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DEATH NOTICES

José Márcio CorrÍa Ayres, 49, a Brazilian zoologist who was widely credited with saving the world's largest swath of protected rain forest and who received a 2002 Distinguished Service Award from SCB, died of lung cancer on 7 March 2003 in New York City. At the time of his death, Ayres served as senior conservation biologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society. Ayres battled and reasoned with bureaucracy, the resource extraction community, and even some fellow environmentalists and researchers to create the Mamiraua Sustainable Development Reserve, Brazil's first such area, in 1996. Two years later, Ayres set up the adjacent Amana Sustainable Development Reserve. Together, the reserves and an adjacent national park produced the Amazon's largest environmental corridor, more than 57,000 square km of seasonally flooded forest. John Robinson, President Elect of SCB, noted that Ayres "fundamentally changed the way Brazil thought about its protected area system . . . Basically what Márcio did was say, Hey: people are part of this landscape. And we can work with the people towards common interests so that together, we can actually make this park system functional.'" Ayres is survived by his wife, two sons, a brother and sister, and his parents.

University of Michigan ichthyologist and conservation biologist Robert Rush Miller passed away on 10 February 2003 following an extended period of ill-health. Miller received his Ph.D. under the legendary Carl L. Hubbs at University of Michigan in 1944. Miller was one of the first ichthyologists to become a conservation activist. His 1961 paper, "Man and the changing fish fauna of the American Southwest," constituted perhaps the first call to arms for fish conservation, and almost surely the first one coming from a museum ichthyologist. Miller's Ph.D. dissertation, Cyprinodont Fishes of the Death Valley System, provided the basis for my own work in the conservation of desert fishes, later resulting (in 1969) in formation of the Desert Fishes Council. Bob went on to publish more than 250 papers. Almost a career-long project was his book Freshwater Fishes of Mexico, co-authored by W.L. Minckley and S.M. Norris. This book, now in press, will serve as a fitting memorial to a great scientist and conservationist. Bob was the consummate ichthyologist. I clearly recall an incident after we had labored to save a seed population of the Owens pupfish (Cyprinodon radiosus) prior to re-establishing them in a newly-constructed refuge pond. This period of intimacy during the long winter of 1969-70 caused us almost to know each individual pupfish by name. So when Bob and Carl Hubbs came to Bishop to make the long-awaited introduction into the Owens Valley Native Fish Sanctuary, the first thing Bob did was to drop 200 of them alive (nearly half) into a large crock of formalin to take back to the collections at University of Michigan. This was hard for us, but Bob knew that sufficient live material would remain to re-establish a viable population in its type locality. In closing, it should be noted that Bob was a man of diverse interests. He seldom missed a football game in Michigan stadium although the coaches (according to Bob) seldom accepted his suggestions on how to improve Michigan's football program. Go Blue!

Phil Pister, Desert Fishes Council

Ulysses S. Seal, Chairman of the Conservation Breeding Specialist Group since its inception several decades ago, succumbed to cancer on 19 March 2003. Throughout his career, Seal made tremendous contributions to human health, animal health, wildlife conservation, and the development of effective processes for collaboration. He also inspired, challenged, and worked with an extensive network of friends and colleagues to address the problems of conservation about which he felt so passionately. It is a tribute to Seal, and to his direct personal influence, that the CBSG now has more than 1000 members, more than 130 organizational and individual sponsors, and a positive global sphere of impact. When asked what guidance he could provide to future Chairs and to the CBSG, Seal responded that the CBSG has the people and the philosophy it needs to make a difference to conservation around the world. He said that specific advice from him was unnecessary and unwarranted, because the organization needs to continue to grow in whatever directions its members can take it, making maximal use of their talents, resources, and passion to conserve the natural world that sustains us. Condolences and best wishes to his successors.

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