Peter K. Bergman 1933–2016

Abstract

We are sad to announce the death of Peter Bergman and are grateful to have known this gentleman, a man passionate about his work, his family, and his friends. Bergman was always an avid sport fisherman and carried that enthusiasm right into his work. In high school shop class, he built a 16-foot wooden boat, towed it to Neah Bay at the northwest tip of Washington's Olympia Peninsula, and launched both the boat and his professional career with a summer of commercial salmon fishing. He was part of the “kelper” fleet—a band of small boats powered by outboard motors that fished with rod and reel near the shore, where the kelp grew. Bergman never tired of fishing, and he continued kelping in the summers while pursuing a bachelor's degree at the University of Washington's College of Fisheries. Frustrated over the inadequacy of methods for evaluating survivals, contributions, and migrations of salmon, Bergman began to search for an alternative method of identifying juvenile salmon. He began collaborating with his great friend and physicist, Keith Jefferts, to develop a new tagging method. The result was the invention of the coded wire tagging (CWT) system, which revolutionized the coastwide management of Chinook Oncorhynchus tshawytscha and Coho O. kisutch salmon, and grew to be the biggest tagging program in history. More was learned about Pacific salmon in the first 12 months of using CWT than in the previous 12 years combined, and hatcheries now had a tool to evaluate their programs. While Bergman went on to many other significant contributions, the development of CWT was certainly a career and personal highlight, and earned him a Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1968. Bergman loved to travel, and even until his recent illness, he was visiting other countries. Some of his most enjoyable fieldwork was in Iceland in the early 1970′s as an FAO consultant, where, using CWT technology, he teamed with local scientists to implement experiments that quickly improved productivity of Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar hatcheries. Some of those scientists became lifelong friends. In 1975, Bergman was appointed as WDF's chief of salmon management and later assistant director. At this time, fisheries management was in complete turmoil due to the implementation of the “Boldt Decision” that guaranteed the treaty fishermen 50% of the harvestable number of fish in their usual fishing areas. Bergman's motivation to work through this difficult period was a desire to improve fish management for both sides. As part of that, Bergman led successful efforts to create critically needed computer models for hatchery analyses and harvest management. Following retirement from WDF in 1982, Bergman served as executive director of the Salmon and Steelhead Advisory Commission, under the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). He spent much of his time working on the US-Canada Treaty negotiations and their implementation. Not surprisingly, the negotiations were difficult and neither side could reach agreement, especially on the issue of fish interceptions. Given the available data on fish migrations, Bergman felt that the United States was treating Canada unfairly, and his letter to President Bill Clinton saying as much helped to move the matter forward to eventual resolution. In 1984, Bergman was hired by Northwest Marine Technology to develop new fish marking methods and work with fish managers. While thus employed, he was a member of the NMFS Snake River Salmon Recovery Team and the key member of a small group that worked with Senator Slade Gorton and Congressman Norm Dicks to initiate the now widely adopted hatchery reform program that is consistent with wild salmon recovery. Bergman had four patents and twelve publications all dealing with tagging systems and their use in fishery management. He received many awards for his work, including the AFS Western Division's Award of Excellence. At the time of his death, he was putting the finishing touches on a manuscript detailing the critical need and use of fishing gear capable of targeting harvestable salmon while protecting ESA-listed and other weak stocks. Bergman's ethical standards were off the charts, as was his brilliance. When he was taking his Ph.D. exam, one of the requirements was for a second language. Bergman chose Russian and, as he never actually took the course, he acquired only a rudimentary knowledge of the language at best. However, he easily passed by cracking the code on his multiple choice exam. Still, believing that this was an unethical way to learn Russian, he subsequently confessed what he had done. Bergman was a very kind, respectful, and generous person, and with no expectation of reprisal or eternal reward, tenaciously adhered to the golden rule. When Bergman died on January 20, there was a flood tide and fresh snow blanketing Mt. Rainier. He leaves Patricia, his loving wife of 50 years, daughters Kristin and Robin, and four grandchildren.