Ransom Aldrich "Ram" Myers, Jr. (13 June 1952 – 27 March 2007) was a world-renowned American-Canadian marine biologist and conservationist.
Born in
Lula, Mississippi, he was the son of cotton planter, Ransom Aldrich Myers, Sr. and Fay A. Mitchell Myers. At age 16, in 1968, Myers won an international science fair for building an "X-ray crystallograph," which measured the symmetry of atoms.
Myers graduated with a
B.Sc. in physics from
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres.
Rice University comp ...
in 1974. He earned an
M.Sc. in mathematics and a
Ph.D. in biology from
Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia, Canada, with three campuses in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, a fourth in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, Bible Hill, and a second medical school campus ...
in
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...
, Canada. Before joining the faculty of
Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia, Canada, with three campuses in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, a fourth in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, Bible Hill, and a second medical school campus ...
in 1997 as the first Killam Chair in Ocean Studies, he was a research scientist at the Canadian
Department of Fisheries and Oceans in
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
St. John's is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. The city spans and is the easternmost city in North Ame ...
.
Myers was best known for his warnings about the worldwide
overfishing
Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing Fish stocks, fish stock), resu ...
of the
fish stocks in the oceans, in particular, the
Atlantic cod
The Atlantic cod (: cod; ''Gadus morhua'') is a fish of the family Gadidae, widely consumed by humans. It is also commercially known as '' cod'' or ''codling''.[Southern bluefin tuna
The southern bluefin tuna (''Thunnus maccoyii'') is a tuna of the family Scombridae found in open southern Hemisphere waters of all the world's oceans mainly between 30°S and 50°S, to nearly 60°S. At up to and weighing up to , it is amon ...]
. As a member of the
International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) shark specialist group, he collected data about the decline of shark populations and brought media attention to threatened shark species. One of Myers' most important areas of research was stock recruitment: collection and analysis of data and the subsequent development of models to predict the survival rate for fish larvae.
In the October 2005 issue of ''
Fortune
Fortune may refer to:
General
* Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck
* Luck
* Wealth
* Fate
* Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling
* Fortune, in a fortune cookie
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''The Fortune'' (19 ...
,'' Myers was listed among the world's ten people to watch for "working to develop new and better ways to husband the wealth beneath the sea."
"Fast-Forward to the Future"
''Fortune''
He died in Halifax, Nova Scotia, aged 54, from a brain tumor.
Notes
References
Ransom Aldrich Myers (1952-2007)
by Daniel Pauly
Dr. Sir Daniel Pauly is a France, French-born marine biologist, well known for his work in studying human impacts on global fisheries and in 2020 was the most cited fisheries scientist in the world. He is a professor and the project leader of the ...
, ''Nature'', 10 May 2007
Finding aids
at his fonds at Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia, Canada, with three campuses in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, a fourth in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, Bible Hill, and a second medical school campus ...
External links
Ransom Myers legacy site''The Chronicle-Herald'': Obituary
* ttps://www.theguardian.com/worldlatest/story/0,,-6515894,00.html ''The Guardian'': Marine Scientist Ransom Myers Dies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Myers, Ransom A.
1952 births
2007 deaths
Deaths from brain cancer in Canada
Canadian conservationists
Canadian marine biologists
Fisheries scientists
Dalhousie University alumni
Academic staff of Dalhousie University
People from Lula, Mississippi
Rice University alumni
Deaths from cancer in Nova Scotia
20th-century Canadian zoologists
American emigrants to Canada