[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 44 (Monday, March 16, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E329]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   ``SHARK LADY'' OF MOTE PASSES AWAY AFTER NEARLY 75 YEARS OF MARINE 
                                RESEARCH

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                           HON. VERN BUCHANAN

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 16, 2015

  Mr. BUCHANAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize one of America's 
great ocean research pioneers, Dr. Eugenie Clark.
   ``Genie'' Clark--known as the ``Shark Lady''--founded Mote Marine 
Laboratory in Southwest Florida. She died at age 92 on Feb. 25 at her 
home in Sarasota.
   Genie visited the New York Aquarium in 1922 at age nine and was 
fascinated by the sharks and other fish of many shapes and colors. She 
began sharing what she learned about the fish with others.
   After carrying out a distinguished career spanning almost 75 years, 
raising four children and inspiring students and others, Clark will be 
remembered for her amazing discoveries.
   Her legacy is impressive: blazing trails for women in science; 
inspiring generations of people from ocean experts to school children; 
swimming with sharks to learn about them; and founding a world-class 
marine laboratory that turned 60 this year.
   Clark was a world authority on fish--particularly sharks and 
tropical sand fish. A courageous diver and explorer, Clark conducted 72 
submersible dives as deep as 12,000 feet and led over 200 field 
research expeditions to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba, Caribbean, 
Mexico, Japan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Thailand, 
Indonesia and Borneo to study sand fish, whale sharks, deep sea sharks 
and spotted oceanic triggerfish. She wrote three books and more than 
175 articles, including research publications in leading peer-reviewed 
journals such as Science and a dozen popular stories in National 
Geographic magazine.
   In 1955, Clark started the one-room Cape Haze Marine Laboratory in 
Placida, Fla., with her fisherman assistant and with philanthropic 
support and encouragement from the Vanderbilt family. The Lab thrived 
in partnership with its community and became Mote Marine Laboratory in 
1967 to honor major benefactor William R. Mote. Today the Lab is based 
on City Island, Sarasota, and it hosts 24 diverse marine research and 
conservation programs, education programs for all ages and a major 
public Aquarium. The Lab has six campuses in Florida and more than 200 
staff, including scientists who work in oceans surrounding all seven 
continents.
   Clark joined the Zoology faculty at the University of Maryland in 
1968, and she officially retired in 1992. She returned to Mote in 2000 
as Senior Scientist and Director Emerita and later became a Trustee. 
There, she continued to build upon and champion the groundbreaking 
research that she started 60 years ago.
   Clark dove as recently as June 2014, when she brought a team of 
volunteer research divers to study deep water triggerfish in the 
Solomon Islands. The divers had been searching for nests and monitoring 
how the fish behaved.
   Clark is the recipient of three honorary degrees and numerous awards 
including The Explorers Club Medal; the Medal of Excellence from the 
American Society of Oceanographers; The NOGI award in Arts from 
Underwater Society of America; the Dugan Award in Aquatic Sciences from 
the American Littoral Society; a Gold Medal from the Society of Women 
Geographers; the Distinguished Fellow Award from the American 
Elasmobranch Society; and the Franklin L. Burr Award from the National 
Geographic Society. Several fish species have been named in her honor: 
Callogobius clarki (Goren), Sticharium clarkae (George and Springer), 
Enneapterygius clarkae (Holleman), and Atrobucca geniae (Ben-Tuvia and 
Trewavas).
   Clark is survived by her four children: Hera, Aya, Tak and Niki 
Konstantinou, and her grandson, Eli Weiss.

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