Charles M. Breder Jr. Collection, 1914-2004 | Mote Marine Laboratory

Dr. Charles M. Breder Jr. was an experimental and behavioral ichthyologist. Dr. Breder’s pioneering research in ichthyology helped draw attention to the west coast of Florida. He was the mentor and long-time friend of Mote’s founder, Dr. Eugenie Clark, who is known world-wide as the “Shark Lady.” He served as interim director of Mote Marine Laboratory in 1967 and spent many years as research associate in residence and member of the board of directors at Mote.

Dr. Breder is known for his work on the reproductive, schooling, and social behaviors of fishes, with a special interest in flying fishes and fish locomotion, as well as the evolution and behavior of blind cave characins (historical name) or characids from Mexico.[1] He was involved in new research and discoveries in bird banding, tarpon tagging, flying fish, fish locomotion, and fish sound recordings. In the mid 1930s Breder developed a method for hatching and growing flying fish larvae, and his research program at the New York Aquarium developed a way to control the progressive acidification of seawater in aquariums.[2]

Dr. Breder published over 160 papers and books over the course of his life, beginning at age 18. By age 21 he had published 15 popular articles and notes and had started his theoretical and experimental studies on fish locomotion.[3] In 1925 the New York Academy of Sciences awarded him the A. Cressy Morrison Prize for his pioneering and penetrating analysis of fish locomotion. Among his achievements he described at least 5 new genera and 23 new species.[4] In 1948 another ichthyologist, Fernández-Yépez, named a new species of belonid, Ichthyacus breederi, in honor of Dr. Breder. (The fish is now called Hyporhamphus brederi). Dr. Breder was affiliated with a variety of organizations throughout his life, including the United States Bureau of Fisheries, the New York Aquarium, the New York Zoological Society, the Lerner Marine Laboratory (Bimini), New York University, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory (later Mote Marine Laboratory).

Dr. Breder’s work and papers span much of the 20^th century. While his earliest works date from 1914 and his journals go well into the 1970s, the bulk of his papers appear to be from 1920-1945. While an exciting time for scientists, these interwar and World War II years formed a backdrop for the research done by prominent scientists of the day. Operating at the time was the Carnegie Lab in the Dry Tortugas, the Bass Biological Laboratory in Englewood, Florida, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the American Museum of Natural History, and more. The scientific community shared common work locations and often corresponded. Another Mote Library Special Collection, the Bass Biological Laboratory, contains correspondence that illustrates the level of communication among scientists.

[1] Atz, 1986; Cantillo, 2001.

[2] Atz, pp. 854, 1986.

[3] Clark, 1995.

[4] Atz, pp. 855, 1986.