 industry requests for additional tonnage. Julian 

 Burnette, a prominent business man who was 

 active in industry affairs during that time, com- 

 mented that Sette never spoke unless he had 

 something to say, and when he did, people 

 listened. 



Marine fishery research was practically elim- 

 inated during World War II owing to a man- 

 power shortage and the use of fishing vessels 

 for the war eff"ort. Between. 1943 and 1945, 

 Sette served as Area Coordinator of Fisheries 

 for California. He applied strict control on all 

 plants and vessels that were operating in the 

 California fisheries. He assigned boats to dif- 

 ferent plants and shifted them around so all 

 plants would be in operation and no waste would 

 occur. Controlling a fiercely competitive in- 

 dustry was an especially difficult assignment. 

 His success was rewarded by a meritorious pro- 

 motion in 1944, in his capacity as Chief of the 

 South Pacific Fisheries Investigations where he 

 remained until 1949. 



The post-war years witnessed a boom in com- 

 mercial fishing and ushered in a period of ex- 

 pansion in fishery research. The search for new 

 sources of protein to meet the demands of a 

 growing population, as well as the economic 

 aspects of harvesting large pelagic fish stocks 

 attracted monied interests internationally. The 

 need to discuss mutual problems and exchange 

 information between scientists engaged in fish- 

 ery research in other countries resulted in a 

 series of international meetings. Sette attended 

 several of these as an oflficial representative for 

 the United States. 



Meanwhile the sardine fishery in California 

 experienced an alarming decline. Concern over 

 the depletion of this resource gave rise to public 

 demand for answers from fishery biologists to 

 explain what caused the fluctuation of this once 

 great fishery. The answer to this problem al- 

 ready had challenged Sette's thinking for a 



quarter of a century. It was obvious that such 

 answers could be sought only through the coop- 

 eration of various agencies working together on 

 a multidisciplined research program. In 1947 

 the California State Legislature established the 

 industry-financed Marine Research Committee. 

 The Committee, consisting largely of industry 

 members, and with Sette as its scientific advisor, 

 inaugurated the California Cooperative Sardine 

 Research Program which became the California 

 Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations, or 

 CalCOFI. Five agencies participated at the Fed- 

 eral, State, and University levels. Sette's fine 

 hand was evident throughout the planning 

 stages. He was largely instrumental in inte- 

 grating the disciplines of fishery biology with 

 those of oceanography and meteorology as this 

 program developed. His personal contributions 

 to the program and his participation in symposia 

 at annual meetings were significant. 



The fishing pressure exerted on tuna stocks 

 throughout the Pacific ocean prompted the fed- 

 eral government to initiate tuna research in the 

 mid-Pacific in 1949. Money was appropriated 

 to build a large, well equipped laboratory adja- 

 cent to the University of Hawaii campus and to 

 purchase two vessels designed for this specific 

 program. Sette was appointed Director of the 

 new Honolulu Laboratory and made Chief of the 

 Pacific Oceanic Fishery Investigations, or POFI 

 as it was called. Here, under his leadership, an 

 exceptional research staff was assembled. The 

 team, consisting of fisheries biologists, ocean- 

 ographers, and meteorologists, jointly launched 

 another pioneer program to study environmental 

 phenomena and their relationship to oceanic 

 fishes. In their studies of tuna resources along 

 the equator, a subsurface current was detected. 

 The name of this current honors its discoverer, 

 Townsend Cromwell. The masses of other data 

 published provided a great source of new infor- 

 mation about the central Pacific Ocean. 



While in Hawaii, Sette was an enthusiastic 

 gardener and he took great pride in his flowers, 

 fruits, and vegetables. He recycled matter for 

 his own compost long before recycling became 

 a popular conservation measure. His zeal for 

 composting caused a family crisis. Apparently 

 his wife, Elizabeth, thought the compost was 



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