Lateral Line August 2005.pub - Hill Country Cichlid Club

The Lateral Line Page 4Interview with Les KaufmanA special thanks to Les Kaufman for taking thetime to judge our photo contest and answersome questions. Les Kaufman is a Professor ofBiology in the Marine Program at Boston University.He obtained his Ph.D. from John HopkinsUniversity in 1980.Interview with Les KaufmanBy Dave HansenDave: You have developed quite a repuatationamong us Victorian enthusdiats.Can you talkabout your involvement with the VictorianSpecies Survival Program (VSSP)?Les: I launched the idea of AZA-based fishSSP programs when I was full-time at the NewEngland Aquarium. The LV-SSP began with ashipment of young haplochromines from BoSelbrink in Europe, in I think 1987. With helpfrom Doug Warmolts (Columbus Zoo), JoeNorton, Chuck Rambo, Roger Klocek (SheddAquarium) and Paul Loiselle (NY Aquarium)plus many others, the program evolved into astudbook and eventually into the full SSP,which if i remember right was born in 1994(Doug is our historian). Meanwhile, Loisellevolunteered to develop two other programs,one for desert fishes and the other for Madagascarfishes. In 1989 I began my own fieldwork in Lake Victoria, and assumed leadershipof the international Lake Victoria ResearchTeam. Much of the team's efforts over theyears has been directed to assessing the statusof Lake Vic haps in the wild. Now this work ismostly handled by the trinational fishery researchinstitutes. Oly Seehausen and I are stillactive, though my work now is in collaborationwith African and Canadian colleagueswho still spend much time in the field there.Dave: Are you working on anything specificallycurrently involving Lake Victoria?Les: My research in Lake Victoria over thelast few years has been on the relationshipbetween fish species diversity and food webstructure. In 1994 I led the first FIRRI(Ugandan Fisheries Research Institute) expeditionto the Kyoga satellite lakes, followingup leads developed by Julian Whitehead whowas then working in Uganda as a fish exporterunder the NGO called "Accord". We havesince used the Kyoga, Nabugabo, and Siayasatellite lakes as model systems for Lake Victoriain a variety of ways. Meanwhile, I amcollaborating with my Kenyan friend andgraduate student William Ojwang (SeniorScientist at KMFRI) on food web dynamics inLake Victoria and its afferent rivers. Ole Seehausen,Lauren and Colin Chapman, and Icollaborate on the satellite lake work.I'm again trying to carve out time to finish abook with Ole Seehausen on Lake Vic haps,but we are both still very busy.Dave: What other groups of fish interest youand what is your involvement with them?Les: I am collaborating with Caroly Shum-