History
A Brief History of the Western Fisheries Research Center 1934−2006
By Gary A. Wedemeyer, Senior Scientist/Historian Emeritus, February 2007
1934 Frederick F. Fish.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s Western Fisheries Research Center originated more than 70 years ago, at the absolute depth of the Great Depression, with a man and his dream. Dr. Frederick Forward Fish of the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, who had done notable work on fish disease problems in the eastern U.S., including Atlantic herring disease problems in the Gulf of Maine, and ulcer disease of trout at the Bureau’s Cortland (N.Y.) research station, was able to convince his superiors that improved methods to control diseases of Pacific salmon were needed. Thus, Dr. Fish arrived at the Bureau of Fisheries recently opened Fisheries Biological Laboratory (the “Montlake Lab”) in Seattle, Washington on November 1, 1934, to establish a Hatchery Disease Service (that would eventually become the Western Fisheries Research Center). A brief announcement in the 1935 issue of the “North American Journal of Aquaculture” (then, “The Progressive Fish-Culturist”) explains:
"The Division of Scientific Inquiry, U.S. Bureau of Fisheries in carrying out the purposes of Congress to discover how great a diminution of food and game fishes of the United States has occurred, what the causes may be, and what remedial measures may be proposed, has established a consulting Hatchery Disease Service. Two pathological laboratories are maintained by the bureau, one at Washington D.C. under the direction of Dr. H. S. Davis, and one at Seattle Washington, under Dr. Frederick F. Fish. Until public demand requires an increase in facilities and personnel, the service will be limited to production hatcheries, federal, state, and private. The accompanying article by Dr. Fish to whom much credit is due for proposing the establishment of the Hatchery Disease Service explains the operation, character and benefits to be derived1
Elmer Higgins
Chief, Division of Scientific Inquiry”
1Fish, F. F. 1935. The Bureau of Fisheries Disease Service. The Progressive Fish-Culturist 8:9-12.
Dr. Fish’s laboratory consisted of a small office and an adjacent laboratory area with six aquaria where fish could be observed under controlled conditions. Experimental disease treatments were conducted in the field at production hatcheries with the help of students hired from the nearby University of Washington. Robert R. Rucker, who eventually succeeded Fish as Director, began in 1935 as one such employee. Dr. Rucker built a second experimental wet laboratory in the basement of the Fisheries Building at the University, complete with a 4' x 8' water table, and 16 four-foot troughs supplied with heated and regular dechlorinated city water. Another experimental facility was soon built at the Quilcene National Salmon Hatchery, in Quilcene, Washington, where fish parasites were a chronic problem. Here, various disinfectants were tested and experimental diets developed to improve salmon aquaculture in the Pacific Northwest.
The construction of the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River was completed in 1939. Due to its height, a fish ladder was precluded, blocking access to spawning stream for many native salmon populations. To compensate, salmon hatcheries were built on Columbia River tributaries such as the Methow River, the Entiat River, and Icicle Creek near Leavenworth, Washington. These projects were to play a vital role in shaping the future of the National Hatchery Service.
Dr. Fish soon established a satellite laboratory at the Leavenworth Hatchery with substations at Entiat and the Methow hatcheries to develop badly needed methods to control infectious fish diseases. Environmental disease problems, triggered by unfavorable water quality conditions (temperatures, low dissolved oxygen, and excess carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas) had to be solved. Pioneering biologists such as Roger E. Burrows, Arthur M. Phillips, and Donald L. McKernan, who later became Director of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries and a State Department Ambassador for Fisheries, all began their careers at the Leavenworth facility.
By the early 1940's, Dr. Fish’s research had resulted in significant progress toward improving the condition and survival of juvenile salmon released from the federal mitigation hatcheries. Some hatchery practices, such as the controlled introduction of treatment chemicals into large rearing ponds through aspirators were developed at the Leavenworth Station and are still in use today. Methods for using formalin and other chemicals to treat and control fish parasites in salmon hatcheries were pioneered by Dr. Fish’s team. The sulfonamides and antibiotics being developed to treat human diseases were shown by Dr. Fish’s group to be effective against bacterial fish diseases such as furunculosis and columnaris as well.
By 1939, Fish’s innovative fish health research had gained national recognition. Newsweek Magazine published an article in the January 2, 1939 issue entitled "A Hospital for Fish." The article characterized the Montlake Laboratory as a fish hospital and the Quilcene Hatchery Experimental Station as one of its wards.
World War II eventually intervened and Dr. Fish’s research team gradually dispersed. Dr. Rucker transferred to College Park, Maryland, to work as bacteriologist on seafood sanitation as part of the War effort. During this time, the Bureau of Fisheries was merged into the newly formed U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in the Department of the Interior. As a result, Dr. Fish and his disease investigations group was transferred into the FWS Pacific Coast Fish-Cultural Investigations headquartered in Corvallis, Oregon.
1950 Robert R. Rucker
In 1950 Dr. Fish joined the U.S. Public Health Service and Dr. Rucker transferred back to Seattle to organize and direct an expanded fish disease research program for the FWS. This research would include fishery specialists in parasitology, bacteriology, virology, and histopathology. The new organization was elevated to independent laboratory status and named the Western Fish Disease Laboratory (WFDL). The staff initially occupied lab and office space at the College of Fisheries, University of Washington. Facilities included a large bacteriology laboratory; a wet lab with three large aquaria, 16 four-foot troughs supplied with heated and chilled, dechlorinated city water; a shop; a dark room for photographic work; an area for histological technique; and four office-laboratory rooms for researchers. However, the rapidly growing College of Fisheries soon needed their space back and, in 1958, Dr. Rucker relocated the WFDL to a vacant warehouse at the nearby Sand Point Naval Air StaThe Navy provided the carpentry, plumbing, and electrical work needed to furnish a combineDirector's office/laboratory and separate labs for parasitology (J. Uzmann), bacteriology (A. J.Ross), virology (T. J. Parisot), histopathology (Wm. T. Yasutake), and immunopathology (G. WKlontz). A shop, dark room for photography, and a library/conference room also were includedThe wet lab contained 40 four-foot stainless steel troughs and two water tables--all supplied wiwell water and heated and chilled dechlorinated city water. A small Navy building, previouslyused as an office for night flying, was relocated to the WFDL site and attached to the main building, where it provided animal quarters for fish immunology research.
By 1960, the WFDL had gained international recognition for the scientific advances of both Dr. Rucker and his staff in methods used to diagnose and control diseases in Pacific salmon and steelhead trout. Visiting scientists from Canada, the British Isles, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Israel, Taiwan, Russia, Japan, and several African countries, traveled to Seattle to collaborate with WFDL scientists.
A small round-table discussion group was formed in 1960 to discuss practical fish disease problems of mutual interest to hatchery biologists and fish disease researchers in the western U.S. About 10 state and federal biologists attended an initial meeting that included Joe Wales (Oregon Fish Commission) and Hal Wolf (California Fish and Game) and the WFDL staff. This turned out to be a very significant event that is now known as the first working session of the Western Fish Disease Conference. Today this conference is convened annually and attracts hundreds of fishery biologists.
1974 Thomas J. Parisot
The 1970’s were marked by the passage of landmark environmental legislation, most notably the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. In response to this legislation, and other, the scientific information needs of the FWS began changing. Upon Dr. Rucker’s retirement in 1973, Thomas J. Parisot assumed the post of Director and a comprehensive review of the WFDL research program was undertaken. The science mission of the laboratory was broadened to include aquatic ecology, population biology, and genetics in addition to its traditional roles in fish health and disease. Another name change was called for and the WFDL became the National Fisheries Research Center (NFRC). Within a few short years, Dr. Parisot was able to transform the Center by developing new biological research programs while retaining the historic fish health core competencies that had made the laboratory a world leader. This expansion in research mission laid the scientific foundation for what the Center has become today.
In 1974, NFRC added a new, marine facility at Marrowstone Island in northern Puget Sound to its organization. At Marrowstone Island, scientists were able to investigate the physiology of smoltification in salmon transitioning into the early marine phase of their seaward migration. Here, for the first time, they could study early marine survival and track changes in the health and condition of juveniles as they moved to sea.
The Parisot Years were remarkable for the many new ideas and research findings about the environmental requirements of Pacific salmon and steelhead and their application to the operation of federal mitigation hatcheries. Characteristically, NFRC research was planned from a broad, non-site specific perspective so that the technical information produced would apply across a broad geographic range and to a variety of resource management needs (e.g., U. S.-Canada Treaty negotiations, the Northwest Power Planning Council, the Salmon and Steelhead Conservation Act).
1978 Alfred C. Fox
Dr. Parisot transferred to FWS Headquarters in 1977. In 1978, Dr. Alfred C. Fox was selected as the second Director of the NFRC. Once more, the mission of the Center was further broadened by inclusion of field stations in Alaska, Nevada, and the Columbia River Basin. Fish health disease research continued to be a priority. A major feature of the Center’s work during the Fox Years involved cooperation with other public fisheries agencies, universities, and non-governmental organizations. The Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Washington became an especially valuable partner, with NFRC staff scientists supervising graduate student dissertation research, giving guest lectures and seminars, and teaching occasional courses.
In 1978, a Columbia River Field Station was established at the former FWS Fish Nutrition Laboratory at Cook, Washington, nearby the Bonneville Dam. The field station’s mission was to provide information required by the Northwest Power Planning Act to protect, restore, and enhance anadromous fish populations in the Columbia River Basin. A primary emphasis of the research was to provide managers and regulators with an improved understanding of how hydropower systems impact the growth and survival and of salmon/steelhead in the various freshwater habitats they utilize for spawning, rearing, and migration in the Columbia and Snake rivers. Although the research was targeted at hydropower related problems, it was planned so as to be directly applicable to fish passage and other issues in regulated rivers throughout the United States. Other stressors, such as fishing, agriculture, and hatchery practices were also studied in light of sustaining native runs of salmon.
In 1979, a field station was established in Anchorage, Alaska. Its missions were to determine the: effects of placer mining on salmon and fish habitats in the Yukon River; spawning and rearing habitat requirements of Chinook salmon in the Kenai River; and incidence of IHN virus infections in Kodiak Island sockeye salmon runs, an important food of brown bears inhabiting the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge.
In 1985, an Endangered Species Recovery Research field station was established in Reno, Nevada. The mission of the field station was to provide the biological information needed to recover endangered “desert fish” populations and restore their habitats in the Great Basin. Accomplishments of the Reno Field Station were immediate and included determination of limiting factors and the development of suitable habitat leading to the successful reintroduction of the Moapa Dace into the Moapa National Wildlife Refuge, the first wildlife refuge acquired by the FWS for a fish species. The definition of spawning and rearing habitat requirements of the endangered Pyramid Lake Cui ui was another pioneering effort that provided essential flow and temperature regimes necessary for natural reproduction of this unique species in the Truckee River, Nevada.
In 1985, the Marrowstone Marine Field Station was enlarged enabling cooperative studies to be conducted with the Bonneville Power Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, National Marine Fisheries Service, Washington Department of Fisheries, and the International Pacific Halibut Commission. For the first time, the effects of contaminant exposures (e.g., dredge spoils) on smolting and seaward migrating salmon could be studied under controlled laboratory conditions.
A landmark book, “The Microscopic Anatomy of Rainbow Trout”, was published in 1986. In preparation for more than 20 years, this atlas of fish histology quickly became a classic reference that remains in use today.
In 1988, funding for a new Seattle Laboratory was approved by Congress. Construction of the new facility was initiated in 1992. In 1993, while the work was still in progress, the NFRC was transferred into a new agency, the National Biological Survey (NBS), established by Presidential Executive Order. The Northwest Biological Science Center’s (NWBSC’s) mission greatly broadened under the NBS to include all of biological science disciplines.
In 1994, construction of the new Seattle Laboratory, with state-of-the-art laboratories, was completed and Dr. Fox retired shortly thereafter.
1995 Frank S. Shipley
In 1995 Dr. Frank S. Shipley was selected as the new NWBSC Director and he quickly became part of yet another reorganization. While the NBS had been renamed the National Biological Service, this agency was abolished in 1996 by an act of Congress and transferred into the Biological Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Dr. Shipley focused on the Center’s new role within the USGS, long renowned as the scientific arm of the Department of the Interior. With this new focus, the Center’s mission was realigned to fisheries and aquatic resources in the West and it was renamed the Western Fisheries Research Center (WFRC). The scientific emphasis now included fishery resource problems of thewestern United States including U.S. Pacific Islands butlonger research in Alaska. However, the WFRC’s fisheriesscience was both broadened to encompass larger ecosystem implications influencing fish, andthe research re-focused to better advance emerging scientific fields, such as molecular biology.
Other major trends helped shape research during Dr. Shipley’s tenure. Water availability, invasive species, and climate change emerged as major influences on fish and their habitats. For example, Center biologists had been conducting biological studies since 1994 on adult shortnose sucker populations in the Lost River and in Upper Klamath Lake and surrounding tributaries in the basin. Water availability (influenced by both human use and climate) became a driving factor in this basin, affecting the threatened and endangered fish. In 2001, the Center officially established a permanent field station in Klamath Falls, Oregon to provide unbiased information needed by water and fisheries resource managers in the Bureau of Reclamation and other DOI bureaus in the Klamath Basin.
In 1997, the Dixon, California Field Station became a part of the WFRC. The new Dixon Duty Station gave the Center proximity to the California Central Valley Rivers, the San Francisco Bay/Delta, and an established working relationship with the California Cooperative Fishery Research Unit at Humboldt State University as well as several federal and state agencies with strong research/management programs in fisheries and environmental toxicology. Research at the Dixon Duty Station focused on fishery impacts from environmental contaminants and water quality degradation such as a general comparison of fish species assemblages and environmental conditions in irrigated and non-irrigated portions of the San Joaquin Valley floor.
In the late 1990s, WFRC also began cooperating with investigators from the Russian Academy of Sciences to address Pacific salmonid conservation interests in both nations and for Area V Protocol. Originally, the collaboration focused on the development of genetic marks for steelhead in Kamchatka and included cooperation with The Wild Salmon Center. More recently, the WFRC and Moscow State University have been working together to determine the genetic diversity of charr morphotypes (Salvelinus malma) in Kamchatka’s Kronotsky Biosphere State Reserve. Both resident and ocean going forms of charr occur in Kamchatka rivers, such as the Zhypanova, that are free from hatchery and watershed development. The Kamchatka natural setting is thus ideally suited to provide environmental contrast to charr in North American habitats that, outside of Alaska, are not free of such human influences.
Throughout Dr. Shipley’s tenure, fisheries science in the Columbia River Basin was greatly expanded to address the information needs of the Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Power Administration, and customers willing to support well-regarded USGS science. By 1995, the Columbia River Research Laboratory employed about 90 year-round employees studying juvenile salmon passage around Columbia River dams and other ecological effects of reservoirs. Since that time, there were increasing demands for biological research on other riverine species such as white sturgeon and Pacific lampreys and this resulted in an increased staff size of nearly 200 employees, students, and contractors during 2003.
In general, the Shipley Years were marked by a spirit of growing cooperation between the Center and the fisheries research community worldwide – academia, the aquaculture industry, and governmental agencies with similar legislative responsibilities.
2003 Lyman K. Thorsteinson
As the Western Fisheries Research Center entered its seventh decade, a Director, Mr. Lyman Thorsteinson, was selected to replace Dr. Shipley when he transferred to a new position with the USGS in its Western Regional Office. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Thorsteinson had been the Deputy Center Director for the WFRC since 2001.
Today, the WFRC employs a workforce of more than 200 individuals annually. The size and scientific mission of the organization has changed dramatically since 1934 and continues to evolve in response to increasing needs for ecosystem approaches to resource concerns. Although the natural resource problems under investigation have grown ever more complex, an overarching goal of the Center, that has been passed down through the generations, remains simple -- to retain the depth of technical expertise and scientific excellence that have been the historical trademark of the WFRC. While the organization’s responsibilities have increased in the West, it remains flexible and dedicated to enhancing its scientist’s abilities to respond to the new and emerging resource challenges of DOI and the nation. This is best represented by recent management actions highlighted below.
A new immunology team was established in 2004 to expand and strengthen molecular understanding and potential control of infectious fish diseases. Models from the freshwater and marine environments are being pursued. A research emphasis is to determine the effects of multiple environmental stressors on the health and physiological condition of aquatic organisms. Functional genomic approaches with leading immunologists are being pursued. In 2006, a zebra fish colony was established in the Seattle Laboratory to facilitate WFRC internal and collaborative studies.
The effects of disease, as an ecosystem process, on native fish populations – both freshwater and marine – represent a major new science thrust for the WFRC in study areas extending from Alaska, to the Great Lakes and Mississippi River, and throughout the American West. WFRC research is placing increased efforts on developing new diagnostic systems and disease assays for wild populations and trending more toward a role of technical assistance to DOI hatchery managers. Current geographic hotspots for disease research include the Yukon River, Prince William Sound, Great Lakes, Columbia River, and Klamath Falls. Coastal investigations in Puget Sound are receiving special attention with the hire of a research scientist to lead WFRC studies at the Marrowstone Marine Field Station, Nordland, WA.
A number of emerging science issues face fishery managers in the West. Aquatic invasive species provide a special threat to native animals and the habitat ecosystems upon which they depend. Of special interest in Puget Sound, is the potential for species introductions from marine ballast transport and discharge by the commercial shipping industry. The development and testing of ballast water treatment technologies has been a focus of research for the WFRC. A new Invasive Species Research Section was created in 2006 to address ballast water issues in the Pacific Northwest including Puget Sound, other coastal habitats, and the lower Columbia River. Invasive species in the Columbia and lower Colorado rivers (i.e., zebra mussels) are currently of great management concern.
Mr. Thorsteinson has updated and implemented a new strategic 5-year plan for the WFRC that places high value on USGS integrated science, inter-Center research collaborations in the West, and upgrading WFRC facilities to meet the science missions of the Center. The restoration of ecological processes in nearshore waters of Puget Sound is an ongoing focus on pilot research on the Elwha River (dam removal) and in Skagit (wetlands and coastal restoration) and Liberty bays (effects of urbanization). The WFRC has entered into a joint venture with the USGS’s National Biological Information Infrastructure program (NBII) to conduct an estuarine GAP analysis for Puget Sound. Elsewhere, the WFRC is taking leadership in developing next generation tools for instream flow analysis and studying the effects of water availability concerns in the West.
Looking Forward
The quality of our 70-year heritage of accomplishment in fisheries biology provides great encouragement for the future. If we continue to show the same dedication and loyalty as those who built this heritage for us, a bright future for the Western Fisheries Research Center seems assured.
