By Chris Hart

In the Club’s continuing effort to support the fascination and exploration of nature by our community, we are pleased to announce the contribution of a bursary to a graduate student in the Biology department at the University of Windsor. This bursary was made possible by funds collected through sales of the Fish Book (more formally, The Fishes of Essex County and Surrounding Waters), and as such, has been named after its author, Lynda Corkum.

The Club is pleased to announce the winner of the 2020/21 Lynda Corkum Essex County Field Naturalists’ Club bursary is Erika Nissen, a second year Master’s student working in Dr. Oliver Love’s research lab. Erika works on movement modelling data in Common Eider sea ducks in the Canadian Arctic. Erika expresses her deep gratitude towards to the club and says “the financial support has been a great help towards my educational expenses for the present school year and has been a great motivator in validating the importance of the research I am lucky enough to be conducting.”

Following the announcement of the award, Lynda herself reached out to congratulate Erika. In her letter, Lynda provided a detailed history of the Fish Book. Although much of the Club’s membership may be familiar with the Fish Book (and hopefully a proud owner), some might be unaware of how it came to be. In order to properly pass along its origin story (as well as that of the Bursary), please see the attached copy of Lynda’s letter below.

Dear Erika,

JoAnn Grondin sent me the correspondence between the two of you today, announcing that you were the recipient of the Lynda Corkum Essex County Nature Bursary Award. Congratulations, Erika. You are the first recipient of the award.

I thought you might like to know how funds were established for the award. In 2010, I wrote a field guide for the Essex County Field Naturalists’ Club. Tom Hurst, a former President of the club, asked me to write a field guide on fishes. The book is entitled, The Fishes of Essex County and Surrounding Waters. All proceeds (every dollar) from the sale of the field guide went to the club.

Once the book was published, several volunteers and friends helped to sell the book. I gave talks to many organizations in Ontario and in the United States. Friends, JoAnn Grondin, Linda Menard-Watt, Teresa Austrin and her husband, Joe Parent, and I went to county fairs, and countless fish shows. I gave talks to many nature clubs, a Rotary Club and anywhere where people were interested in learning about fish and fishing. Dave Kraus kindly stored the books in his garage. There were 3,000 copies of the book printed. Box by box, books were sold. Dave still has many boxes in his garage. I set the price for the book at $25 (Cdn or USD) so that a youngster might be able to afford to buy the book. Even if one doesn’t fish, the book is interesting to read because of the ecology and behaviour of fishes, and historical aspects of fishing in the region.

You will smile if you knew where my friends and I flogged the book. I sold two copies to my optometrist in Windsor and one to another patient who happened to be in the office at the time. I sold four copies of the book to my financial advisor! My friend Linda was wonderful at corralling people to buy the book. When Teresa, Joe and I crossed the border to Detroit for one of my book talks, we had an interesting chat with a Customs Official. Teresa, leaning forward from the back seat and handing a copy of the book to the official, tried to get the fellow to buy a copy of the book. No luck on that sale! Interestingly, I was contacted by a representative of the Emperor of Japan, who wished to buy a signed copy of the book. He had published articles on Gobiidae and so was interested in reading about Round Goby and Tubenose Goby in the Laurentian Great Lakes. The late, Dr. David Noakes, told me to send a copy of the book to Prince Charles, who is an avid angler. Although the Emperor of Japan bought the book, I gave a copy to Prince Charles. Interestingly, I received a thank you note from the Secretary of Prince Charles. Thanks to Dave Kraus, Graeme Gibson and Margaret Atwood received a signed copy of the book.

I received some lovely messages from people who bought the book. One woman bought the book for her husband. She wrote to me saying that her husband, who never reads, was enthralled with the book, calling out to her whenever he read neat tidbits of information.

After many books were sold, the Field Naturalists had to decide how the funds were going to be used. Jesse Gardner-Costa, former president of the club, was instrumental in planning for the disbursement of funds. Initially, we thought that awards would be given to students, who made contributions to Essex County. I had hoped that students from a high school, college or university would be eligible for the award. Eventually, we decided to give the award to a graduate student in Biology, Earth Science or Environmental Engineering. However, the club was told by the University of Windsor that it would be best if students in one department would be eligible for the award; Biology was selected.

Erika, thank you for your thoughtful email message to JoAnn on the receipt of the award. I am glad that the funds were able to help you with your educational expenses. I think you should get a copy of the book!

Good luck with your research endeavours. I hope you have a happy, productive life.

Sincerely,
Lynda Corkum