In memory of Ernie Brannon
SAFS Professor and alumnus Ernest L. (Ernie) Brannon passed away in Moscow, Idaho, on March 10 after a period of declining health. He received his PhD from the UW in 1972 under the supervision of Dr. Lauren “Doc” Donaldson.
Doc had established the College of Fisheries’ experimental salmon and trout hatchery and developed a selective breeding program for salmonids. After Doc’s retirement, Ernie Brannon was hired on the teaching faculty in 1973 and also assumed leadership of the experimental hatchery. He and Dr. William Hershberger, a geneticist, developed a large and diverse program of research on various aspects of salmon and trout culture and genetics. Ernie’s research included such topics as homing and migration in salmon, the links between size and date of release from hatcheries and survival at sea, genetic control over migration at sea, and many other topics.
While best known to many for his work on hatcheries and aquaculture, Ernie’s doctoral dissertation (“Mechanisms controlling migration of sockeye salmon fry”) stands as a truly exceptional piece of experimental fish behavior research, conducted to demonstrate the factors guiding the migrations of sockeye salmon fry from the diverse populations in the Fraser River system. Ernie knew these populations intimately from his work with the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission (IPSFC), and the entire body of work, a brilliantly conceived and executed series of experiments, was published as a bulletin of the IPSFC. This work stands today as among the most influential and elegant experimental studies of salmon behavior and stimulated countless related projects.
In addition to his research program on diverse aspects of salmon and trout behavior, life history, and culture, Ernie supervised a great many graduate students and energized the hatchery with his personal devotion, hard work, and enthusiasm. Indeed, his supervisory style was characterized by incredible physical and intellectual energy. His many students struggled to keep up with him, both physically—walking (rapidly) down the hall—and scientifically—knowing his deep grasp of salmon and trout life history and broad knowledge of biology. In 1988, Ernie and his wife, Charlene Martinsen (also a UW faculty member), left the UW when Ernie accepted a position at the University of Idaho, where he led their aquaculture program until his retirement in 2001.
Thomas Quinn, Professor, SAFS
