Jump to content

A sad day for native fish nuts...


Stella

Recommended Posts

The Godfather of NZ native fish nuts, Bob McDowall, had died :tears:

It is with great sadness that I write to inform you of the death of Bob

McDowall on the weekend, after a short illness. Bob was New Zealand’s

foremost freshwater fisheries scientist for some decades and had a long and

distinguished service with Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (and Marine

Dept before that) and latterly, NIWA. He studied the taxonomy,

relationships, biogeography and ecology of the freshwater fish faunas of New

Zealand and had a particular interest in the galaxioid families, and also

the role of diadromous migrations in fish ecology and biogeography. Of

particular note was his ability to make this science popular to the public.

Bob authored twelve books, including Diadromy in Fishes (1988) and New

Zealand Freshwater Fishes - A Natural History and Guide (1990), and he

edited Freshwater Fishes of Southeastern Australia (1994). He also had one

book ‘in press’, namely Ikawai. Freshwater fishes in Maori culture and

economy (872 pp.). Bob published (at last count) 267 scientific papers and

232 reports and popular articles. He was made a fellow of the NZ Royal

Society (1984) and an honorary member of the NZ Limnological Society (2000).

He will be missed by many in the NZFSS, not only his enormous scientific

contribution, but also for his mentoring of younger scientists, dry wit and

inclusive nature. He is survived by his wife Ainslie, and children Stephen

and Susan, and two grandchildren.

David Hamilton

President, New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society

(emphasis mine)

Although I sadly never got to meet him, he very kindly read over and commented on a draft of my book. I heard later just how many manuscripts he recieves and turns down, so this was a pretty big honour.

A huge loss to freshwater science.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Iv been off the forum for a few weeks, finally get back on and I read this!!!!

Im gutted, I have 7 of his books and read a number of his papers and have grown to feel like I practically new the man!!!!

still no doubt- lived a good life,

defiantly a man I'll strive to live up to =)

RIP Robert :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

cichlidcentral said...

> I have 7 of his books ...

I have 11 (including a signed copy of the white covered 'New Zealand Freshwater Fishes'), assuming you count the 'Synoptic Checklist' which is more of a 'booklet'. If anyone is looking for the trout one then I have spares and also a spare copy of the above-mentioned 'booklet'.

Andrew.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

> lucky man!

Not so much lucky as persistant. :) OK, a bit lucky.

> the trout one is one is iv been meaning to get my hands on,

> but im terribly down on cash atm =(

>

> how much you looking for it?

PM me if you're interested at around the $25 mark. I'll be in AKL this weekend so could even drop it off...

Andrew.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...