Editorial

I was fortunate to join the Fisheries Research Board (FRB) Detachment at the Canada Centre for Inland Waters (CCIW) in Burlington as a post doctoral fellow in 1969 at a most opportune time. Here, I was given the chance of working with two limnological titans; first with Dr. Richard A. Vollenweider and later with Dr. John R. (Jack) Vallentyne. Dr. Vollenweider had recently completed his famous Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report on eutrophication and Dr. Vallentyne was establishing the Eutrophication group in Winnipeg, which would later become famous for its “whole lake” experimental approach. Jack was also responsible for establishing the Great Lakes program and had appointed Richard as the head of the FRB Detachment in Burlington to organize the biological research program. Both Jack and Richard were actively engaged in developing phosphorus management strategies. Jack was dealing with the phosphorus/detergents problem and Richard was beginning to apply his models for managing eutrophication to the Great Lakes. Both of them had enormous influence on revisions to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement concerning phosphorus abatement. Later, in the 1980s, when Jack took up residence at CCIW as the senior scientist at Fisheries and Oceans, he was instrumental in promoting the “ecosystem approach” and environmental activism through policy development and public outreach. Richard also shared a similar philosophy, which he approached through continued research as well as policy development.The theme of environmental activism through science was a major influence on me personally, when I was planning to launch the Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management Society (AEHMS). Obviously these two giants of limnology were the first to be consulted. I clearly remember when I approached them individually around 1988; I was nervous and wondering whether my proposal would survive the insight and the expected criticism of these two visionaries. To my utter surprise and pleasure, both of them overwhelmingly supported the establishment of the AEHMS and made several suggestions. They became the first two founding members of the society and their congratulatory messages, which appeared in the first volume of our journal, speak of their pioneering support (see salutations below).It was sad that both of them left this world during the same year, 2007, within six months of each other. In fact, when Dr. Vollenweider passed away in January of 2007, Dr. Vallentyne approached me with plans for a memorial service which was later held at CCIW and very well attended. Soon after this function, Jack became sick but we did not know as he chose to keep that private. He was a frequent visitor to our lab in this period, busily preparing his lecture for the International Society of Limnology (SIL) Congress in Montreal. Sometime during the late spring of 2007, we realized the seriousness of his ailment. I wrote tributes for both of them which were presented at CCIW and later published in the Ecovision books: Checking the Pulse of Lake Erie (dedicated to Dr.Vallentyne), 2008 and State of Lake Superior (dedicated to Dr. Vollenweider), 2009.After waiting and noting that memorial issues for either scientist were not being published in other international forums, I proposed that the AEHMS take up the task of honouring their legacies. The AEHMS Executive, especially Diane Malley, Fatima Munawar, and Joe Leach, strongly supported the proposal. Following that, I approached various colleagues at CCIW, namely Abdel El-Shaarawi and Gary Leppard of Environment Canada, who also liked the idea and promised to help. The consultation expanded later to include Dave Schindler, Andy Hamilton, Hedy Kling, Gregg Brunskill, Ed Mills, Martin van der Knaap, John Gannon, Goran Dave, Renato Baudo and Mark Fitzpatrick. Gregg Brunskill, who had known both the personalities closely, showed interest and enthusiasm for the project and was invited to serve as the guest editor. He provided excellent support throughout the development and publication of this memorial issue.This is not the first time that a memorial issue has been published by the AEHMS. Dr. Jack Christie received that honour in 1999 (Vol. 2, Issue 3) for his outstanding contributions to fisheries science and management in the Great Lakes. However, this is the first time that a large amount of anecdotal material was solicited by our scientific journal, so unique guidelines, including instructions to authors and peer-reviewers, had to be prepared. Coordination was a major undertaking, carried out ably by the AEHMS editorial office, processing 25 anecdotal and 5 scientific articles involving 39 contributors from across Canada, the US and Europe. Space is always a limiting factor with journals, and we faced the added challenge of accommodating anecdotal articles, which the authors in their enthusiasm had made longer than the announced page limits! Nevertheless, with much dedication and hard work from many parties, we feel the end result is an exceptional memorial issue.I am grateful to the AEHMS Executive and our publisher Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, for sponsoring the creation of this memorial. Dr. Ken Minns and Drs. Joe Leach & Ed Mills kindly provided an excellent Preface and Foreword, respectively. AEHMS editorial staff, Jennifer Lorimer, Susan Blunt and Lisa Elder, provided outstanding support and exercised extreme patience in handling this project in different capacities. In addition, Mark Fitzpatrick and Bev Weiler helped critically review anecdotal articles to maintain professional standards and eliminate redundancies as much as possible. Jennifer Lorimer and I exerted considerable effort to prepare collages to depict the lives of Jack and Richard. I am grateful to all of the contributors for their cooperation and patience during the review and revision process, and to members of the publication committee for their continued support in the production of this memorial issue. We hope you will find it to be a fitting homage to two great scientists whose fingerprints will remain on the face of history for a very long time.

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