User:Supernovame/John E. Fitch

John Edgar Fitch Sr ; 27 June 1918 – 30 September 1982) was an American naval officer, explorer, conservationist, ichthyologist & malacologist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the study Otoliths, pioneered marine conservation and was a member of the Fisheries.

Death
John Edgar Fitch died of a heart attack on 25 June 1982 in California, aged 64. When he died his ashes were sprinkled in a natural setting in a small family ceremony. An homage was paid to him by the city by the holotype 'totoabi fitchi' is named in honor of the late John E. Fitch, formally of the California Department of Fish and Game, who recovered the otoliths of T. fitchi and for his significant contributions to the study of fossil and Recent otoliths.

Honours
During his lifetime, John Edgar Fitch received these distinctions:
 * Honorary Doctorate of Zoology college (1972)
 * Fellows of the Southern California Academy of Sciences (1976)

Legacy
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Fitch liked to call himself an "Marine Biographer." He was, in reality, a sophisticated teacher, and lover of nature. His work permitted many people to explore the resources of the oceans.

His work also created a new kind of scientific study, the study of otoliths and determining age and type of fish by such. The so-called "otolith", is actually the scientific term for a fish ear, and was soon employed in other disciplines and became one of the most important characteristics of paleontology, archaeology and zoology for determining what fish ancient people ate and survived on.

Patronyms

 * Lepidopus fitchi Rosenblatt & Wilson, 1987
 * ''Macroparalepis johnfitchi" (Rofen, 1960)
 * ''Notophycis fitchi" Sazonov, 2001
 * ''Priacanthus fitchi" Starnes, 1988
 * Totoabi fitchi (Schwarzhans 1993)
 * Octopus fitchi Berry, 1953
 * Terebra fitchi (Berry, 1958)
 * Penitella fitchi (Turner, 1955)
 * Anthessius fitchi (Illg, 1960)

Books and Publications by John E. Fitch

 * Mexican corbina and totuava (1947)
 * Rare fishes taken near Los Angeles (1947)
 * Use and effect of explosives in California coastal waters (1948, with Young, P.H.)
 * Some new and unusual fishes from Southern California (1948)
 * The great white shark Carcharodon carcharias Linnaeus in California waters during 1948 (1949)
 * Some unusual occurrences of fish on the Pacific Coast (1949)
 * General Notes, Observations on the Northern Elephant Seal, Mirounga Angustirostris (Journal of Mammalogy Vol 30 No 2) (1949)
 * Life history notes and the early development of the bonefish, Albula vulpes (Linnaeus) (1950)
 * Notes on some Pacific fishes (1950)
 * Population studies, local growth rates and reproduction of the Pismo clam (Tivela stultorum) (1950, with Coe, W.R.)
 * Age composition of the Southern California catch of Pacific mackerel 1939-40 through 1950-51 (Fish Bulletin No. 83) (1951)
 * An annotated list of the clupeoid fishes of the Pacific Coast, from Alaska to Cape San Lucas, Baja California (1951, with McHugh, J.L.)
 * The whale shark, Rhineodon typus, off northern Baja California (1951)
 * Studies and notes on some California marine fishes (1951)
 * Notes on the squaretail (1951)
 * The Pismo clam in 1951 (1952)
 * Distributional notes on some Pacific coast marine fishes (1952)
 * The decline of the Pacific mackerel fishery (1952)
 * The status of the carangid fishes Trachurus and Decapterus on the Pacific Coast of Canada and the United States (1952, with Roedell, P.M.)
 * Extensions to known geographical distributions of some marine fishes on the Pacific coast (1953)
 * Common marine bivalves of California (California. Marine Fisheries Branch. Fish bulletin) (1953)
 * Age composition of the southern California catch of Pacific mackerel for the 1954-55 season (1955)
 * Pacific mackerel (1956)
 * Offshore fishes of California (1958)
 * Age composition of the southern California catch of Pacific mackerel for the two seasons, 1955–56 and 1956–57 (1958)
 * The families and genera of the lampridiform (Allotriognath) suborder Trachipteroidei (1960, with Walters, V.)
 * The Pismo Clam (Marine Resources Leaflet No.1) (1961)
 * California Fish and Game "Conservation of Wild Life Through Education" Vol. 48, No. 4 October 1962 (1962)
 * A review of the frigate mackerels (genus Auxis) of the world (1962, Roedel, P.M.)
 * A sea urchin, a lobster and a fish new to the marine fauna of California (1962)
 * A review of the fishes of the genus Pleuronichthys (Contributions in science) (1963)
 * California Fish and Game "Conservation of Wild Life Through Education" Vol. 49, No. 1 January 1963 (1963)
 * Sebastodes phillipsi, a new scorpaenid fish from Californian waters (1964)
 * The fish fauna of the Playa del Rey locality, a southern California marine Pleistocene deposit (Contributions in science) (1964)
 * The ribbonfishes (family Trachipteridae) of the eastern Pacific Ocean, with a description of a new species (1964)
 * A relatively unexploited population of Pismo clams, Tivela stultorum (Mawe, 1823)(Veneridae) (1965)
 * Annotated list of fishes collected by midwater trawl in the Gulf of California, March-April 1964 (1966, with Lavenberg, Robert J.)
 * Annotated list of keys and identification aids for California marine fishes (1966)
 * Additional fish remains, mostly otoliths, from a Pleistocene deposit at Playa del Rey, California (1966)
 * The marine fish fauna, based primarily on otoliths, of a lower Pleistocene deposit at San Pedro, California (LACMIP 332, San Pedro sand) (1967)
 * The Pismo Clam (1967)
 * Otoliths and other fish remains from a Long Beach, California, Pliocene deposit (1967, with Reimer, R.)
 * Fish remains recovered from a Corona del Mar, California, Indian midden (ORA-190) (1967)
 * First records for the bigeye thresher (Alopias superciliosus) and slender tuna (Allothunnus fallai) from California, with notes on eastern Pacific scombrid (1968, with Craig, W.L.)
 * Otoliths and other fish remains from the Timms Point silt (early Pleistocene) at San Pedro, California (1968)
 *  Deep-water teleostean fishes of California (California natural history guides) (1968)
 * Fish otoliths in cetacean stomachs and their importance in interpreting feeding habits (Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, Volume 25, Number 12, December 1968 (1968, with Brownell Jr, R.L.)
 * The louvar, Luvarus imperialis, in the eastern Pacific, with notes on its life history (1968, with Gotshall, D.W.)
 * Deep Water Fishes of California (California Natural History Guides) (1969)
 * A coastal Chumash village: excavation of Shisholop, Ventura County, California (1969, with Browne, R.O. and Greenwood, Roberta S.)
 * Fossil records of certain schooling fishes of the California current system (1969)
 * Fossil Lanternfish Otoliths of California: With Notes on Fossil Myctophidae of North America (1969)
 * Fish remains, primarily otoliths from a Ventura, California, Chumash village site (VEN-3) (1969)
 * Fish remains, mostly otoliths and teeth, from the Palos Verdes Sand (Late Pleistocene) of California (1970)
 * Contents of the stomach of an elephant seal. (1970, with Morejohn, G.V and Baltz, D.M.)
 * A List of Common and Scientific Names of Fishes from the United States and Canada (1970, with Reeve M.; Herald, Earl S.; Lachner, Ernest A. and Lindsey, Bailey)
 * California marine food and game fishes (California Natural History Guides) (1971, with Lavenberg, Robert J.)
 * Marine food and game fishes of California (California natural history guides) (1971, with Lavenberg, Robert J.)
 * Eocene brachiopods from Eua, Tonga, with a summary statement on Teleost otoliths (USGS Professional Paper: 640-F) (1971, with Cooper, G. A.)
 * Food habits of the franciscana Pontoporia blainvillei (Cetacea: Platanistidae) from South America (1971, with Brownell, J. and Robert, L.)
 * A case for striped mullet, Mugil cephalus, spawning at sea (1972)
 * 9000 Years of Prehistory at Diablo Canyon, San Luis Obispo County, California (1972, with Greenwood, R.S.)
 * Fish remains, primarily otoliths, from a coastal Indian midden (SLO-2) at Diablo Cove, San Luis Obispo County, California (1972)
 * The fish family Moridae in the eastern North Pacific with notes on morid otoliths, caudal skeletons, and the fossil record (1972, with Barker, L.W.)
 * First record of the black scabbardfish, Aphanopus carbo, from the Pacific Ocean with notes on other California trichiurid fishes (1972, with Gotshall, D.W.)
 * Sebastes rufinanus, a new scorpaenid fish from Californian waters (1972)
 * Tidepool and nearshore fishes of California (California Natural History Guides, Number 38) (1975, with Lavenberg, Robert J. and Templeton, Eric)
 * First fossil records of cephalopod statoliths (1975, with Clarke, M.R.)
 * Eocene corals from Eua, Tonga, with a statement on Eocene fish fauna of Eua, Tonga, based on additional otoliths(USGS Professional Paper: 640-G) (1976, with Wells, J. W.)
 * Food habits of the jumbo squid, Dosidicus gigas (1976)
 * Tidepool and Nearshore Fishes of California (California Natural History Guides) (1977)
 * Some rare and unusual occurrences of fishes off California and Baja California (1978, with Schultz, S.A.)
 * Statoliths of Cenozoic teuthoid cephalopods from North America (1979, with Clarke, M.R.)
 * A New Species of Rockfish, Genus S̲e̲b̲a̲s̲t̲e̲s̲ (Scorpaenidae) from the Eastern North Pacific Off Mexico and California (1979, with Lea, R.N.)
 * Revision of the eastern North Pacific anthiin basses (Pisces:Serranidae) (Contributions in science)  (1982)
 * Teleost fish otoliths from Lee Creek mine (1983, with Lavenberg, Robert J.)
 * Northern occurrences of the sea snake, Pelamis platurus, in the eastern Pacific, with a record of predation of the species (1983, with Pickwell, G.V. and Bezy, R.L.)
 * Paraliparis nassarum n. sp.(Pisces, Liparididae) from off southern California with description of its otoliths and others from north-east Pacific liparidids. (1984, with Stein, D.L.)
 * Revision of Eastern Pacific Catalufas (Pisces, priacanthidae): With description of a new genus and discussion of the fossil record (Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences) (1984, with Crooke, S.J.)
 * Revision of Eastern Pacific Catalufas (Pisces, priacanthidae): With description of a new genus and discussion of the fossil record (Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences) (1984, with Crooke, S.J.)