[Coral-List] the passing of Charles Sheppard

[Georg Heiss]

Doug, thank you for sharing this very sad news! 

I first knew Charles Sheppard and Anne through working with their coral guide "Corals and coral communities of Arabia", from which I learnt a lot about the corals of the Red Sea for my PhD thesis.
I then met Charles in person at reef conferences in the early 90s. But the most exciting time I spent with him (as expedition leader), Anne and many other great people from different disciplines was during the expedition to Chagos in 1996, when I had the honour of being invited to join the first expedition after the one in 1978. Our goal as geoscientists was to drill coral cores for climate reconstructions.

I still remember very well, for example, how he told us about the 1978 expedition, when you had to have shark guards with you on every dive. We were quite excited and also a bit nervous about this. But by 1996 there were hardly any sharks even in this remote archipelago. 

Charles was one of the first to warn of the growing threats to the reefs from human activity. His work and persuasiveness played a large part in the British government's decision to declare the Chagos archipelago a "no-take" marine protected area. It is still one of the largest marine protected areas in the world.

He always had an open ear for our many questions and supported coral research in many ways. 

We will all miss his voice and his super friendly nature. 

Sincerely, 
Georg 


Dr. Georg Heiss
Reef Check e.V.
www.reefcheck.de
On 1. May 2024 at 20:18 +0200, Bill Allison via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>, wrote:
> I met and spent time on reefs in Maldives with Charles on a number of
> occasions.
> He was very helpful then and subsequently when fielding my questions.
> I am saddened by his passing.
> Sincerely,
> Bill
> 
> On Wed, May 1, 2024 at 11:01 AM Douglas Fenner via Coral-List <
> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> 
>> I am very sad at heart to have to report that our distinguished colleague,
>> Dr. Charles Sheppard, OBE, has passed away from two sudden strokes.
>> 
>> Dr. Sheppard was a world authority on the remote Chagos atoll system in the
>> Indian Ocean, which has very minimal local human impacts. He authored
>> several books and many papers, was editor of Marine Pollution Bulletin, and
>> taught at Warwick Univ. in the UK. His latest book, "The Chagos
>> Archipelago, a biological biography" has just been published by CRC Press.
>> He mentored and helped many.
>> 
>> He will be sorely missed by many of us.
>> 
>> He is survived by his wife, Anne Sheppard, who has long worked with him on
>> coral reefs, and I believe a daughter and son.
>> 
>> This is a tragic loss for us.
>> 
>> Would anyone like to share memories of him? Thank you.
>> 
>> Cheers, Doug
>> 
>> --
>> Douglas Fenner
>> Lynker Technologies, LLC, Contractor
>> NOAA Fisheries Service
>> Pacific Islands Regional Office
>> Honolulu
>> and:
>> Coral Reef Consulting
>> PO Box 997390
>> Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799-6298 USA
>> 
>> Costanza, R. 2023. To build a better world, stop chasing economic growth.
>> Nature 624: 519-521. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-04029-8
>> 
>> Fossil fuel air pollution kills 5 million people world-wide per year
>> 
>> https://www.yahoo.com/news/research-shows-disturbing-between-millions-200000257.html
>> 
>> World's richest 1% emit as much as 5 billion people
>> https://makerichpolluterspay.org/climate-equality-report/
>> 
>> Huge expansion of fossil fuels planned, will be very destructive
>> 
>> https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/08/insanity-petrostates-planning-huge-expansion-of-fossil-fuels-says-un-report
>> 
>> "without policy changes, the world will heat up enough by the end of the
>> century that more than 2 billion people will live in life-threatening hot
>> climates" Will you be in that area???
>> 
>> https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-sounding-alarm-dangerous-problem-123000792.html
>> 
>> World subsidies for fossil fuels reached an all-time high of over $1
>> TRILLION in 2022, the last year for which data is available. The subsidies
>> MUST end.
>> 
>> 
>> https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/fossil-fuel-subsidies-must-end/