Preface

This special issue for the Journal, Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management, is the result of a desire to recognize a truly unique person and distinguished fisheries and aquatic scientist, Dr. Henry Regier. The articles included in this special issue attempt to highlight Henry’s outstanding contributions to our understanding of Laurentian Great Lakes science and management, in addition to his compassionate mentoring to all people with an interest in improving the ecological health and state of these lakes and their fisheries. There are few individuals that have the intellectual and emotional capacity that Henry possesses. His abilities to integrate and synthesize information from a myriad of disciplines and his direct and respectful interactions with people from all walks of life, place Henry as a central node in our understanding of, and appreciation for, how the Great Lakes are ecologically structured and how they function. His innovative spirit lives on in his legacy, inspiring and fostering the development of novel approaches by scientists, managers, policy-makers, students and others to improve the ecological well-being of these lakes that, in turn, have provided a multitude of benefits to society at the local, regional, and global levels.

Henry has always cared about being a community-oriented scientist. He believes it is everyone’s responsibility to care for the environment and, more importantly, to care for each other. This moral value system of involvement and personal commitment to all has been shaped by experiences throughout his life. He spent his early years on a pioneer’s homestead in the Pearce River Valley in Alberta, Canada. 13 years later, he moved to the Lake Ontario shoreline. There, he observed the demise of the fisheries: countless dead Alewives washing up on shore, waters that were polluted with the polio virus (i.e. contained in untreated, discarded human waste), rivers that often caught on fire due to pollution from local industries, foul smells wafting from the lake due to poor sanitation, and land use practices leading to eutrophication. Fearing the imminent demise of this magnificent lake and its biota, along with almost all other waterbodies at this time, Henry dedicated his life to improving the health and status of Great Lakes and fisheries throughout the world. He did this, primarily, in order to reverse the negative impacts of despoiled waterways on local communities that depend on these resources for food and economic well-being.

Renowned in the professional fisheries community, Henry has transformed the approach many scientists use to view and think critically about fisheries resource ecology, management, policy, and governance; this approach is highly integrative, interdisciplinary, and used most successfully in a coupled human and natural resource (CHANS) context! Thus, Dr. Robin Welcomme, a previous Head of Inland Fisheries Resources and Aquaculture Service of the United Nations (FAO), said this of Dr. Henry Regier:

“Henry was deeply involved with the rapidly expanding awareness of the importance of scientifically-based, socially-acceptable assessment of the world’s inland fisheries, particularly in developing countries in the 1970s and 80s. He thus was appointed Chief of the Stock Assessment Branch of the Fisheries Department in FAO, Rome, Italy during a sabbatical year (1970-71) in which he was involved in the extension of geographically- and culturally-based and scientifically reliable stock assessment methodologies to the growing number of institutions in newly independent countries. After he left FAO, he continued to play a crucial role in the management, policy, extension, and the gathering, interpretation, and dissemination of knowledge through his involvement with working parties, training workshops, symposia, and review of scientific programmes bilaterally, and in association with, FAO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, United Nations Environment Programme, the International Association for Ecology, and others. Major contributions that Henry provided the world’s fisheries during this time of rapid change enabled him to act as a prominent spokesman during the shift from what was originally an academic and isolated approach to inland fisheries to more people-oriented developments involving fishers and their communities.”

While Henry’s efforts have had a global impact, the focus of his work has been predominately on the Laurentian Great Lakes and their fisheries resources. He began researching the Great Lakes, particularly Lake Erie, in the 1950s and monumentally declared Lake Erie as “dead.” In a famous article that appeared in Science in 1973, Regier and Hartman brought much needed attention to the way people interacted with the Great Lakes and called for improved resource management, both within the lakes and also in the connected watersheds and airsheds. The article energized the community to think holistically about their natural resources and, further, mobilized the environmental movements in both the U.S. and Canada. Henry pursued his research with an “ecogenic” focus that linked ecology with various disciplinary experts (e.g. philosophers, policy-makers) to develop new governance perspectives and fisheries concepts, which always included the local communities. For instance, without knowing it, he was one of the original Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS) experts, having witnessed firsthand the collapse of the Great Lakes ecosystems, the impact on these ecosystems from human abuses, and the social-economic consequences for human communities within the basin: food insecurity, lack of employment, public health problems from polluted water, and the economic collapse of local fishing communities. With assistance from individual citizens in the local community, graduate students, research associates and colleagues, Henry’s research was applied using an ecosystem-based approach at various governance levels from local to global communities. This type of approach led to improved habitat restoration and holistic fisheries management in the Great Lakes, which ultimately has contributed to improving the conditions of the Great Lakes ecosystems and their fisheries.

As noted above and can be seen by the diversity of papers presented in this special issue, and in reading Henry’s synthesis paper, Henry thinks deeply about how systems work and how each system component interacts synergistically (or antagonistically) with others. As Henry learned, and maybe more importantly experienced, how the structure of aquatic systems determined their function and productivity, he became a highly respected and reasoned voice for all to listen to; a voice that would result in society making the changes needed for healthier ecosystems and human communities. Henry is, and has always been, an activist, and he speaks passionately about the importance of working holistically with all people to improve the state of the world’s aquatic and fishery resources. Throughout his life, Henry continued to increase his understanding of how aquatic systems were linked to landscapes and societies and, when fostered and cared for by the local people and the governments that had the authority to act on their behalf, he realized that good things could occur. But he also experienced that while the linkages between environmental components in watersheds should be thought of as synergistic well-functioning systems, far too often these linkages were misunderstood or under-appreciated by the governance structures that controlled their status and the people who depended on these systems for their sustenance and well-being. Henry attributed this, in part, to the often isolated and mechanistic manner in which science has generally been conducted and, thus, how governance systems were individually designed and implemented, rather than comprehensively designed as the integrated dynamic, synergistic systems that they were. This disconnect was often maddening to Henry as he knew that ecosystem problems could only be solved by working in networks rather than in isolation.

In order to promote this holistic thinking and action, Henry became an ever more prominent advocate for developing networks and governance structures that better reflected how these systems worked synergistically proving optimal benefits for all. As such, resource management in the Great Lakes Basin was revolutionized in large part due to his leadership and those of his colleagues that have benefited and learned so much from Henry. We thank Henry for his efforts, care and friendship to make the world a better place to live (Fig. 1). He has always been the pioneer, the one that embraced and took on hard, knotty environmental problems attempting to find appropriate linkages that could result in their resolution. In so doing, he made our Great Lakes fisheries and aquatic resources healthier and more productive. He was an ever present guide, helping scientists, policy makers, and the public better understand the interconnectedness that shapes these systems and that ultimately determines the quality of these resources, including humans that depend on these magnificent fisheries and their waterways for their own survival. To this day, over twenty years after his retirement, Henry continues to be engaged – full of wit and excitement – and collaborates with students, researchers, and policy-makers in the Great Lakes to ensure the sustainability of these great aquatic treasures.

Figure 1. This image is a humble attempt to capture our vision of Dr. Henry Regier with a suite of characteristic words which portray his personality and contributions. It is adapted from an original idea of Dr. John J. Magnuson (personal communication), Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison. The concept was further modified by several colleagues namely William Taylor, Molly Good, Jennifer Lorimer (design) and Mohiuddin Munawar. The photo was provided by the courtesy of Elmira Regier.

On a pleasant note, as an integrated, holistic thinker, Henry has developed a number of new words and phrases reflecting the integration of formally independent processes. We, in the scientific community, fondly refer to these as “Regierisms,” and you will see some of them in his paper in this volume. Do not be frustrated by these new words and phrases; they will become clearer as you think about the processes he attempts to integrate and break down, which, by doing so, better illustrates the complexity and integrative science of ecology, the production dynamics in aquatic systems, and their importance in the health and well-being of human communities.

Lastly, it is imperative that we recognize a very special person, Dr. Mohiuddin Munawar, who was the architect and taskmaster for this special issue. Without Mohi’s dogged passion and attention to detail, this issue would never have occurred. We all thank you, Mohi, from the bottom of our hearts for the friendship and kind prodding that enabled the final production of this special issue dedicated to your and our friend and colleague, Dr. Henry Regier; thank you!

William W. Taylor and Molly J. Good
Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability
Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824