The Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, mourns the passing of Arthur “Art” Tautz, who left us on September 13, 2020.
Art Tautz received his MSc and PhD from the University of British Columbia, where he studied and published with such luminaries as Peter Larkin, C.S. “Buzz” Holling, W.E “Bill” Ricker, and Cess Groot. In 1972, he joined the British Columbian government’s fisheries management agencies, and continued to be a part of its various iteration throughout his long and influential career.
In addition to his research management responsibilities, Dr. Tautz became the provincial lead for the Federal-Provincial Salmonid Enhancement Program and served as BC steelhead coordinator for over a decade. He oversaw management and research teams responsible for stock monitoring, development of enhancement tools, and a number of pieces of legislation. Over the years, he helped develop workable policies, regulations and agreements for commercial and recreational fisheries in both marine and freshwater environments.
The development of temporal and spatial models supporting decisions made in challenging political environments was an area that Dr. Tautz focused on. He has served on a variety of ministry information management committees and supported the development of several innovative systems tools in both the Federal and Provincial governments. He served on the Federal science review panel for many years, as well as on the project proposal review panels for the Pacific Salmon Foundation and Forest Renewal BC. He also was a member on two ecoregional planning teams for the Nature Conservancy of Canada. Even after retirement, Dr. Tautz retained an advisory role with the Provincial government.
One of the highlights of his career was linking UBC’s then Institute of Animal Resource Ecology and Fisheries Centre (now the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries) with the Province’s Ministry of Environment. After securing this collaboration, Art served as Manager of the Fisheries Research Branch, based at UBC where, like many he was “temporarily” located in “the Huts” for about 25 years, prior to a move to new offices in the AERL Building. He was also appointed as an as an Adjunct Professor at UBC, a position he continued to hold after his retirement.
Dr. Tony Pitcher, professor, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, and founding director of the then Fisheries Centre, recalls that, “for our first ten years, Art provided significant funding that helped the Fisheries Centre get established. His unit helped cover the costs of research seminars, the newsletter, and many of our early Fisheries Centre Research Reports.”
“We received a great deal of his personal encouragement for our activities,” Pitcher said.
“I remember Art for being a kind, wise and curious person with a quick wit and great sense of humour. He cared about people – and they cared about him,” said Dr. Andrew Trites, professor, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, and former co-director of the Fisheries Centre. “I particularly enjoyed talking to him about seals and salmon, and hearing his insights into the changes he observed in the Strait of Georgia over his life time.”
Dr. Art Tautz will be greatly missed.