[Coral-List] the passing of Charles Sheppard

[Alastair Harborne]

Hi all,
I wanted to add to the messages about Charles. As I developed an interest in coral reefs as an undergraduate it quickly became clear that Charles was a pillar of the UK coral-reef community and a constant reminder that you could work on these amazing tropical ecosystems while based in the UK. So it was a delight that he eventually trusted me to write a chapter for his "Seas at the Millenium" book and later was an insightful examiner of my PhD. He was a big supporter of the Reef Conservation UK meetings, and always good company over a few drinks after the meetings.
RIP Charles,
Alastair


__
 
Dr Alastair Harborne
Associate Professor
Tropical Fish Ecology Lab
http://tropicalfishecologylab.com
 
Institute of Environment & Department of Biological Sciences
Florida International University,
MSB 352, Biscayne Bay Campus, 3000 NE 151 Street,
North Miami, Florida 33181, USA
 
Tel: +1-305-919-4232
email: aharborn at fiu.edu
Skype name: al_harborne
Twitter: @alharborne
FIU website: https://case.fiu.edu/about/directory/profiles/harborne-alastair.html
 
Ecology Editor, Coral Reefs: http://www.springer.com/life+sciences/ecology/journal/338
ResearcherID: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/F-6155-2013

-----Original Message-----
From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> On Behalf Of Mark Spalding via Coral-List
Sent: Friday, May 3, 2024 1:20 PM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] the passing of Charles Sheppard

Note: This message originated from outside the FIU Faculty/Staff email system.


It's so appropriate to acknowledge Charles on this list. Back in 1996, it was on this list (or some simpler pre-cursor perhaps) I read a note from Charles Sheppard inviting participants to join an expedition to the Chagos Archipelago. Although I was getting into global mapping at the time, I'd never heard of it so I ran to an Atlas. When I saw where it was I felt I had no choice but to raise the funds and go there for my PhD fieldwork. Twenty years later I nervously stepped into his shoes as the Chief Science Advisor for Chagos.

Charles put the importance of this last great coral wilderness on the map, and devoted much of his life to moving it from an unknown place of mystery to it's current role as a hotbed of brilliant research (still on remote and sometimes tough expeditions), fostering generations of new researchers and cementing the great success of others.

The human history of the Archipelago is shocking, but Charles was instrumental in ensuring that both the British and the US military on Diego Garcia didn't run amok, and so, even as reef health has declined everywhere, Chagos remains remarkable. I'm sorry Charles won't see what happens next, but I had a good chat with him a few weeks ago. Negotiations are underway with Mauritius on the future sovereignty of the islands. Many Chagossians and others are talking about resettlement. Whatever happens the rich influence of Charles Sheppard will be there...as well as on the many other aspects of coral reef science he pioneered or influenced.

RIP Charles

Mark

____________________________
Mark D Spalding, PhD
Chief Science Advisor
British Indian Ocean Territory Administration (Chagos Archipelago) and Honorary Research Fellow, University of Cambridge Home office: Siena, Italy
E: mark at mdspalding.co.uk
T: +39 391 112 9373



_______________________________________________
Coral-List mailing list
Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list__;!!FjuHKAHQs5udqho!Ns_U2No5z8o70o1SqxDJmLO-r0N01oEThP6ELZ86pCmkPinvADqhYWggYjhtnGCvFR9N7GdfGfK3Y5nX8ag51BB8pUFX$