Eugenie Clark

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Eugenie Clark (May 4, 1922 – February 25, 2015), better known as The Shark Lady, was an American ichthyologist who was responsible for both her shark research and her study of fish in the order Tetraodontiformes.

Clark was a pioneer in the field of scuba diving for research purposes.

Clark was well-known and spread her word about marine conservation in addition to being regarded as a leader in aquatic research, and she promoted marine conservation.

Early life and education

Eugenie Clark was born and raised in New York City. Eugenie's father, Charles Clark, died when Eugenie was just two years old, and her mother, Yumico Motomi, later married Japanese restaurant owner Masatomo Nobu.

Clark attended elementary school in Woodside, Queens, and graduated from Bryant High School in Queens, New York. In her classes, she was the first student of Japanese descent.

Clark was passionate about marine science from an early age, with several of her school papers focusing on marine biology topics. Clark returned to the aquarium every Saturday thereafter, fascinated by marine animals, following their first visit to Battery Park. Clark was inspired to become an oceanographer by William Beebe's work.

Academic and scientific life

Eugenie Clark earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in zoology from Hunter College (1942). She studied at the University of Michigan Biological Station in the summers, and before graduating, she worked with Celanese Corporation as a chemist. Eugenie began to study at Columbia University but was turned down due to the fear that she would leave her scientific career in order to concentrate on raising children. Clark, who was unemployed, went on to earn both a Master of Arts (1946) and a Doctorate of Zoology (1950) from New York University. Clark carried out research at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts, and the Lerner Marine Laboratory in Bimini during her years of graduate study.

Clark carried out fish population studies in Guam, the Marshall Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Caroline Islands in 1949, as part of the Office of Naval Research in Micronesia. Clark received a Fulbright Scholarship to study ichthyological studies at the Marine Biological Station in Hurghada, Egypt's northern Red Sea Coast. These experiences were chronicled in Clark's debut book, Lady with a Spear (1953), which was funded in part by a Eugenie Saxton Memorial Fellowship and a Breadloaf Writers' Fellowship. The book was a huge success.

In 1954, Anne and William H. Vanderbilt, supporters of Lady with a Spear who owned an estate in southwestern Florida, invited the biologist to speak at a public school in Englewood, Florida. The attendees of Clark's presentation on Red Sea fish revealed that they had encountered many similar creatures in local waters and were keen to learn more about them. The Vanderbilts also built a laboratory for Clark in the area. In 1955, the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory was established.

Clark was employed at the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory as a fisherman who was an expert at catching sharks. At the time of the lab's establishment, Chadwick was Clark's only assistant. John H. Hellen, the director of the New England Institute for Medical Research, was the first researcher to request shark research. As the laboratory's activities were first reported in scientific journals, calls from other researchers began to pour into the lab. Researchers from around the world gathered in Cape Haze to study.

Sylvia Earle, one of the visiting researchers at Cape Haze Laboratory, was then working on her dissertation on algae at Duke University. Earle assisted Clark in the establishment of a herbarium by depositing duplicate specimens into the laboratory's reference collection.

Clark, who lived in Cape Haze, carried out a variety of behavioral, sexual, and anatomical experiments on sharks and other fish. She scuba dived in the local waters frequently, studying various animals. Clark used the glass jar catching method popularized by Connie Limbaugh, then Chief Diver at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, on these dives. Clark was able to return unused specimens back to the lab for further study with these jars.

In 1960, the Cape Haze Laboratory was relocated to Siesta Key, Florida. Scientists from the Dow Chemical Company continued to visit the laboratory, including chemists from the Dow Chemical Company.

Clark was an explorer with the Israel South Red Sea Expedition, 1962--which established a camp on one of the Dahlak Archipelago's Eritrean islands. Her research concentrated not only on sharks but also on other, mainly large, pelagic animals.

Clark left Cape Haze in 1966 for a New York faculty position. She became an instructor at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1968. Clark received numerous awards, including three fellowships, five scholarships, and six medals while at the University of Maryland. Clark officially graduated from the University of Maryland in 1999, but he taught one class in the zoology department each semester for several years.

Clark renamed the Mote Marine Laboratory in 2000, after returning to the Cape Haze Laboratory, which has been renamed the Mote Marine Laboratory. She served there as a Senior Scientist, Director Emerita, and Trustee until she died of lung cancer in Sarasota, Florida, on February 25, 2015. Clark was a keen researcher and diver throughout her life, completing her last dive in 2014 and presenting its findings in January 2015, with additional research still on hand at the time of her death.

Personal life

Clark was married five times, the first four of whom were divorced, including writer Jideo Umaki from 1950 to 1967, writer Chandler Brossard from 1967 to 1969, and Igor Klatzo in 1970. Henry Yoshinobu Kon's widowhood saw her from 1997 to his death in 2000.

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