The IUCN/SSC Shark Specialist Group
Shark News 9: June 1997
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Obituary: Donald R. Nelson
Scientist, teacher, founder and recent past President of the American Elasmobranch Society
Don did his graduate work at the University of Miami, Rosenstiel
School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, and was a Professor in
Animal Behavior at California State University, Long Beach, for 32
years. He was an early voice for changing the negative attitudes about
sharks. His pioneering research was featured on television in the
1970s, long before the Discovery Channel was even a dream! Don's
productive and well-funded research career was based on trying to
understand the behaviour of sharks. Early on, he realised that telemetry
would be the most reasonable way to make progress. He was also
interested in shark senses, especially hearing. Possibly, his most
important single finding was that sharks are naturally attracted by low
frequency, pulsed sounds. The 1963 study was published in Science.
Perhaps his most enduring finding and certainly one of his most
interesting was the demonstration that provoking a gray reef shark will
release an obvious agonistic display-a kind of fight or flight reaction.
To physically survive the study, Don personally designed and
constructed a research submersible he called the SOS (shark observation
sub). Don delighted in showing the many places where gray reefs bit
off parts of the sub. Today, the SOS, one of several vessels Don
designed and built, is on permanent display in the Los Angeles County
Museum's (NSF funded) travelling shark education show.
Don was teacher to hundreds of college students and mentor of
many fine graduate students. Several have followed in Don's footsteps
and are continuing his work as professional shark biologists. Will
Rogers said "I never met a man I didn't like". I say "I never met a man
(or woman) who didn't like Don!"
Samuel H. Gruber
Miami, Florida
10 April 1997
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