In memoriam: John B. Glude 1918-2004

Journal of Shellfisheries Research, Jan, 2005 by Melbourne R. Carriker

A person of many talents, John Glude dedicated the first part of his productive professional career, as a field research biologist, to improving the fisheries of commercial bivalves. His academic training, a Bachelor of Science in fisheries, some engineering courses, and a Masters Degree in business administration, completed in 1939 at the University of Washington, prepared him well for this endeavor. But success, as so often happens to talented professionals, ironically promoted him into increasingly responsible organizational and administrative positions. Thus in time he left behind field work in aquaculture for administrative functions in the halls of government. And even in retirement, as an active consultant, John continued his service to practical shellfisheries. The appended long list of titles of papers and reports in his bibliography reflect the depth and breadth of his activities.

John's first field position, as a Fishery Biologist with the Washington State Department of Fisheries, was briefly interrupted during World War II when he served as a naval architect draftsman at the Tacoma Naval Shipyard. He later returned to the department to investigate the effects of pulp mill pollution on oysters. The results of this important research formed the basis for regulatory actions that reduced sulfite liquor waste from pulp mills and in time helped to preserve the valuable oyster resources of the State of Washington.

During his tenure in the Department of Fisheries John was sent to Japan, occasionally with his colleague Cedric Lindsay, to inspect for the presence of undesirable organisms on Japanese seed oysters that were to be exported to the northwestern United States. These critical surveys led to the importation of major quantities of seed oysters, thereby supporting the oyster fishery on the Pacific Coast until the time when sufficient local seed would be raised in local hatcheries to supply local demand. An astute observer, during these visits John studied with keen interest the Japanese methods for the culture of oysters and other bivalves. He returned enthusiastically to the United States to share this information with shellfish growers in oral and written reports. These reports were often presented at joint annual meetings of the National Shellfisheries Association and the Oyster Growers and Dealers Association on the East Coast and to the West Coast Division of NSA and the Pacific Coast Oyster Growers Association on the West Coast.

Then in 1948 John accepted the position of Chief of Clam Investigations with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWLS) at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. His objective was to study the abundance and survival of soft-shell clams along the East Coast.

The next year he moved the project to a former fish hatchery at Booth Bay Harbor, a region where populations of clams were much more abundant. He was named director of the facility. While there he and his staff conducted investigations on soft-clam larvae, clam populational fluctuations, and depredations of clams by green crabs. These studies are still cited. He was the first scuba diver in Maine, possibly in New England. In 1952, and an example of John's concern for accuracy, John sent several of us malacologists on the East Coast a questionnaire hoping to arrive at a consensus on an acceptable common name for Venus mercenaria then known as the hard clam, quahaug, quahog, and cohog. Out of the 35 responses, 12 favored quahaug, 12 quahog, and 5 hard clam. In view of the tie John decided to use the geographically more widely used name, hard clam, in FWLS publications.

One of John's innovative projects in Boothbay Harbor was the invention of a mechanical device for trapping soft-clam larvae from tidal flows. At the time Thurlow Nelson, Harold Haskin, and I were conducting hard clam investigations in New Jersey and visited John to compare notes and to examine the ingenious trap. However, to my knowledge, the trap never gained acceptance.

During his stay in Boothbay Harbor, John organized a series of annual conferences on clam research and widely distributed the results of the papers and deliberations in reports. These were helpful to all of us bivalve fisheries researchers on the East Coast.

In 1956 John became Chief of the Clam and Chesapeake Oyster Investigations, FWLS (later the National Marine Fisheries Service) in Annapolis, Maryland. His wife, Jean, daughter Nancy, and sons Terry and Bill, soon joined him. John and his staff were engaged primarily in research to develop better methods for farming oysters and other shellfish in Chesapeake Bay.

Later my research on oyster drills (Urosalpinx cinerea) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was supported by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and John served as my grant representative. I found him approachable, responsive, kind, open minded, intellectually curious, and very helpful in managing the grant.

For financial reasons John's Chesapeake Laboratory was closed, and in 1958 he accepted a position at the national headquarters of the NMFS in Washington, DC. There he was placed in charge of the shellfish research branch of NMFS, with the title of Chief Branch of Shellfisheries, and with responsibility for the seven NMFS regional laboratories. His quiet, soft spoken, persuasive approach contributed strongly to his success in carrying out his often ambitious plans. During this time he developed the first draft of the important first NOAA Aquaculture Plan. John had now became a full time organizer-administrator, and the field research of which he was so fond was set aside, done by his staff.