NOGI

:: Patrick L. Colin, Ph.D. - Science - 2010

Patrick L. Colin earned a M.S.(1970) and Ph.D.(1973) in Marine Sciences at the University of Miami Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences working on the biology of western Atlantic reef fishes. His Ph.D work focused on the cleaning gobies of the western Atlantic and revealed for the first time a level of biogeographic compartmentalization (enclaves) within the Caribbean region which is the focus of much research today. In addition to very extensive scuba diving research, he was involved in programs in Jamaica and Belize using small submersibles to examine fish communities to depth of 1,000 feet. In 1974 he joined the graduate faculty of the Department of Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico, teaching and doing basic research on the reproductive biology of marine fishes of the Caribbean region. Work in Puerto Rico included studies of reef fish spawning, particularly spawning aggregations, as well as the larval development and recruitment of numerous reef fishes. Special attention was devoted to the luminescent flashlight fishes which require special diving techniques to observe and collect.

In 1979 he left there to take the position of Senior Scientist for the University of Hawaii’s Mid-Pacific Research Laboratory at Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands. He spent four years studying the relationships between living organisms and environmental radionuclides, as well as continuing studies on reef fish spawning. Research at Enewetak included the first documentation of the control of radionuclide distribution and remobilization by a marine organism and the first investigation of the deep lagoon and slope of a coral atoll by submersible (Makali'i - 1981). At Enewetak he constructed a "amateur built" aircraft called a COZY which was (and still is) used extensively for photographing marine habitats from the air.

In 1983 he and his wife Lori relocated to the Motupore Island Research Station of the University of Papua New Guinea where they ran the activities of the research and educational facility. Work in Papua New Guinea included larval rearing of numerous reef fishes for the first time, mariculture of the giant clams, and continuing studies of luminescent flashlight fishes.

In 1987 he took a position with Caribbean Marine Research Center, Bahamas, as Senior Scientist to study the fast disappearing Nassau grouper spawning aggregations of the Atlantic, which was later expanded to include studies of life history and spawning of all the Atlantic Ocean groupers. During this time he studied in detail the oceanography associated with larval dispersal and recruitment.

In 1991 Dr. Colin co-founded the Coral Reef Research Foundation, a non-profit corporation, which won the highly-prized U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) marine collections program contract. In 1992 he and his wife moved to Chuuk Atoll in the Federated States of Micronesia where they started the Chuuk Atoll Research Laboratory. In 1995 they relocated CRRF’s base of operations to Koror, Palau and built a facility dedicated to basic marine research. As of 2011 the work for the NCI continues, with over 13,000 samples of marine invertebrates and plants having been collected from 20 countries in the Into-Pacific. Work in Palau continues on reef fish spawning aggregations, including detailed studies of their oceanography, species diversity studies of invertebrates in the western Pacific. Aerial documentation of marine and terrestrial environments continue using the aircraft, with comprehensive series of images of habitats having been acquired and archived. In Palau his organization has used the Deepworker 2000 submersibles for NCI collections to 1,200 feet and he has piloted over 30 dives in Deepworkers.

Dr. Colin has published 62 scientific papers, dealing with a diverse range of topics from coral reef fish reproduction and larval biology, marine communities, sediment-organism relationships, and zoogeography. He has published four books, including field guides to Caribbean invertebrates and tropical Pacific Invertebrates and is completing a new general volume on the marine environments of Palau. He has made over 10,000 SCUBA dives in connection with his research and has used mixed-gas diving techniques and saturation diving in his work. He has developed new equipment and techniques for diving research, including specialized camera housings, mixed gas breathers, and a wide variety of GPS related instruments for use in remote areas. Work for the NCI has resulted in mixed gas dives to 400-500 feet for collections, as well more regular recovery on temperature monitoring instruments at 300 feet for the past decade.

He works with many government and non-government agencies in Palau, as well as the Society for the Conservation of Reef Fish Aggregations and Grouper-Wrasse Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).