Reminiscing briefly about Environmental Biology of Fishes (1976–2002)

Abstract

The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind

Emily Dickinson

in Margulis & Sagan (1997, p. 1)

As time goes by, earlier memories fade and new realities take over (even for heroes of ‘Casablanca’, see Walsh 1998). For these reasons a recorded history is useful, even as I wish there would be no need to write this. It all started when I hesitantly accepted an invitation from a small – by present standards – but a prestigious publishing house in The Hague to start a new journal. (I had just published with them a monograph on my work in Africa – Balon & Coche 1974.). Fearful to commit myself, I was strongly encouraged by several colleagues, among them the late J.C. (Cam) Stevenson, then the editor of the influential periodical the Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada. He convinced me that there was a need for an independent journal, as only publications supported by the government (like his own) or by some professional societies were then available. Editors of these journals, Cam claimed, were not free to publish ideas that contradict government policies or offend ‘mainstream’ beliefs. Thus, much of the new or irritating findings and conclusions were censored (see Balon 2002). ‘Make sure’, Cam advised, ‘that your contract with the commercial publisher incorporates a clause that the content of the journal is solely your responsibility’. The clause was incorporated. The name Environmental Biology of Fishes was proposed by colleagues, and I did not like it very much initially but was convinced by them that, although almost oxymoron, it fulfills an advertizing role similar to something like ‘Nite Club’. The Publisher's winning cover artwork – the naive fish tail up – I hated at first as very undignified but realized soon its attention attracting design on the library shelves and became used to it (later I even played with designing other covers of the hardcover spinoffs Developments in Environmental Biology of Fishes in a similar manner).