The Smithsonian Swims with the Fishes; Announces New Revision Of Classic Book, Bigelow & Schroeder's 'Fishes Of The Gulf Of Maine'

6/24/2002

From: Matt Litts of the Smithsonian Institution Press, 202-275-2206; E-mail: mlitts@sipress.si.edu

News Advisory:

Smithsonian Institution Press Media Alert

When: Press Panel Thursday, June 27, 12 - 3 p.m.

Where: National Press Club (Zenger Room) 529 14th street NW (13th floor) Washington, DC

"Bigelow and Schroeder's Fishes of the Gulf of Maine... fifty years after its first printing still ranks as perhaps the greatest of all references on marine fish." - The New York Times

The Smithsonian Institution Press is proud to announce the new revision of the classic book, Bigelow & Schroeder's Fishes of the Gulf of Maine. To celebrate the release of this still authoritative text, the Smithsonian Institution Press has put together an expert press panel featuring three of the leading figures in oceanography, marine biology, and ocean conservancy. The panel features Bruce Collette who is the director of the National Marine Fisheries Service's National Systematics Laboratory and the principle editor behind the re-issue of Bigelow & Schroeder's Fishes of the Gulf of Maine. Collette had 50 percent new material added to the updated volume ensuring that the new issue will remain the standard text for many years to come. Smithsonian Institution marine biologist, Dr. Carole Baldwin, is probably best known for her feature in the three-dimensional IMAX film, Galapagos. Baldwin has published over three dozen scientific papers and has had her work featured in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the ABC television special Planet Earth 2000, along with numerous other magazines and newspapers. Dr. David Guggenheim is Vice President for Conservation Policy with the Ocean Conservancy. He oversees the policy analysis, advocacy, research and international work of the Ocean Conservancy. Guggenheim is currently engaged in efforts to guide the establishment of marine protected areas in the United States and the Caribbean along with developing responsible fisheries management policies in the U.S.

The three panel speakers mentioned above will discuss the definitive text by Henry Bigelow and William Schroeder, the New England area of the Atlantic and the Gulf of Maine, as well as current concerns of the Oceans.

Bigelow's 1929 report to the National Academy of Sciences resulted in the establishment of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1930, of which he was the founding director. In the report, Bigelow wrote of "our general ignorance of the inter-relationships in the very complex chain of events in the sea that govern the comparative success of failure of its inhabitants in the struggle for life. Nothing in the sea falls haphazard; if we cannot predict, it is because we do not know the cause, or how it works."

Bigelow's work stressed the interdependence of biology, chemistry, and physical science in studying the ocean. His Fishes of the Gulf Maine remains the greatest authoritative text on marine fish.