The life and legacy of Dr. Bell M. Shimada

Bell Masayuki Shimada was a first generation Japanese-American. In April 1942, he was pulled from his undergraduate studies at the University of Washington and put in an internment camp in Idaho. A little over a year later, he was allowed to leave the camp and enlisted in the U.S. Army. He was stationed in Japan, then discharged in early 1946 and remained in Japan to work as a fisheries biologist for several months before returning to the U.S. to complete his Bachelor's degree.

In September 1948, Shimada began working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Bureau of Fisheries, which later became NOAA Fisheries. A few months later, he was sent to Hawaii to study the tuna fisheries in the Pacific. Tuna stocks there had been under pressure from fishing post-World War II and Shimada worked with many notable scientists and oceanographers to address the situation. In February of 1952, he joined the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC). He began publishing his research on tuna spawning, distribution, and feeding patterns, and gained international recognition before ever receiving his Doctorate degree. Shimada completed his doctoral program in 1956 and was appointed Senior Scientist of the IATTC.

In 1958, he left this role to become the first director of the new Eastern Pacific Tuna Investigations office in the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. Shortly after this, Dr. Shimada died in a plane crash on the way to meet his team for a research cruise.

Dr. Bell M. Shimada’s work in fisheries science was brief, but his contributions are still remembered and very useful today.