UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION OF FISHERY SCIENTISTS' 



William F. Royce= 



The requisite preparation and training for the 

 profession of fishery scientist' has received much 

 attention from faculties giving instruction re- 

 lated to fishery problems and from a number of 

 people who have examined the educational prob- 

 lem in some depth, notably Deason (1941), Mc- 

 Hugh (1968), Paulik (1968), and Carlander 

 (1970). Almost everyone has been dissatisfied 

 with the curricula available. Those of us who 

 are concerned are well advised to ask what we 

 can do to improve our preparation of fishery 

 scientists for their roles in society as scientists 

 and as citizens. 



The traditional approach to fishery science 

 was through training in natural history, espe- 

 cially in ichthyology and limnology. The first 

 special courses in fisheries in North America 

 were developed in aquaculture and fishing. 

 Later, courses were offered in the biology and 

 ecology of fishes and in fishery management. 

 It was recognized generally, however, that most 

 of the training of fishery scientists should be 

 in biology and a degree in fisheries was equat- 

 ed with a degree in either biology or zoology 

 by many agencies that employed fishery scien- 

 tists. 



The traditional approach is now being chal- 

 lenged from many directions. The problems of 

 public fishery management are only part of the 

 immensely complex problems of environmental 

 management, the solution of which involves pre- 

 dominantly the management of people. The pro- 

 liferation of specialized courses in biology causes 



' Contribution No. 366, College of Fisheries, Univer- 

 sity of Washington. 



" College of Fisheries, University of Washington, Se- 

 attle, WA 98195; now Associate Director for Resource 

 Research, National Marine Fisheries Service Washing- 

 ton, D.C. 20235. 



* Included in this category are all fishery resource 

 workers who normally are required to have a baccalau- 

 reate degree or higher for the job they hold. 



Manuscript accepted March 1972. 



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



many fishery students to wonder whether most 

 of them are useful. The diversity of fishery jobs 

 stimulates others to inquire what set of courses 

 should be taken for each. It is now accepted 

 generally that an undergraduate biology major 

 is not the best preparation for most fishery jobs, 

 and the basic question is asked — What is the 

 best education for each kind of fishery job? 



ROLE OF FISHERY SCIENTISTS 



The common division of fishery science into 

 management and research fails completely to in- 

 dicate the diversity of jobs that are filled by fish- 

 ery scientists. Carlander (1959) in his survey 

 of technical fishery careers used the categories: 

 (1) fish culture; (2) management; (3) survey 

 and trouble shooting; (4) research; (5) edu- 

 cation; and (6) administration. Later (1970) 

 he listed a sampling of fishery courses and in- 

 cluded a number of additional subjects that 

 might well be job categories: (1) pond and lake 

 management; (2) hatchery management; (3) 

 fishery technology and economics ; (4) pollution 

 biology; and (5) population dynamics. Obvi- 

 ously, the category of fishery technology can be 

 separated into commercial fishing and fish pro- 

 cessing technology and the category of fish cul- 

 ture can be extended to include shellfish culture. 



A much more diverse group of categories is 

 included in Hall's (1969) review of fishery oc- 

 cupations on an international basis. He con- 

 siders that most of the personnel engaged in the 

 following fishery activities require a high degree 

 of special fishery knowledge: (1) seagoing and 

 other personnel in the primary sector; (2) pro- 

 cessing, distribution, and marketing personnel; 

 (3) management, government administration, 

 enforcement and development personnel; (4) re- 

 search and education personnel; and (5) econ- 

 omists and statisticians. In addition he lists 



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