Fishery biologist, conservationist, deep ecologist
Nationality
American
Subject
Desert fishes, conservation, environmental ethics
Edwin Philip Pister (January 15, 1929 – January 17, 2023) was an American fishery biologist who worked for California Department of Fish and Game.[1] He was a pioneer of desert fish conservation, and is credited with saving the
Owens pupfish (Cyprinodon radiosis) by transferring the entire remaining population into several buckets and transporting them to a safe location.[2][3]
Pister was born in
Stockton, California and lived in
Bishop, California. A volume compiling studies of desert fishes has been published in his honor.[4] He has written and published scientific and popular papers and has also written about
environmental ethics.[5]
Pister helped found the non-profit Desert Fishes Council in 1969, serving as its first president, then as its Executive Secretary until his death.[6]
Audio interviews of him are available in the Bancroft Library at University of California, Berkeley[7]
Pister died in
Bishop, California on January 17, 2023, two days after his 94th birthday.[8]
Awards
Order of the Jassid (for conservation) from Sierra Pacific Flyfishers
President's Fishery Conservation Award from the American Fisheries Society