Dr. James H. Petersen, director of the USGS Western Fisheries Research Center’s Columbia River Research Laboratory, passed away suddenly at work on March 22, 2007, at the age of 53, during a seizure-related incident. 

Peterson was born in Emmett, Idaho, on June 19, 1953. He grew up in McCall, Idaho, where he attended high school and graduated as salutatorian. Shortly after graduation from Boise State University, Peterson received a Rotary scholarship to study marine ecology on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia.

Upon returning to the United States in the late 1970s, Peterson entered the University of Oregon where he continued his studies in marine ecology, earning a Ph.D. in 1984. For the next three years, he worked for the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum as a marine ecologist conducting research on the effects of nuclear-power plant cooling-water effluent on kelp bed ecology.

In 1988, Peterson accepted a position as a research fishery biologist at the CRRL, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service then operated. For more than a decade, he examined numerous aspects of predation as a factor limiting the survival of juvenile salmon in the Columbia River Basin. That research included examining the behavior of predators and their prey, developing bioenergetics and individual-based models of predation and projecting changes in predation in a “normalized” Columbia River. He became a key driver in developing the stream ecology program, which has become a mainstay of CRRL.

Recently, Peterson had been working on a wide range of topics, including the impacts of altered water temperature on native fishes in the Columbia and Colorado rivers; the influence of invasive species, such as American shad, on survival of Pacific salmon; and the effects of altered water quantity and quality on the small, thermally-dependent endemic aquatic community in the Muddy River near Las Vegas, Nevada.

Peterson’s contributions to the aquatic sciences are chronicled in more than 25 peer-reviewed publications, numerous technical reports to fisheries agencies that supported his research, and his appointment as an adjunct faculty member at both the University of Washington and University of Idaho. He had several future books projects outlined, including one on invasive species of the Columbia River.

During his unfortunately short tenure at CRRL, Peterson received numerous awards, culminating in a prestigious Fulbright Fellowship to Jamaica where he taught bioenergetics modeling at the Discovery Bay Marine Laboratory. He was a scientist of international renown who collaborated with other researchers throughout the United States and overseas. He was an able leader with quiet grace and respect for all, a mentor to many young fishery biologists working in the region and a close and dear friend. As director of CRRL, he oversaw the work of as many as 150 employees and helped to position the lab as one of the preeminent fisheries research facilities in the Pacific Northwest. Peterson’s staff looked up to him as someone who led through example, kind words and a genuine concern for the research and the people conducting it.

In 1989, Peterson married Dena Gadomski in Long Beach, Calif., and she moved to Cook, Wash., to join her new husband ― sharing love, life, and fisheries research. One of their passions was travel, and they shared many exciting trips together to various far away locales including: Australia, Mexico, Central America, the Cook Islands, Scotland, Italy, Belgium, France, and the Amazon River.

Peterson’s hobbies were gardening, birding, photography and sailing his 30-foot Catalina sailboat on the Columbia River. He particularly excelled at wood working, making beautiful furniture, usually in the “arts and crafts” style, and intricate jewelry boxes.

He is survived by his wife, Dena; sister Joyce McFadden, McCall, Idaho; nephews Rob (Kim), Jeff (Mary Jean), and Scott (Kim); great nephew Shane; and great nieces Andrea and Sylvia. His parents, Malcolm and Edith Petersen, and his sister Carol preceded him in death. His family, friends, and co-workers at the Columbia River Research Laboratory will miss him very much.