Colin Clark's Contributions to Fisheries Economics (produced by Faculti)
prepared by Gordon Munro
Professor Colin W. Clark passed away, after a long illness, on April 12, 2024, at the age of 92. Many maintain that he was the greatest bioeconomist of his age, and many agree with Martin Smith, who, while editor of MRE, wrote that Colin has had a fundamental and enduring impact upon fisheries economics.
Colin was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. After attending school in Vancouver, he earned his B.A. at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 1953. He then went to the University of Washington, in Seattle, where he completed his PhD in Mathematics in 1958. In 1960, he returned to UBC to join its Department of Mathematics.
After a decade of working on pure mathematics, Colin tired of it. Having had had a life-long interest in nature, Colin decided in 1970 to see what he could do in terms of applying his mathematical skills to the study of the management of natural resources, with one set of such resources taking his interest, fisheries, and the beleaguered whale populations in particular. In so doing, he succeeded in publishing several articles, while doing his utmost to cultivate professional relations with both biologists and economists.
His relations with economists were at first “interesting”, because he came up with results that appeared to run counter to those of the standard (static) fisheries economics of the day. He did, at last in 1973, succeed in collaborating with an economist, a novice to the field of fisheries economics, Gordon Munro. That collaboration led in time to an article, which revived and firmly established the idea that fishery resources (along with all other natural resources) are to be seen as capital -natural capital, and that hence the economist’s theories of capital and investment must, of necessity, be applied in the analysis of the management of these resources.
As well as attempting to bring about an interdisciplinary fusion between Economics and Mathematics, Colin did the same with respect to Biology and Mathematics. The relevance of this second fusion to the economics of fisheries is straightforward. Once it becomes accepted that fisheries economics should be cast in a capital-theoretic framework, it becomes obvious that the underlying biological model must be seen as an integral part of the economic model of the fishery – hence Bioeconomics.
The year after Colin and Gordon published their joint article, Colin published his book, Mathematical Bioeconomics: The Optimal Management of Renewable Resources. The book incorporated everything in his article with Gordon, while making many elaborations and extensions, and being written with biologists, as well as economists, very much in mind.
The book proved to be a great success, soon achieving the status of “classic”. The 1976 first edition was to be followed by two further editions in 1990 and 2010.
In fisheries economics, Colin, while continuing his collaboration with Gordon, broadened his collaborative efforts to work with other natural resource economists, with Jon Conrad and Rashid Sumaila providing prominent examples.
Over that same period, Colin had been collaborating with biologists, e.g. Mark Mangel, with very effective results, all of which were reflected in Mathematical Bioeconomics.
In 1997, Colin gained recognition for his great scientific contributions by being elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, United Kingdom.
In 2016, Colin was named a Fellow of IIFET.
It can be predicted with confidence that, in 2124, Mathematical Bioeconomics will continue to be seen by fisheries economists, academics and practitioners, and others, as a fundamental reference.
Colin, as well as being a great researcher, scientist, was valued by his family and collaborators for his warmth and humour. Many of his collaborators came to regard Colin as a close friend.
Colin leaves behind his devoted wife, Janet, his children, Jennifer, Karen and Graeme, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
A Celebration of Life is scheduled to held in Richmond, B.C., just south of Vancouver, on June 9th. The family advises that contributions in Colin’s memory to The Nature Trust of British Columbia, or the Nature Conservancy of Canada, would be appreciated.
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