paper on the feeding, growth, respiration, and car- 

 bon utilization of a euphausiid crustacean became 

 a citation classic (Current Contents, 1983, Volume 

 14, page 17). 



With outstanding researchers and equipment, 

 particularly the facilities of the experimental sea- 

 water aquarium, at his disposal, Reuben was able to 

 concentrate his research on ecological and physio- 

 logical factors that would help answer one of the 

 most important and fundamental questions in 

 fisheries: What determines how many young fish 

 will survive the rigors of life in the sea to become 

 reproducing adults? 



Ever the creative and imaginative scientist, 

 Reuben constantly came up with fresh and innova- 

 tive scientific approaches. An example was an 

 experiment in which he took anchovy larvae 

 spawned in the Center's seawater aquarium to sea 

 in order to test his idea that laboratory-raised an- 

 chovy could be used in lieu of naturally spawned 

 larvae as an assay of conditions in the sea. 



Another remarkable idea came to Reuben 

 when he was on a cruise to sample patches of larval 

 food. Following a storm with strong winds that 

 mixed and diluted the dense layer of larval forage 

 from which he had drawn his samples, it occurred 

 to him that upwelling events and storms are detri- 

 mental to fish larvae because these events dilute 

 concentrations of larval food. He suggested that 

 larval survival increases during periods of weak 

 winds when the coastal seas stratify and the forage 

 of larval fishes concentrates in layers. This "stability " 

 hypothesis has greatly interested oceanographers 

 and fishery biologists both in this country and 

 abroad and has stimulated efforts of individual re- 

 searchers to study the definitive links between fish 

 larvae and their microenvironment. Now known as 

 "Lasker Events" (see following article on "An 

 eponym for Reuben Lasker" by Daniel Pauly), these 

 calm periods could be the key factor in larval sur- 

 vival, and ultimately recruitment. 



The years passed quickly and happily for 

 Reuben. As Chief Scientist of what would become 

 the Coastal Fisheries Resources Division, he 

 directed the efforts of a multidisciplinary research 

 team and was signally successful in stimulating and 

 inspiring his staff to pursue promising avenues of 

 research. This record of research achievement re- 

 ceived mention in the review conducted by the 



National Academy of Sciences in its evaluation of 

 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra- 

 tion's ocean research and development. The 

 examiners wrote, "The Coastal Division represents 

 a center of excellence . . . the Division has a high 

 scientific awareness, much talent and enthusiasm, 

 and is doing some excellent research." 



One remarkable example of how Reuben's 

 leadership and influence led to a major break- 

 through is his role in developing the estimation 

 procedure for anchovy biomass assessment. He 

 was among the first to recognize the unique poten- 

 tial of this method and was responsible for bringing 

 together the disparate disciplines and people that 

 made it work. The method permits the estimate of 

 biomass from the ratio of the egg production rate in 

 the sea to the daily fecundity of the spawning fish 

 stock. This new method of pelagic population 

 analyses was accomplished by a team effort and 

 was founded almost entirely on previous research 

 done by Reuben and others, research which pro- 

 vided the essential background information on 

 which to build. In order to develop the anchovy 

 biomass assessment, a wide variety of studies on 

 sampling, statistical methodology, fish biology, 

 ecology, behavior, and physiology had to be made. 

 All of these studies added greatly to the knowledge 

 of clupeoid biology. 



As of this writing, the biomass assessment 

 method has been incorporated into the Northern 

 Anchovy Management Plan as a guide for setting 

 anchovy fishing quotas in the coastal waters of the 

 G.S. Pacific Coast and has been adapted in other 

 countries such as South Africa and Peru. It is in- 

 creasingly viewed by many fisheries scientists as the 

 best current assessment technique for fishes with 

 pelagic eggs. 



In 1970, in response to a request from the 

 administrators of the fisheries service, Reuben (with 

 the able assistance of the late Lon Manar as the 

 managing editor) undertook the task, as scientific 

 editor, of revitalizing the venerable U.S. Fishery Bul- 

 letin. Before 1971, the Fishery Bulletin appeared 

 irregularly for lack of sufficient contributions of 

 merit. Authors sought other journals because it 

 took 2-3 years to get papers published in the Fish- 

 ery Bulletin. During Reuben's first year as editor, the 

 Fishery Bulletin became a quarterly and the num- 

 ber of pages printed per year almost tripled. Be- 



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