Letter to a Young Scientist

In E.O. Wilson's book, Letters to a Young Scientists, from which this letter, and the ones to follow, gain their inspiration, Dr. Wilson starts where anyone would start a book of this kind; he introduces himself to his readers. If an introduction is good enough for Dr. Wilson, then it is good enough for me.

I decided to become a marine biologist when I was 14 years old. My mom and dad fueled my passion for marine science by taking me beach combing whenever possible (mom) and fishing from as early as I can remember (dad). I was my dad's salmon fishing buddy while my older brother preferred fishing for steelhead and trout. In addition, both my mom and dad would drive me to the beach whenever there was a low tide that I just had to see. I grew up in a small town north of Seattle not too far from Camano Island State Park.

Looking back now, I realize I didn't know exactly what it meant to be a marine biologist, but I did know there was such a job and that it if it meant I could muddle around in tide pools for the rest of my life, or try and figure out why my dad had such success as a fisherman, then it was for me. Anyway, by the time I was 14, I had learned the names (common name and scientific name) of every animal (and most plants) I encountered in the rocky intertidal of Puget Sound and all of the fish and marine mammals encountered at the end of my fishing line or surrounding my dad's small boats. My copies of Between Pacific Tides, by Joel W. Hedgepeth and Edward F. Ricketts and Seashore life of Puget Sound, the Strait of Georgia, and the San Juan Archipelago by Eugene N, Kozloff were well worn and constant companions on these outings by the time I made my decision regarding future employment. Today, however, I am a freshwater biologist who studies the ecology of insects, mollusks, and fish and their presence or absence in a stream as indicators of water quality and the health of aquatic environments. One might ask, when did I go adrift? (pun intended)

For the last 20...