Cobb, John N. (John Nathan), 1868-1930

John N. Cobb was a fisheries biologist, author and editor, federal official, and university professor and administrator who was born 1868 in Oxford, New Jersey, and died in 1930 in La Jolla, California. John Cobb is best known as a leading authority on fisheries and for initiating and directing the University of Washington fisheries program. He became a leader in his field and received commissions to investigate fisheries along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the Great Lakes. Most of his work was in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, but his investigations included everything from lobster fisheries in Maine to sponge fisheries in Florida. Aside from his development of the UW fisheries program, Cobb's most noteworthy contributions were inventions to allow salmon to overcome modern barriers. These included fishways, such as escalators, to allow salmon to pass over dams, and electric gates to keep young salmon out of irrigation ditches. He worked for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, the Salmon Fisheries of Alaska, the journal Pacific Fisherman, and the Alaska Packers Association. He was asked to head the UW fisheries program when it opened in 1919 and served as its director (and later dean) until poor health forced him to resign ten years later. He also served as president of the Pacific Fisheries Society in the 1920s.

From the description of John N. Cobb papers 1876-1970 (bulk 1897-1930). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 39367141

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