Frances Naomi Clark (1894 – 1987) was an American

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

. She was one of the first woman fishery researchers to receive world-wide recognition. The daughter of a Nebraska farmer, she was born near St. Edward, Nebraska. She moved to California with her family in 1910 and attended

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, earning an A.B. in zoology in 1918. She was employed by the United States Bureau of Commercial Fisheries from 1918 to 1921, working as lab assistant for

Charles Henry Gilbert Charles Henry Gilbert (December 5, 1859 in Rockford, Illinois – April 20, 1928 in Palo Alto, California) was a pioneer ichthyologist and Fisheries science, fishery biologist of particular significance to natural history of the western Unit ...

. She worked for the California Division of Fish and Game from 1921 to 1923. She earned a MS in 1924 and a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1925 from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

. From 1925 to 1926, she taught at San Jose Junior High School. From 1926 to 1941, she worked for the California Department of Fish and Game as an assistant biologist and then researcher. From 1941, she was director of the California State Fisheries Laboratory on

Terminal Island Terminal Island, historically known as , is a largely artificial island located in Los Angeles County, California, between the neighborhoods of Wilmington, Los Angeles, Wilmington and San Pedro, Los Angeles, San Pedro in the city of Los Angeles ...

, retiring to

La Jolla La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood in San Diego, California, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. The climate is mild, with an average daily temperature o ...

in 1956. Her research mainly focused on the

Pacific sardine ''Sardinops'' is a monotypic genus of sardines of the family Alosidae. The only member of the genus is ''Sardinops sagax''. It is found in the Indo-Pacific and East Pacific oceans. Its length is up to . It has numerous common or vernacular names, ...

. Besides working in California, she also conducted research studies in

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. Clark's studies of sardine populations off the California coast during the 1930s led her to believe that, without better yield management in the sardine fishery, depletion of the sardine population was inevitable. Calls for restraint from Clark and other scientists were ignored and the collapse of the fishery and the associated canning industry followed. She later played an important role in establishing California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) and continued to be involved with that organization after her retirement. Clark never married. Her sister Laura Hubbs and brother-in-law

Carl Leavitt Hubbs Carl Leavitt Hubbs (October 19, 1894 – June 30, 1979) was an American ichthyologist. Biography Early life Carl Leavitt Hubbs was born in Williams, Arizona, to Charles Leavitt and Elizabeth () Hubbs. His father had a wide variety of jobs (far ...

were both ichthyologists. Clark died on 10 February 1987 in La Jolla.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Frances Naomi 1894 births 1987 deaths American ichthyologists Stanford University alumni University of Michigan alumni 20th-century American zoologists

See also

References