Dr. Walter Fischer

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Walter Fischer Kuntz (born 18th November 1929 in La Unión, Chile) is a Chilean-German biologist and retired FAO senior officer, whose authoritative fish identification guides are still used for fisheries management and bio-ecological research purposes in many countries and regions.

Fischer on board a fishery research vessel, around 1955

Walter Fischer with plankton sample in Chile, about 1965

Walter Fischer in fron of the FAO building, 1990

File:Caranx fischerii post stamp.jpg

Caranx fischeri post stamp

Life

Walter Fischer Kuntz was born on November 19, 1929 in La Unión, Chile. He is the youngest son of businessman Hans Werner ("Juan") Fischer (co-founder of the Chilean milk cooperative company COLUN) and Hedwig Kuntz, who died shortly after Walter was born. In 1931, Hans Werner Fischer married Johanne Rempe, a childhood friend and preschool teacher who came to Chile from Canada. She ensured that Hans, the older son, and Walter spoke four languages ​​perfectly (Spanish, German, English and French). Walter Fischer first studied veterinary medicine in Chile, then marine biology in Germany (see below). In 1956 he married the biology student Marlies Sofie Emilie Gerhardt (January 8, 1928 - October 4, 2019) and the couple moved back to Chile in the same year. They had three children: Johanne (1957), Sigrid (1959) and Wolfgang (Lobito, 1960). In 1969, when Walter Fischer started to work for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), he and his family transferred to Rome, Italy. After his retirement, in the mid-90s, Walter Fischer moved to Germany and now increasingly devoted himself to music and learned to play the cello. When his wife Marlies fell ill with dementia, he nursed her until her death in 2019.

Career

Walter Fischer was initially a veterinarian in Chile. In 1954, after winning a scholarship of the University of Hamburg in Germany, he began a study of marine biology which he concluded in 1962 with a doctoral thesis on the ecology of fish in the estuary of the Bío Bío river near Concepción, Chile.

Between 1956 and 1969, Walter Fischer worked as a scientist and lecturer at the Universidad de Valparaíso and its marine biological research station in Montemar. In 1969, after several fixed-term assignments in different countries (USSR, India and Sierra Leone) for UNESCO and FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN), he accepted a post as fishery officer at FAO in Rome, Italy. He worked for FAO until his retirement in 1994 and achieved the rank of Senior Fishery Resources Officer (P5).

Walter Fischer is the founder of the FAO Species Identification and Data Programme (SIDP; today: FAO FishFinder.). He launched the programme in 1972 to improve the quality of the national and regional fishery sampling data and to promote fisheries research and data collection in general . The correct identification of species is of importance for fishery statistics, which in turn are indispensable for the sustainable management of fish stocks. In the course of his work, Walter Fischer had realized that the identification of fish species in many regions was inadequate, which significantly reduced the value of fishery statistical data reported to FAO. Particularly in developing countries, knowledge of the locally occurring fish species was often sparse or inaccessible and the individuals responsible for fishery data collection generally had only little or no basic taxonomic knowledge. In addition, the common use of vernacular names for fishery species was the cause of much confusion and errors: the same name is often in use for several unrelated species and most species are known under different names in different areas (sometimes even in neighboring locations). Fischer therefore developed fish identification tools that would help the affected local authorities and fishery workers to overcome these problems. Faced with the initial resistance from his superiors, he worked on the first identification guides at home during his free time. Important components of the species guides produced by FAO FishFinder (SIDP) are:

• the inclusion of scientific drawings of the organisms created by professional graphic artists under the guidance of taxonomists
• the comprehensive recording of local, vernacular names of the organisms to facilitate the correct identification of species by laypersons (e.g. state fishery statisticians)
• the establishment of internationally binding English, French and Spanish species names for the FAO's global fisheries statistics
• the laboriously worked-out identification keys that have to be re-created for each region or group of species
• the species distribution maps created by experts based on recorded sightings of specimens and ecological characteristics of a species

The species guides produced by FishFinder (SIDP) continue to form the basis for species identification of fish in many countries, and the published drawings, keys and data support and enable the successful existence of important biological and taxonomic internet platforms such as FishBase, FAO Aquatic Species Fact Sheets, WoRMS, IUCN Red List. In particular, the electronic database SPECIESDAB, which Walter Fischer and his team started in 1986, was of key importance for the development of FishBase. To date, FAO FishFinder (SIDP) remains an important data source for FishBase, where the species information generated by the FAO programme (as well as that from non-FAO publications), can be easily accessed online.

One of the antecedents of FishBase was the work and vision of Walter Fischer, FAO, who inspired experts throughout the world to collaborate on the production of FAO’s first set of Identification Sheets (Fischer 1973) and their numerous successors, and to publish, through FAO’s Species Identification and Data Programme, an extremely useful series of FAO Species Synopses and FAO Species Catalogues (Fischer 1976). Walter Fischer also perceived the need for a global database of basic information on the exploited fish and invertebrates of the world, and this led to the development of FAO’s SPECIESDAB database (Coppola et al. 1994, see below).

— https://www.fishbase.se/manual/English/fishbasethe_making_of_fishbase.htm

As the publisher, editor and co-author of the FAO fish identification guides and catalogues, Walter Fischer worked with numerous taxonomists from many countries and, until his retirement in 1994, published over 50 works that were distributed all over the world (not all carrying his name in the title). The main series are:

• Regional Guides, in which all commercially used marine organisms in a region are described and their identification is made possible by identification keys. The program has realized guides for 9 large oceanic regions.
• Field Guides, designed for the identification of fish species of a particular country or country group. To date, around 25 national guides have been created, especially for African and Asian countries.
• Species Catalogues, i.e. global guides that focus on major commercial groups of fishery resources. So far, about 25 catalogs have been published, most of them still under the direction of Walter Fischer.
• Species identification cards, pocket guides and on-board guides, recently developed identification tools with a focus on portability and sturdiness for the identification of fish in the field, e.g. on landing sites and on-board of fishery vessels.

In addition to the production of identification materials, the FishFinder (SIDP) programme continues to contribute to the progress of marine species identification, e.g. through the launching of a new series, the FishFinder Pocket Guides, in 2009; the publication of a comparative overview of methods for fish identification in 2013 and the collaboration for the introduction of an innovative method for the automatic identification of shark fins (to improve shark protection by CITES) in 2015.

In acknowledgement of his important contributions for the identification of fish worldwide, a popular West African food fish, Caranx fischeri ), was named after Walter Fischer. This honor was announced in 2007 at ceremony in the FAO (with Walter Fischer present) by the American ichthyologist William Smith-Vaniz who - together with his colleague Kent Carpenter - had just published a new description of the fish

Publications (Selection)

• Fischer, W., F. Krupp, W. Schneider, C. Sommer, K. Carpenter y V.H. Niem, 1995. Guía FAO para la identificación de especies para los fines de la pesca. Pacífico centro-oriental. Rome, FAO.
  • Plantas e invertebrados. Vol. I: 1-646 p.
  • Vertebrados - Parte 1. Vol. II: 647-1200 p.
  • Vertebrados - Parte 2. Vol. III: 1201-1813 p.

• Coppola, S.R., W. Fischer, L. Garibaldi, N. Scialabba and K.E. Carpenter. 1994. SPECIESDAB: Global species database for fishery purposes. User’s Manual. FAO Computerized Information Series (Fisheries) No. 9. FAO, Rome. 103 p
• Cervigón, F., R. Cipriani, W. Fischer, L. Garibaldi, M. Hendrickx, A.J. Lemus, R. Márquez, J.M. Poutiers, G. Robaina and B. Rodriquez. 1992/1993. FAO species identification sheets for fishery purposes.Field guide to the commercial marine and brackish-water resources of the northern coast of South America. Rome, FAO. 513 p. (English and Spanish)
• Fischer, W., I. Sousa, C. Silva, A. De Freitas, J.M. Poutiers, W. Schneider, T.C. Borges, J.P. Féral e A. Massinga. 1990. Fichas FAO de identificaçío de espécies para actividades de pesca. Guía de campo das espécies comerciais marinhas e de águas salobras de Moçambique. Roma, FAO. 1990.424 p.
• Bellemans M.; A. Sagna; W. Fischer; N. Scialabba. 1988. Fiches FAO d'identification des espéces pour les besoins de la péche. Guide des ressources halieutiques du Sénégal et de la Gambie (espéces marines et d'eaux saumâtres). Rome, FAO 1988. 227 p.
• Fischer, W., M.-L. Bauchot et M. Schneider (rédacteurs). 1987. Fiches FAO d'identification desespèces pour les besoins de la péche. (Révision 1). Méditerranée et mer Noire. Zone de péche 37.
  • Volume I. Végétaux et Invertébrés. Rome, FAO, Vol.2:1 - 760 p.
  • Volume II. Vertébrés. Rome, FAO, Vol.2:761- 1530 p.
• Fischer, W. and J.C. Hureau (eds). 1985. FAO species identification sheets for fishery purposes. Southern Ocean: Fishing Areas 48, 58 and 88 (CCAMLR Convention Area). Published in English, French and Spanish.
  • Vol. 1 [En] Seaweeds, Euphasiids, King crabs and Stone Crabs, Bivalves, Gastropods,Cephalopods, Hagfishes, Lampreys, Sharks and Batoid Fishes: 1-232 p.
  • Vol. 2 [En] Bony Fishes, Marine Mammals, Index of Scientific and Vernacular Family and Species Names. 233 - 470 p.
• Fischer W. & Bianchi G. (eds). 1984. FAO species identification sheets for fishery purposes. Western Indian Ocean (Fishing Area 51). Rome, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, vols. 1-6: pag. var.
• Fischer, W., Bianchi G. & W.B. Scott (eds). 1981. FAO species identification sheets for fishery purposes. Eastern Central Atlantic; fishing area 34, 47 (in part). FAO, Rome. Vol 1, Vol.2, Vol.3, Vol.4, Vol.5, Vol.6, Index.
• Fischer, W. 1976. The FAO species identification sheets programme: a common task for ichthyologists and fishery workers. Rev. Trav. Pêches Marit. 40(3/4):568-569
• Fischer, W. & P.J.P. Whitehead (Eds.) (1974) Rome, FAO, pag.var. FAO species identification sheets for fishery purposes. Eastern Indian Ocean (fishing area 57) and Western Central Pacific (fishing area 71). Volumes 1 to 4.

External Links

• FAO FishFinder
• FishBase

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