This is an incredibly powerful, poignant and beautiful piece of writing about an incredible man and scientist. I am writing this with tears falling on the keyboard. I didn't even know him, just interviewed him twice last year, and was bowled over by the depth of his knowledge and expertise, his gentle and kind demeanour, and his commitment to his calling - the ocean and what lives in it (and trying to protect it all from human beings intent on destroying it). Thank you so much, Linda, to preserving his life and legacy this way.
This article is both depressing/disturbing and enlightening/inspiring. We are so ignorant of what goes on in most departments. I had no idea about DFO although I know all too well about reports/studies being altered or buried in forestry/natural resources dep.'t and how many policies are rolled out for all the wrong reasons. There seems to be a turning point with government leaders. I'm sure many enter politics with the intention to do what's right but at some point they either cave in to the party line/Dep.t line if they want to keep their positions or they are turfed. Our adversarial political system also feeds that. Mercifully, there are still people like Mr. Hutchings. Thank you for this story.
Thanks Sandra. It's absolutely the case for forestry science. I wrote a story (Muzzling the Forest Keepers) about the silencing of a gov't scientist in NS whose study showed that clearcutting was adversely affecting boreal felt lichen -- an endangered species.
A beautiful and instructive tribute to this remarkable man. The suppression of his work is a microcosm of the corporate capture of the governments and institutions that are designed to monitor them and the catastrophic results of such suppression. Great work as always Linda.
The Biology Department at Dal where Jeff arrived in the 1990s was the perfect place for him, and for his close friend and colleague Ransom Myers who followed. It was a department steeped in evolutionary biology at both ecological and molecular levels, and that respected above all else, the right of the individuals to choose their own paths, the only (informal) requirement was to be productive. Both were deeply committed to rigorous science, to open science and to speaking truth to power. It was no trivial matter that the university backed them up when they both ran up against the DFO establishment. Their work was both directly collaborative and complementary to each other, Jeff, as noted, pursing life histories as a key to understanding, Ransom to compiling and making public every piece of data available on global fisheries in the world and 'mining it' for what it can tell us (now that's routine but it wasn't then). Jeff was always concerned about ethics in science and pursued the topic both as an academic, with rigour, and as a responsible citizen and scientist, volunteering for really onerous but socially important activities, e.g., as author of Royal Society of Canada Position Paper on Strengthening Government by Strengthening Scientific Advice (2015). Ransom died very prematurely in 2007, Jeff carried on non-stop until his also untimely passing. They both nurtured a generation of students who have carried their rigour and commitment and ethics well beyond Dal Biology. I could name a number of them who would be familiar to many; they are likewise rigorous in the their science, apply it to the real world, and speak truth to power. We have much to be grateful to these gentlemen for. I think of them now as rowing a dory together in a rough sea, undaunted by it and talking animatedly about what's below...
This is an incredibly powerful, poignant and beautiful piece of writing about an incredible man and scientist. I am writing this with tears falling on the keyboard. I didn't even know him, just interviewed him twice last year, and was bowled over by the depth of his knowledge and expertise, his gentle and kind demeanour, and his commitment to his calling - the ocean and what lives in it (and trying to protect it all from human beings intent on destroying it). Thank you so much, Linda, to preserving his life and legacy this way.
Thank you, Joan, for these kind words and for sharing some of your experience.
What an amazing tribute to Dr. Hutchings.
Thank you Minga!
This article is both depressing/disturbing and enlightening/inspiring. We are so ignorant of what goes on in most departments. I had no idea about DFO although I know all too well about reports/studies being altered or buried in forestry/natural resources dep.'t and how many policies are rolled out for all the wrong reasons. There seems to be a turning point with government leaders. I'm sure many enter politics with the intention to do what's right but at some point they either cave in to the party line/Dep.t line if they want to keep their positions or they are turfed. Our adversarial political system also feeds that. Mercifully, there are still people like Mr. Hutchings. Thank you for this story.
Thanks Sandra. It's absolutely the case for forestry science. I wrote a story (Muzzling the Forest Keepers) about the silencing of a gov't scientist in NS whose study showed that clearcutting was adversely affecting boreal felt lichen -- an endangered species.
A beautiful and instructive tribute to this remarkable man. The suppression of his work is a microcosm of the corporate capture of the governments and institutions that are designed to monitor them and the catastrophic results of such suppression. Great work as always Linda.
Thank you, Brooks.
The Biology Department at Dal where Jeff arrived in the 1990s was the perfect place for him, and for his close friend and colleague Ransom Myers who followed. It was a department steeped in evolutionary biology at both ecological and molecular levels, and that respected above all else, the right of the individuals to choose their own paths, the only (informal) requirement was to be productive. Both were deeply committed to rigorous science, to open science and to speaking truth to power. It was no trivial matter that the university backed them up when they both ran up against the DFO establishment. Their work was both directly collaborative and complementary to each other, Jeff, as noted, pursing life histories as a key to understanding, Ransom to compiling and making public every piece of data available on global fisheries in the world and 'mining it' for what it can tell us (now that's routine but it wasn't then). Jeff was always concerned about ethics in science and pursued the topic both as an academic, with rigour, and as a responsible citizen and scientist, volunteering for really onerous but socially important activities, e.g., as author of Royal Society of Canada Position Paper on Strengthening Government by Strengthening Scientific Advice (2015). Ransom died very prematurely in 2007, Jeff carried on non-stop until his also untimely passing. They both nurtured a generation of students who have carried their rigour and commitment and ethics well beyond Dal Biology. I could name a number of them who would be familiar to many; they are likewise rigorous in the their science, apply it to the real world, and speak truth to power. We have much to be grateful to these gentlemen for. I think of them now as rowing a dory together in a rough sea, undaunted by it and talking animatedly about what's below...
So beautifully said, David. Thank you!