Eugenie
Clark, whose childhood rapture with fish in a New York City aquarium
led to a life of scholarly adventure in the littorals and depths of the
Seven Seas and to a global reputation as a marine biologist and expert
on sharks, died on Wednesday at her home in Sarasota, Fla. She was 92.
The
cause was lung cancer, her son Nikolas Konstantinou said.Long before
“Jaws” scared the wits out of swimmers, Dr. Clark rode a 40-foot whale
shark off Baja California, ran into killer great white sharks while
scuba diving in Hawaii, studied “sleeping” sharks in undersea caves off
the Yucatán, witnessed a shark’s birth and found a rare six-gill shark
in a submersible dive off Bermuda.
Eugenie Clark, Scholar of the Life Aquatic, Dies at 92
Photo
Eugenie Clark in 1951.Credit
The American Museum of Natural History
Dr.
Clark was an ichthyologist and oceanographer whose academic
credentials, teaching and research posts, scientific activities and
honors filled a 20-page curriculum vitae, topped by longtime roles as a
professor at the University of Maryland and director of the Mote Marine
Laboratory in Sarasota.
She
also wrote three books, 80 scientific treatises and more than 70
articles and professional papers; lectured at 60 American universities
and in 19 countries abroad; appeared in 50 television specials and
documentaries; was the subject of many biographies and profiles; made
intriguing scientific discoveries; and had four species of fish named
for her. Over the years, Dr. Clark made more than 70 deep dives in submersibles, once to 12,000 feet.Credit
Tak Konstantinou
Ms.
Clark was born in New York City on May 4, 1922, to Charles Clark and
the former Yumico Mitomi. Her father died when she was 2. Her mother
worked in Lower Manhattan, and when the girl was 9 she began leaving her
on Saturday mornings at an aquarium near the Battery. Fascinated,
Eugenie persuaded her mother to buy her a 15-gallon tank and kept fish,
toads, snakes and a small alligator at home.
She
graduated from Bryant High School in Queens and Hunter College, where
she majored in zoology, and earned a master’s degree at New York
University.
After
doing research at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the
University of California, San Diego, she was a research assistant at the
Museum of Natural History in New York and returned to N.Y.U., where she
earned a doctorate in 1950, focusing on fish reproduction.
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