Mike Corbett was born in 1940 in Quincy, Massachusetts, and studied engineering at Northeastern University in Boston. He worked as a draftsman as a Northeastern co-op student for Murray and Tregurtha in Quincy, and after graduation worked in industry at General Electric, before moving to Gloucester and working as an ocean engineer for the U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. He spent 29 years working in Exploratory Fisheries before moving to the private sector again.

James Crossen was born in Boston in 1926 and served in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. This experience helped him during the 1,200+days he was at sea during his long career. He began his career in 1955 with the U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries which later became the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Linda Despres was born in Brunswick, Maine and grew up on her father’s boat with her brothers learning about tuna fishing and how to navigate the sea. This ignited a passion for marine wildlife as well as being outdoors exploring nature. She graduated from the University of Maine with a degree in zoology with a minor in wildlife biology. She began working at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in 1973.  She logged over 1,200 days at sea on the Albatross IV as well as many days at sea on foreign fleet vessels.

Michael Fogarty was born in 1951 in Fairbanks, Alaska where his father was stationed in the Army during the Korean War. His parents returned to their native Rhode Island when he was six years old. He developed an interest in marine science which led to him pursing his undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Fogarty studied marine biology and earned his PhD degree at the URI School of Oceanography. Upon graduation, he began working at the Rhode Island Department of Environment Management with a focus on the lobster and crab fisheries.

Born in 1926, Ray Fritz grew up in Detroit, Michigan and attended Michigan State College. He graduated in 1953 with a Bachelors in Biology and Zoology. He began his career with the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries as a biologist at the Woods Hole Lab in 1956. During his time in Woods Hole, he spent time at-sea on the R/V Albatross III and R/V Albatross IV. He served as Chief Scientist on both vessels. In the late 1960's, he moved to Headquarters in Washington where he worked with the Federal Aid Program and served as Chief of Law Enforcement for National Marine Fisheries Service. Mr.

Patricia Gerrior was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and grew up in Weymouth, Massachusetts where she would spend time on the water with her father which led to her interest in marine science. She studied Biology at Colby College in Waterville, Maine and began her 40 year career during her junior year in college with the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries which became NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service.

Dr. Richard McBride earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from Eckerd College, his Master’s in Oceanography from Stonybrook University, and his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from Rutgers University. He worked at the Florida Marine Research Institute beginning in 1994. In 2006, he joined the Northeast Fisheries Science Center at Woods Hole where, as of this interview in 2016, he currently works as the Chief of the Population Biology Branch.

Paul Rago is a National Marine Fisheries Service biologist. He was born in 1952 in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania and later studied at University of Michigan as well as Colorado State University where he received his master’s degree. Later, he earned his Ph.D. and dedicated much of his life to fishery science.

Interview contains discussions of: power plants, striped bass, preservation of fish species in the Great Lakes, nuclear energy, fishing yield.

Paul Rago's interview reviews his career path and his work.

Dr. Anne Richards was born the youngest of five children in Morristown, NJ on June 26, 1952 to parents from Ohio. She moved around a lot growing up and fell in love with New England when she lived here for a short time. Anne intentionally came back to New England to attend Colby College and studied marine Science and became interested in animal behavior. She attended the University of Rhode Island focusing on behavioral and ecological communities of fish in the Zoology department.

Gary Shepherd is a research fishery biologist with the Coastal Pelagic Resources Task in the Population Dynamics Branch of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. He started working for NMFS as a summer student aide in 1975 as a college freshman at UMass Dartmouth and did work-study in the Age and Growth Unit during his senior year. He went to Rutgers for graduate school where he conducted research on weakfish and striped bass populations.