Dr. Richard J. Beamish C.M., O.B.C., Ph.D., D.Sc.,F.R.S.C.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Pacific Biological Station
Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada, V9T 6N7
Tel: (250) 756-7029
Fax: (250) 756-7053
Email: [email protected]
Pacific Biological Station
Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada, V9T 6N7
Tel: (250) 756-7029
Fax: (250) 756-7053
Email: [email protected]
Dr. Richard Beamish, C.M., O.B.C, Ph.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.C. is an Emeritus Scientist at the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, B.C. Dick Beamish was born in 1942 in Toronto, Canada, and started his career as a fisheries biologist in the 1960s. He finished his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto in 1970 and went directly to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute for a Post Doctoral Fellowship with Dick Backus. He then worked at the Freshwater Institute in Winnipeg from 1971 to 1974, ending up at the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, British Columbia in March 1974. He was the Head of the Groundfish Section from 1977-1979 and Director from 1980-1993.
Photo: Dick Beamish and Bill Pennell- sampling deep sea fishes on the W.E. Ricker, 2012
Photo: Dick Beamish and Bill Pennell- sampling deep sea fishes on the W.E. Ricker, 2012
After retiring, in 2011, he continued as an Editor for Transactions of the American Fisheries Society and a member of the Science Panel for the North Pacific Research Board. He was a chairman of the Scientific Steering Committee for the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission and an active member of PICES. He was also the Department’s representative on the Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council, one of two scientists on the Deputy Ministers’ Science Management Board, a former Canadian Commissioner for the International Pacific Halibut Commission and Professor at Vancouver Island University.
Photo: Dick Beamish, Wendy Watson Wright and Bev Scott, Ottawa, 2009
Photo: Dick Beamish, Wendy Watson Wright and Bev Scott, Ottawa, 2009
Dr. Beamish has been honoured with a number of awards including the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and became the first foreign scientist to be made an honorary member of the fisheries centre, TINRO in Vladivostok, Russia. Recently, he received the first award given by the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission for significant contributions in scientific research, on Pacific salmon, and the Wooster award given by PICES for career achievements in fisheries and ocean science.
His research interests have included the discovery of acid rain in North America, new methods of ageing fish that included the discovery that many species of fish were much older than previously thought. He discovered a new lamprey species and wrote about the evolutionary relationships among lamprey. He has authored a number of papers on the effects of climate on fish populations and was one of the first scientists to write about climate regimes and regime shifts. He has published over 350 articles with about half in peer reviewed journals. Photo: Dick Beamish, Bill Ricker, David Anderson,
Pacific Biological Station, Nanaimo, BC, 1999
Dick is married to Ann and has two daughters, Jennifer and Heather, and two granddaughters, Emma and Olivia. He is an avid gardener with a large collection of rhododendrons and Japanese maples. As well, he enjoys making chocolates and playing rugby.
His research interests have included the discovery of acid rain in North America, new methods of ageing fish that included the discovery that many species of fish were much older than previously thought. He discovered a new lamprey species and wrote about the evolutionary relationships among lamprey. He has authored a number of papers on the effects of climate on fish populations and was one of the first scientists to write about climate regimes and regime shifts. He has published over 350 articles with about half in peer reviewed journals. Photo: Dick Beamish, Bill Ricker, David Anderson,
Pacific Biological Station, Nanaimo, BC, 1999
Dick is married to Ann and has two daughters, Jennifer and Heather, and two granddaughters, Emma and Olivia. He is an avid gardener with a large collection of rhododendrons and Japanese maples. As well, he enjoys making chocolates and playing rugby.
