Ransom Aldrich "Ram" Myers, Jr. (13 June 1952 – 27 March 2007) was a world-renowned American-Canadian marine biologist and conservationist. Born in

Lula, Mississippi Lula is a town in Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 204. Geography Lula is located near the northern border of Coahoma County. U.S. Route 49 passes southwest of the town, and U.S. Route 61 pass ...

, he was the son of cotton planter, Ransom Aldrich Myers, Sr. and Fay A. Mitchell Myers. At age 16, in 1968, Myers won an international science fair for building an "X-ray crystallograph," which measured the symmetry of atoms. Myers graduated with a

B.Sc. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in physics from

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

in 1974. He earned an

M.Sc. A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

in mathematics and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in biology from

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the fou ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, Canada. Before joining the faculty of

in 1997 as the first Killam Chair in Ocean Studies, he was a research scientist at the Canadian

Department of Fisheries and Oceans Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO; french: Pêches et Océans Canada, MPO), is a department of the Government of Canada that is responsible for developing and implementing policies and programs in support of Canada's economic, ecological and sc ...

St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador St. John's is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. The city spans and is the easternmost city in North America ...

. Myers was best known for his warnings about the worldwide

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing fish stock), resulting in th ...

of the

fish stock Fish stock or stock fish may also refer to: *Fish stocks are subpopulations of a particular species of fish. * Fish stock (food), liquid made by boiling fish bones with vegetables, used as a base for fish soups and sauces * Fish stocking, the practi ...

s in the oceans, in particular, the

Atlantic cod The Atlantic cod (''Gadus morhua'') is a benthopelagic fish of the family Gadidae, widely consumed by humans. It is also commercially known as cod or codling.Southern bluefin tuna The southern bluefin tuna (''Thunnus maccoyii'') is a tuna of the family (biology), family Scombridae found in open southern Hemisphere waters of all the world's oceans mainly between 30th parallel south, 30°S and 50th parallel south, 50°S, to ...

. As a member of the

International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

(IUCN) shark specialist group, he collected data about the decline of shark populations and brought media attention to threatened shark species. One of Myers' most important areas of research was stock recruitment: collection and analysis of data and the subsequent development of models to predict the survival rate for fish larvae. In the October 2005 issue of ''

Fortune Fortune may refer to: General * Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck * Luck * Wealth * Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling * Fortune, in a fortune cookie Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Fortune'' (1931 film) ...

,'' Myers was listed among the world's ten people to watch for "working to develop new and better ways to husband the wealth beneath the sea.""Fast-Forward to the Future"
''Fortune'' He died in Halifax, Nova Scotia, aged 54, from a brain tumor.

Notes

References

Ransom Aldrich Myers (1952-2007)
by

Daniel Pauly Daniel Pauly is a French-born marine biologist, well known for his work in studying human impacts on global fisheries and in 2020 was the most cited fisheries scientist in the world. He is a professor and the project leader of the Sea Around Us ...

, ''Nature'', 10 May 2007
Finding aids
at his fonds at

External links

Ransom Myers legacy site''The Chronicle-Herald'': Obituary
* ttps://www.theguardian.com/worldlatest/story/0,,-6515894,00.html ''The Guardian'': Marine Scientist Ransom Myers Dies {{DEFAULTSORT:Myers, Ransom A. 1952 births 2007 deaths Deaths from brain tumor Canadian conservationists Canadian marine biologists Fisheries scientists Dalhousie University alumni Dalhousie University faculty People from Lula, Mississippi Rice University alumni Deaths from cancer in Nova Scotia 20th-century Canadian zoologists American emigrants to Canada