In Memoriam

C. Phillip “Phil” Goodyear

November 15, 1944 – April 25, 2024

Fishery science lost a leader in April 2024 with the death of C. Phillip (Phil) Goodyear, an internationally recognized expert in fish population dynamics. Phil was a member of AFS since 1965, and in 2013 he received the AFS Oscar Elton Sette Award for Sustained Excellence in Marine Fishery Biology. He influenced important environmental legislation and public policy by translating exquisite theory into practical recommendations on many contentious fisheries issues, via testimony to U.S. Congressional committees, state legislatures, and federal agencies, and advice to a host of fisheries organizations. During his distinguished career, Phil authored nearly 200 scientific publications.

Phil grew up on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico in Gulfport, Mississippi, and became a skilled fisherman and hunter. A memorable Permit Trachinotus falcatus catch won him a first place award in an International Game Fish Association annual fishing contest. As an undergraduate he was on the All-American College Archery Team and qualified for the Olympic trials.

Following a BS in biology from Millsaps College and MS and PhD degrees in zoology from Mississippi State University, Phil conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, where he met his future wife, Carole.

At Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the early 1970s, Phil was the first scientist to document the importance of entrainment of larval fish in power plant cooling water systems. His work on Striped Bass Morone saxatilis entrained in Hudson River power facilities led to development of Section 316(b) in the Clean Water Act. He next guided the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)'s National Power Plant Team in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Notably, Phil's research on compensatory responses of fish populations to entrainment and impingement mortality led to metrics that support most stock assessments done today.

In the early 1980s, while at the USFWS National Fisheries Center–Leetown, Goodyear became synonymous with the Emergency Striped Bass Study, authorized by Congress to determine the causes and find remedies for the collapse of the Atlantic coast fishery. Phil demonstrated that reducing fishing mortality rates would rapidly rebuild the stock, irrespective of other contributing factors. His 1984 testimony before Congress paved the way for passage of the Atlantic Coast Striped Bass Conservation Act, and by the early 1990s, the coastal migratory stock had rebuilt to historical levels. Phil also developed a comprehensive spatial model for Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar that guided USFWS efforts on restoration and impacts of hydropower facilities.

In 1987, Phil moved to the National Marine Fisheries Service at the Southeast Fisheries Science Center in Miami. His visionary science for management of overfished Gulf of Mexico fisheries and estimation of biological reference points are still widely used, not just in the Gulf but also in the South Atlantic and Caribbean. Phil understood that models were only as good as their data. To that end, he made groundbreaking contributions to the science of properly sampling fisheries for growth and age composition.

For the past 28 years, Phil worked for The Billfish Foundation (TBF) as its consulting scientist, advancing stock assessment methodologies for highly migratory oceanic species. Using oceanographic data, he developed three-dimensional maps of species distributions to derive abundance indices. His seminal papers on the oxygen minimum zone in the equatorial Atlantic described its effects on the vertical distribution of fish and how these effects are exacerbated by climate change. This groundbreaking research has been a catalyst for interdisciplinary science worldwide.

Long before simulation studies became the norm, Phil used simulation models to translate uncertainty of current observations into future consequences. His deep understanding of basic biology and animal behavior, developed during a lifetime of fishing and hunting, shaped his ability to craft meaningful models to provide simple, but not simplistic, guidance.

Phil's scientific curiosity and desire to keep learning about the natural world never faded. At the time of his death, he was editing the manuscript of a study he initiated on age and growth of Black Crappie Pomoxis nigromaculatus in the Florida lake on which he and Carole resided.

The personal testimonies of friends and colleagues paint the portrait of a quiet man of great intellect and few words. You could not find a more patient, more supportive mentor. His respectful and calm demeanor was coupled with penetrating insights, deep thought, and extraordinary intuition.

He will be deeply missed by those who were privileged to know him personally and by those who know him only through his scientific legacy.