After 49 years of federal service, Dr. Bruce L. Wing retired on 31 May 2011.
Bruce came to Auke Bay Laboratories (ABL) in 1962 after working several years as a research assistant at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Stanford University. Bruce was raised in the Pacific Northwest, finished high school in San Diego, and attained an undergraduate degree from San Diego State College. Following graduation he worked in the U.S. Antarctic Research Program at Stanford University. After coming to ABL where he worked on the ecology of larval and juvenile herring, he decided to return to graduate school and eventually completed a Doctorate in biological oceanography in 1976 from the University of Rhode Island.
Over the years Bruce has played a major role in most research programs at Auke Bay including projects in the Arctic (Beaufort Sea and Chukchi Sea), Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, Prince William Sound, and Southeast Alaska. He worked with the gamut of marine resources from bacteria to whales but primarily with zooplankton, benthic fishes, invertebrates, and most recently with deepwater corals. Bruce was curator of the ABL's reference collection, which contains the largest collection of Alaska fishes and invertebrates in the state.
Included among Bruce's notable achievements is his consistent long-term commitment to maintaining Auke Bay's climatological and meteorological data, a dedicated labor for science. Daily weather observations at Auke Bay Marine Station were initiated in 1963 and have been maintained primarily by Bruce since then. Sea surface temperatures and secchi disc reading for water transparency have been maintained since 1975. These observations and their summarization in climatological studies have become critical data sets for fisheries science in trying to understand fluctuations in important stocks of marine resources.
Bruce is a long-time member and active participant in local civic activities sponsored by the Juneau Lions Club; an active member of the American Fisheries Society; the Society of Ichthyologists and Herptologists; and the American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists, where he served in several official capacities.
