The Oscar Elton Sette Award:
Outstanding Marine Fishery Biologist Award
Administered by the AFS Marine Fisheries Section

The basic criterion for identifying recipients of the award is sustained excellence in marine fishery biology through research, teaching, administration, or a combination of the three. MFS adopted the following guidelines:

1. North American residents are the preferred recipients, but the award may be given to any suitable candidate.

2. Membership in the American Fisheries Society is a positive attribute but is not required. AFS membership could tip the balance between otherwise equally-deserving candidates.

3. Living recipients are preferred, but the award may be given posthumously.

4. The Committee considers not only candidates who, by virtue of their position and personality, are widely known, but may also have labored quietly and are less well-known, but who have made sustained and important contributions to marine fishery biology.

5. Candidates should be clearly identified with marine fishery science, even though there may well be crossover between marine and freshwater environments. Contributions to any discipline within the broad spectrum of activities in marine fisheries biology should be considered appropriate for candidates, including systematics, physiology, and ecology.

6. Runner(s)-up from a given year's consideration will be considered automatically for the award in the subsequent year. The committee each year will normally decide upon the names of candidates to be carried forward at the time of their deliberations for the awardee.

Submissions for Sette Award candidates for 2002 will be accepted through May 24, 2002 and should be made to the Sette Award Committee chair via electronic submission.

MFS O.E. Sette Award Committee (2001/2002)
Desmond Kahn, DE Division of Fish and Wildlife (Chair) dkahn@state.de.us
Patricia Gerrior, National Marine Fisheries Service, Woods Hole, MA
Dick Stone, Oakton, VA

Oscar Elton Sette Award Recipients
1991 Lloyd Dickie
1992 Douglas Chapman
1993 D.E. "Curly" Wohlschlag
1994 Saul B. Saila
1995 William G. Pearcy
1996 William C. Leggett
1997 William E. Ricker
1998 Edward D. Houde
1999 Austin B. Williams
2000 Edmund S. Hobson
2001 Daniel Pauly
2002 William Richards
2003 Michael P. Sissenwine
2004 Dr. Kenneth W. Able

2004 Recipient: Dr. Kenneth W. Able

Professor Kenneth W. Able received his PhD at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science 30 years ago. Ken=s interests in marine and estuarine fisheries science are broad, and he has made major contributions to advancing our understanding of estuarine and coastal fishes and their ecology. The topics of Ken's research are not taxa-specific, although Ken is especially expert in the biology, systematics, and life histories of snailfishes (Liparidae) and killifishes (Cyprinodontidae). His research on coastal systems includes studies on taxa ranging from seagrasses and macroalgae, to invertebrates, teleost fishes and even elasmobranchs. A strong and consistent thread in Ken's research is early-life history and recruitment-related research, especially addressing questions that relate to estuarine dependency and linkages to the coastal ocean. Ken's published, refereed contributions number more than 160. Among Ken=s many strengths is his ability to develop and organize research programs and to engage collaborators, students and postdocs in these projects. Recent research on flounders, bluefish and menhaden early-life ecology and recruitment processes, fish community and trophic analyses in estuaries and in restored salt marshes, and the role of habitat in estuarine nurseries provide a good sample of the scope and breadth of Ken's research.

Ken is 'Distinguished Professor' at Rutgers, a distinction in rank bestowed uncommonly on Rutgers University faculty members. His worth is recognized by the University and by the professional community of fisheries scientists and marine ecologists nationally and globally. Ken is a teacher (Ichthyology and Early Life Ecology emphases) and a very effective mentor to graduate students. He has a constant stream of postdoctoral scientists who compete to gain positions in his lab, seeking opportunity to work with and learn from one of the world's premier fish ecologists. Virtually all of his students and postdocs become highly productive, successful scientists, in no small part due to Ken's mentoring abilities.

Ken's professional achievements have distinguished him and very much represent the qualities of excellence in fisheries research that are inherent in the Oscar Elton Sette Award. Although Ken has many achievements to his credit, he remains incredibly active and it is certain that many of Ken's major contributions to fisheries science are yet to be delivered.

2003 Recipient: Dr. Michael P. Sissenwine,

The Oscar E. Sette Award is given to scientists who meet the criteria of sustained excellence in marine fishery biology through research, teaching, administration or a combination of the three. Dr. Michael P. Sissenwine has been chosen as the 2003 recipient of this annual award. He received his Ph. D. from the University of Rhode Island in 1975. He is an author of several influential scientific papers on population dynamics, including new and original stock assessment methodologies. Dr. Sissenwine has also published widely cited papers on estimation of biological reference points for fishery management. A common thread through his work has been an effort to assess and maintain sustainable levels of harvest in marine fisheries.

Michael Sissenwine has also exerted both national and international influence on marine fisheries management through his work with the National Marine Fisheries Service as Senior Scientist, as Director of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, as the U.S. delegate to the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea and in many other capacities. He has provided guidance on science-based management to the U.S. delegation to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, the National Academy of the Sciences and to other agencies and organizations to numerous to list here in full.

The Oscar E. Sette Award Committee consists of Edward Houde, Richard Stone, Patricia Gerrior and Desmond Kahn, Chair.

2001 Recipient: Dr. Daniel Pauly: http://www.fisheries.ubc.ca/Staff/dpauly.htm

1998 Recipient: Dr. Edward Houde
Dr. Edward Houde has had multiple research careers that have benefited many research fields. He has published diversely and prodigiously: over 100 papers related to marine and estuarine fish systematics, recruitment, predation, reproductive biology, age and growth, fisheries production, aquaculture, behavior, energetics, trophic ecology, and management. Ed is perhaps best known for his research on early life history studies. His most influential papers in marine fisheries are those showing the subtle influence of larval fish vital rates to recruitment dynamics. Ed has an affection for estimation; and much of his early career has provided us with countless estimates of larval fish vital processes (growth, mortality, feeding, respiration, swimming performance). Simple but elegant models which Ed divined prompted him to dig into his exhaustive personal library to test hypotheses on early vital rate and energetic processes through meta-analyses. It is not an overstatement that these papers have had a major impact upon how the current generation of fisheries biologists view the recruitment process. Thus, it is particularly auspicious for Ed to receive the Sette Award given that Dr. Sette's most influential work pursued questions related to early vital rates of marine fishes.

Ed's energy and zeal for science is renown. Ed is a tireless worker who's level of productivity astounds those who work with him. Colleagues, Post- docs and graduate students are inspired but unable to keep pace. Since 1971 Ed has served as a gracious and open-minded supervisor, and is strongly committed to initiating his charges into productive careers in fisheries science. Ed's recent Ph.D. students and Research Associates include Drs. David Secor (Chesapeake Biological Laboratory), Ed Chesney (Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium), Jim Cowan (University of South Alabama), Dan Margulies (Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission), Doreen Monteleone (Environmental Protection Agency), Tim Mulligan (Humboldt State University), John Olney (Virginia Institute of Marine Science), and Ed Rutherford (University of Michigan). They continue to learn from Ed through his experienced viewpoint, scholarship and relentless intellectual pursuits.

Ed's tireless energy overflows into the management and policy arena where he has served leadership roles in numerous review, advisory, and planning committees for university, regional, state, federal and international groups including the Chesapeake Bay Program, Environmental Protection Agency, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Research Council, International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna, and International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. Ed's career achievements have been honored by awards from the National Science Foundation and Sea Grant. In 1996, he was the invited "Warren Wooster Lecturer in Recruitment Oceanography" (University of Washington) and was the recipient of the Beverton Medal for Excellence in Fisheries Research (Fisheries Society of the British Isles).

1997 Recipient: Dr. William E. Ricker
Dr. William Ricker's exploits are well known and he has been recognized repeatedly throughout the world as one of the most outstanding fisheries scientists of all time. His contributions to fisheries science and to the scientific basis of management of fisheries resources are second to none. While his principal contributions have been in population dynamics and salmon biology, he also achieved prominence as a limnologist for his theories on lake circulation, and excelled in entomology where he has become the world's authority on stoneflies.

As editor of the Journal of Fisheries Research Board of Canada (now Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences) from 1950 to 1962, he elevated this journal to the status it now enjoys. His self-taught expertise in Russian enabled him to create an awareness of Soviet fisheries science in the western world through nearly 100 translations of important Soviet publications. The translation of Baranov's 1918 classic work in population dynamics is one of the best examples of the importance of this effort. He also compiled and published a 428-page Russian-English glossary of fisheries and aquatic biology terms that is on the desk of most Russian fisheries scientists; today this continues to alleviate the communication problem.

During his outstanding career, Dr. Ricker authored over 200 publications covering all three of his principal research areas. They include original research papers, popular articles, reviews, syntheses, monographs, book chapters, and books, totaling more than 7,000 pages. His 1954 paper on stock and recruitment is still considered a classic reference in the field. He has served as editor of several books and special publications. His book "Computation and Interpretation of Biological Statistics of Fish Populations" has attracted such wide interest and use that it has been through two revisions and three printings (the latest in 1975) and translated into Russian and French since its original appearance in 1948.

During his long career, Dr. Ricker has been the recipient of a variety of prestigious awards, including the following: elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada,; Baldi Memorial Lecture Award in Limnology; Gold Medal of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada; Award of Excellence of the American Fisheries Society (first recipient); Flavelle Medal of the Royal Society of Canada; Member of the Order of Canada; Honorary D.Sc., University of Manitoba; and Honorary LL.D., Dalhousie University. In 1996 the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans launched a new research vessel named in his honor, the R/V W.E. Ricker.