Archives West Finding Aid

Memorial by Donald L. McKernan and William T. Burke

We write briefly to honor a colleague and friend of many years, Dr. W. M. (Wib) Chapman, whose papers are inventoried in this volume.

It is not easy to write of Wib. After seven years we still remember him and his activities with a keen sense of personal loss and emotion. His influence on us was major, and we are a tiny fraction of the ocean people to be touched and affected by him.

One of his friends, Professor John D. Isaacs of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, wrote Wib in May of 1969 saying he was reminded of Wib in the Pericles -- Prince of Tyre, Act II Scene 1:

"How from the finny subject of the sea
These fishers till the infirmities of men;
And from their watery empire recollect
All that may men approve or men detect!"

Since his death, others have written of him with feeling and eloquence. Wib's lifelong friend, and most unusual fisheries scientist and manager in his own right, Dr. John L. Kask, wrote as a dedication to the volume World Fisheries Policy ( J. L. Kask, "Dedication," in Brian J. Rothschild, World Fisheries Policy, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1972, pp. XVII-XIX.) of Wib and Milner B. (Benny) Schaefer and their long association and careers. Few knew Wib as well as Jack Kask and that account of Wib and his career is particularly insightful.

Dr. Warren Wooster has provided an assessment of Wib's interest in oceanography. Writing for the Annual Report for 1972 of the Institute of Marine Resources of Scripps Institute of Oceanography, he emphasized Wib's contribution to ocean science as a scientist and "biogeopolitician" during a remarkable and influential career.

To these and other substantial descriptions of the unique qualities of this total fisheries man, we will attempt to add yet another and personal view of Wib and his career. Still it is the material in this valuable collection of his writings that speaks most eloquently of his contribution to world fisheries and to marine affairs generally.

We would argue that in addition to his prolific writings and their impact on fisheries, the fishing industry, and governments -- he left a distinct mark on people. It may well be that Wib's major legacy in the field of fisheries and ocean affairs was his positive, surely memorable, role in guiding and inspiring numerous individuals with whom he worked all over the world. He so influenced us and we know of many similarly affected.

Wib was a scientist. In his early career, influenced by Dr. W. F. Thompson, Director of the School of Fisheries at the University of Washington, he worked on the life history and spawning of halibut, and became an authority on the classification of a group of fishes, the blennies. Most blennies we know are small intertidal fishes and quite inconspicuous. Still, small and unimportant as a commercial species, Wib found them of interest and he studied their classification and that of other species through the bone structure, the osteology of the fishes.

Even as a graduate student, Chapman was a phenomenon of sorts. His keen mind, open friendly manner, and his enormous energy made him the leader of the graduate students and a favorite of the faculty. It was during this period, about the time Wib received his Ph. D. (1937), that the senior author of this paper met Wib. It is no exaggeration to say that he had a major influence on the course of McKernan's career from that time until his death, and with the exception of the war years, we were in almost constant contact with one another, either personally or by mail, until his death in 1970.

Wib's interests in fishery biology and management were catholic and his early professional career as a biologist for the Washington Department of Fisheries gave full scope to these broad interests. Oldtimers on the Columbia River drainage, from the Canadian border and near the Continental Divide to Ilwaco at the mouth of the Columbia, still remember Chapman's enthusiasm, energy, and blunt, aggressive support for maintaining the great salmon runs on the Columbia River in the face of the multi-billion dollar hydro-electric development plans. These developments resulted in a high dam at Grand Coulee and lower main-stream dams starting at Bonneville scarcely above tide water on the lower Columbia. The U.S. Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation were the enemy of fish with their advocacy of damming the great Columbia River and thus blocking the upstream migration of the salmon runs. Chapman played a major role, even then as a young biologist, along with Loyd Royal, Milo Bell, Joe Craig, and Arnie Suomela -- all state and federal fisheries biologists -- in convincing the Corps of Engineers, the public and the politicians, that the salmon runs should and could be maintained on the Columbia River in spite of the numerous dams to be constructed, both on the main stream and on tributaries. That they were correct is now well established, as the runs of salmon of this great river system continue to contribute to the commercial salmon fisheries from southeast Alaska to the San Francisco Bay and to the recreational fisheries all along the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States.

During the years as a fishery biologist for the State of Washington, Chapman set the tone and pace for the biological division of the State Fisheries Department. Chapman and "Benny" Schaefer, working with Loyd Royal -- then chief biologist for the department -- produced a lively and energetic, almost frenzied, pace. Surely, without taking any credit from the current excellent staff, nothing in the way of biological studies and publications has come from the Fisheries Department of the magnitude of those days, especially if consideration is given to the number of biologists or the funding of the research effort. Wib jumped from salmon to herring to razor clams to the native oyster with alacrity and zeal, leaving his mark everywhere.

His scientific efforts often led to better conservation and management of fisheries, for Wib was a practical and applied scientist, even with his oft professed love of systematic ichthyology.

Wib and World War II. After leaving the Washington State Fisheries Department, Wib worked with Dr. Victor B. Scheffer, who was in charge of a Pacific fur seal research project. Wib was again an ichthyologist, identifying fish serving as the food of the fur seals and using his beloved osteology for species identification. The work was short-lived because of the war and Wib went from there to the California Academy of Sciences as curator of fishes. After precious few months, Wib headed for the South Pacific because, as he related in his book Fishing in Troubled Waters "... the great white father decided that his warriors in the Pacific needed fresh fish to supplant their normal diet of Spam, Vienna sausages, New Zealand lamb, and K-rations." He ended up in the South Pacific in the Solomon Islands, establishing fisheries in many island areas and (trying in other areas) in order to supply fish for the United States troops stationed on the islands.

Fourteen months and innumerable experiences later, many of them hilariously funny, Chapman and Harlan Cheyne -- a long-time friend and fisheries colleague of Chapman -- returned from their fishing adventures to the United States. In the book, Wib writes of these times as only he could: of the frustrations, of the small successes, and of the people with whom he worked and lived. Perhaps best of all are his descriptions and anecdotes about people, including the natives of the region. This narrative of his experiences in the South Pacific shows an important side of Wib. He was a perceptive and sensitive man, who tried to understand what motivated the people he dealt with.

Wib as a Professor. Wib became Director of the School of Fisheries and Professor of Fisheries at the University of Washington in 1947. He continued his wide and varied activities while contributing mightily to the intellectual environment of the University. It was during this period that McKernan was invited to return to the University for a year's graduate study. Needless to say, being close to Chapman, with his ideas and wide interests, made it a stimulating and exciting year. He was receptive of ideas, hypercritical of mediocrity, and interested in student and faculty research and all activities relating to the oceans. Still, he was not fully satisfied and it appeared he felt somewhat out of the mainstream of world fisheries activities.

Wib, the Diplomat. In. 1948, stimulated by Chapman and others in the fishing industry who clearly saw the conflicts arising from the world-wide increase in ocean fisheries, and aggravated by the inattention to ocean affairs by the Department of State, Washington State senior Senator Warren G. Magnuson, with the help of influential senators and congressmen from the Atlantic Coast, forced a reluctant State Department to establish an office of Special Assistant for Fish and Wildlife to the Under-Secretary of State. Of course, Chapman was the natural candidate for the job and he took it, leaving his secure, but less exciting, post at the University of Washington.

The Department was not prepared for this big, bluff, bear of a man who wanted to get some things done today rather than next year and was not prepared to get clearances from five or six different "country desks". There were developing fisheries conflicts in the Northwest Atlantic involving some 15 nations fishing there; the tuna people of Southern California were being harassed and threatened off the coast of South America; and the return of the Japanese to the North Pacific fishing grounds following the war was imminent and disturbing to the salmon fishermen of the Northwest. Foreign fishing fleets were expanding activities everywhere. Chapman saw these developments as few people did in those days. He wanted to establish effective international organizations to ensure the conservation of the species of fish, and yet he also saw the need at that time to preserve the rights of nations to develop fisheries as a means of supplying food and rebuilding economies of war-raved coastal regions of the world.

He left an impressive record behind; the Department of State never recovered from him, much to the delight of his fishing cronies. Convention after convention was adopted, including the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Convention and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Convention; amendments were concluded to others and plans formulated for some that came later. All of these projects were discussed with the American fishing industry and negotiated with foreign governments and pushed forward by Chapman and his high seas amateur lobby. The State Department found it difficult to deal with him. He had the support not only of the fishing industry but also of Senator Magnuson and others in Congress. Chapman also kept an interest in the activities and views of marine scientists such as Roger Revelle and Athelstan Spillhaus. Of course he pushed too hard and stepped on toes. But Wib was interested in results and results are what he got. By 1951, Wib realized he had played out his string and was ready to leave the frustrations of the government.

Chapman, the Industry Advisor. The American Tunaboat Association, under the able leadership of Harold Cary, saw the problems of the American tuna fishery developing and the need for someone of Wib's stature and knowledge to deal with United States government officials, the 200-mile zones of Chile, Ecuador, and Peru, and our own expanding tuna fisheries. Chapman jumped into this new role with the same vigor and enthusiasm as always. He and Harold Cary were an imposing team. They were instrumental, along with Elton Sette, in establishing the Pacific Oceanic Fishery Investigation (POFI) in Hawaii, a laboratory that was very productive of good fishery oceanography, as Chapman termed the studies. Still, this group of scientists applied its results to locate large stocks of yellowfin tuna along the equator and explained with the evidence they collected the circumstances of their presence. And so the Cromwell Current, a great undersea river, was located. Also, a productive tuna fishing area was discovered slightly north of the equator in the mid-Pacific. A large Japanese longline tuna fishery soon began in the central Pacific area as a direct result of these studies and discoveries.

Chapman was of course somewhat disappointed; he wanted a United States fishery developed in the area. In any event, he followed the program and pushed the research on Pacific tunas ever wider. His primary interest was in good research and of course he wanted that research applied for the benefit of his tuna fishermen. This was a period of growth and rapid change, not only in the American tuna fishery, but tuna fisheries everywhere.

The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission came into being, again largely through the efforts of Chapman and his associates, with Milner B. Schaefer as its first scientific director. With Chapman pushing from the sidelines and Benny Schaefer's brilliant and dedicated scientific efforts on the Commission staff, this institution soon became a model of the well-run international fisheries commission. To this day, now under the capable leadership of Dr. James Joseph, and with a membership of eight nations, the IATTC continues to manage the yellowfin tuna stocks of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean in a highly successful manner. More tuna have been harvested per year from these stocks during the past five years than ever before in spite of ever-increasing fishing effort, attesting to the competent management of the stocks by the Commission.

In his role as an industry advisor, first with the American Tuna Boat Association and later in 1960 with Van Camp Seafood Company, whose parent company is the Ralston-Purina Company, Chapman's influence began to grow, if that seems possible. He had been very active during the 1950's in the development of the first Law of the Sea Conference preparations and lent his energies wholeheartedly to the first and second L.O.S. Conference in 1958 and 1960. To say he was the most influential fisheries voice at the Conference would be to put it mildly; he had a very great impact on the United States overall law of the seas policy, not only fisheries, but on other issues as well. He opposed then and continued to oppose the extension of fisheries jurisdiction beyond narrow limits. He firmly believed that the international fisheries convention arrangement was best although he was aware of their frailties. He heard very clearly the developing sound of voices advocating extended coastal state jurisdiction. Until his death he was against the extension of fisheries jurisdiction beyond relatively narrow limits of the coast. Wib, recognizing the advancing tide of national and world opinion, was nevertheless willing to work with the advocates of an extended fisheries zone but strictly on the basis of international control over tuna.

Wib, the general advisor. Active as he was on behalf of the fishing industry, it was often difficult to discern a direct connection between Chapman's many professional roles and efforts and the benefit to his employer. He was dedicated to the support of, and public service with, a variety of governmental bodies at all levels, international, national and state. In an advisory capacity his vigorous promotion of fisheries and marine science research helped shape marine programs in FAO and UNESCO. He was a major player in one of the early and most effective state-level advisory groups, the Governor's Advisory Commission of Ocean Resources (GACOR) in his adopted state of California.

On the national level Wib's contributions to marine science and affairs in the National Academy of Sciences have had a long-lasting effect. The present Ocean Policy Committee, a vigorous unit within the Academy's Commision on International Relations, grew from a seed planted by Chapman in 1965 when he briefly chaired a short-lived panel of the Committee on Oceanography called (we recall) Laws, Uses of the Sea, and Technology in order to be given the acronym LUST. Wib was already beginning (or continuing) to anticipate the possibility of a new Law of the Sea Conference, although it was his steadfast opinion that the less said in public about this possibility the better.

Wib never completely left academia either, and served as a guide for individual graduate students as well as a productive collaborator in various academic enterprises. During the early years of the Law of the Sea Institute at the University of Rhode Island at Kingston, Rhode Island, Wib contributed in many and diverse ways to the functioning of the Institute, from co-organizer of programs, paper-giver, eager, humorous and thoughtful panel chairman and discussant, to the more serious post-session seminars where thirsts were assuaged for hours on end and discussion of marine law and policy still managed to intrude. The initial suggestions for the enterprise which is evidenced by this printed inventory came from the Executive Board of the Law of the Sea Institute during the course of discussions of how Wib's enormous and valued contributions could continue to be recognized and used.

Wib the communications center. In ways that are somewhat difficult to describe, but which his associates, collaborators and friends will instantly recognize, Chapman served as an indispensable communications center, linking ocean people all over the globe. Attached to his famous letters, sometimes as long as book manuscripts, were incredibly long lists of correspondents who were often moved to exchange views with each other as a result of Chapman's provocative thoughts and statements. As with Chapman himself, this role was unique and there is no replacement.

In light of the course of ocean affairs since 1970, it is noteworthy that Chapman was thoroughly against convening a third Law of the Sea Conference. He thought it was a mistake for this country to push such a conference. He felt we would lose much more than we could gain, and it is interesting indeed that now (in late 1977) almost eight years after his death, and ten years after extensive preparations started towards a third Law of the Sea Conference, nations of the world have not yet succeeded in their efforts to reach agreement and our own government is in the process of re-evaluating whether or not it is in the national interest to continue the effort to find compromise formulae for a widely acceptable Law of the Sea treaty. Many experts who have followed the long course of the negotiations now believe the new Law of the Sea treaty is a lost cause.

Many of us in ocean affairs have reflected on the effect Chapman might have had on the course of world ocean affairs had his strong voice been present. He would have been concerned and actively involved with the implementation of current fisheries law; he would have been particularly concerned about the effect of the Act upon world tuna fisheries and tuna stocks.

Almost certainly, Wib would be putting his energies towards making it possible for nations and mankind to achieve greater yields of food from the sea. His voice would be raised in efforts to improve the rational management of ocean resources and he would be scornful of timid conservative policies that would be almost bound to lead to failure because of that timidity.

He left fisheries as he entered it; seeking new knowledge about fish and the sea; seeking to improve the lot of fishermen everywhere; impatient with ignorance; and with a strong affinity for all those who made their living from and loved the sea. As he wrote about a decade ago, "...... humanity and its governments are composed of two sets of people -- the land people, and the sea people. The two are basically different. The sea tries out people who go upon it from all races, and casts back ashore the people it cannot tolerate."

"The sea people from different races have more in common with each other intellectually, psychologically, spiritually, and socially than each has with the land people of their own race. They are a breed apart."

Wib Chapman was a sea person. He cast his net often and it usually came in with a good catch. Now with this inventory of his papers being published and the collection available for study by scholars, his catch of knowledge and truth about the sea is again made available for the benefit and nourishment of all.