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Nancy Brown-Peterson (2021)

Nancy Brown-Peterson is a Research Scientist Gulf Coast Research Laboratory campus of The University of Southern Mississippi. She is considered a world-expert in fish reproductive histology and has worked on projects and with colleagues not only in Mississippi and globally. Her work is primarily focused on the reproductive physiology of fishes and invertebrates. This work is critical to informing management and assessment activities. Nancy's efforts to describe reproductive characteristics is extensive. Nancy works with the leading biologists of the region in academia and state and federal management to leverage the knowledge developed in her scientific work to assessment and management. She helped shine light on the nation's second largest fishery, Gulf Menhaden, at a time when the management was of serious concern. Her work indicated that the spawning of Gulf Menhaden was more protracted than originally thought and had a much greater fecundity than originally reported. This work has major consequences to the assessment of the stock because the fishery reference point, which allows the determination of the stock and fishery status, is described using population egg production. Nancy's finding that the stock was approximately ten time more fecund than originally thought has had a very profound impact to our understanding of the dynamics of the stock. We have had to rethink much about what sustainable levels of harvest really may be for Gulf Menhaden and ensure that our assessment approach is appropriate. Recent work on Red Drum by Nancy indicates that this stock has much more contrast in age-specific patterns of reproduction than previously reported. Red Drum, in part because of its movement dynamics, is a data limited stock and information about its life history, in the absence of understanding temporal patterns of relative abundance is critical. Her efforts have informed the management reference point 'escapement rate' and allowed a critical evaluation of the appropriateness of the current minimum size limit for Mississippi's Red Drum stock. She also has also recently explored how depth and artificial structure predict female Red Snapper reproductive parameters. These results will help guide management on how and where reef construction activity can result in the greatest benefit to anglers and the stock. Her CV is replete with more with species ranging from Swordfish to Conch. Nancy has been a highly sought committee member for graduate studies, mentor for visiting scientists and student, instructor, even teaching courses in Spanish. Her value to the scientific community at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory and the scientific community on the coast is only beginning to be made clear. Nancy is a leader in research methods for understanding Mississippi's fisheries and has a long history of histological investigation of reproductive characteristics of living marine resources. As you can see from In addition to Nancy's quality as a scientist and the impact that her scientific work has had in our region, her service to fishery science to the state and the region is unparalleled and she brings the same intensity and forthrightness to these efforts as she does to her scientific practice. Throughout Nancy's career she has been a champion of our chapter. Nancy has served on the executive committee of MSAFS, as the local arrangements chair for the Southern Division meeting, and judging chair and participant in many AFS meetings. Her efforts to the MSAFS were most recently recognized in 2013 when she received the Distinguished Service Award. Nancy's career will be remembered by members of our chapter for devotion to the goals of the American Fisheries Society.