UWSG Mourns Death of Ross Horrall

Longtime UW-Madison scientist Dr. Ross M. Horrall died on September 17, at the age of 70. 

His colleagues will remember him for his dedication to research, his enthusiasm for new ideas, and his good humor in many collaborative efforts. His field parties of divers, engineers, and technicians fondly recall their expeditions with Ross to the Apostle Islands and the nearshore waters of Lake Michigan as high points of their careers.

Ross Horrall holds WDNR astroturf sandwich case for planting lake trout eggs.

Horrall, working with other university scientists and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, showed that coho salmon and steelhead trout exposed to particular synthetic chemicals and released into Lake Michigan would spawn in a stream marked with the same imprinting chemicals. This discovery led to an efficient fisheries management practice of obtaining and fertilizing salmon eggs for hatcheries by capturing spawning fish decoyed to collection ponds in streams.

Dr. Horrall was a pioneer in Great Lakes-wide efforts to re-establish self-sustaining populations of lake trout. He had a spiritual and scientific zeal for this work and inspired others to participate. He made important, early contributions to Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ successful efforts to re-establish a spawning population of lake trout on Devils Island Shoal in the Apostle Islands of Lake Superior. He also made important contributions to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, for which he acted as an advisor. His documentary work on the historical lake trout fishery is still used today. His many friends in the commission will deeply miss him.

Horrall received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from UW-Madison and was a student of eminent limnologist Dr. Arthur Hasler. He rose to the position of  senior scientist while working for the UW-Madison Department of Zoology, Marine Studies Center, and UW Sea Grant from 1965 until 1989.

- Philip Keillor

Last updated 07 December 2001 by Karl
All contents copyright 2001 University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute

http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/Communications/news/LD_stories/2001/Horrall.html