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Theodore Roughley
Theodore Cleveland Roughley (1888–1961) was an Australian zoologist, author, and public servant. He is best known for his work on the Sydney Rock Oyster and its commercial cultivation, and for his books and other publications, mainly on marine science, which he skillfully illustrated with his own artwork and photography. In the later part of his career, as Superintendent of Fisheries, he implemented measures for the scientific management of fisheries in New South Wales, including catch size limits and closures of certain waters to commercial fishing. He was a well-known and influential public figure in his time. He was also known informally as Ted Roughley and, as an author, T. C. Roughley.
Roughley was born at Ryde, New South Wales, on 30 September 1888. He attended Sydney Boys High School, finishing school at end of 1906.
He studied medicine at University of Sydney, for three years from 1907, but did not complete his medical studies, finding more interest in zoology. He studied art under Julian Ashton. It was only in 1933, when he was already a well-known zoologist, that the university awarded him a Bachelor of Science degree, on the basis of his work, The Life History of the Australian Oyster (Ostrea commercialis)', published in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales.
A tall and athletic man, he played first grade cricket for Petersham in the Sydney First Grade Premiership Competition, as well as playing baseball and cricket at University.
Roughly joined the staff of the Sydney Technological Museum, in 1911 as an Economic Zoologist, a position that he would hold for 28 years. In that role his focus was on the zoology of fishes and other seafood, as it affected their role as economic resources. He quickly became recognised for his photography and microscopy.
In 1916, his book, The Fishes of Australia and their Technology, was published. Roughley is also credited with the original artwork for its 70 beautiful colour plates showing fishes of various species. Some of the plates correctly captured the colours of freshly caught specimens of species whose colours fade quickly after death. The book also set out proposals about how the fishing industry in Australia might be expanded and improved. Decades later in 1952, Roughley, self-deprecatingly, would refer to this work as "a rather pretentious volume".
In 1922, Roughley's, long paper, Oyster Culture on the Georges River, New South Wales, was published in hardcover by the museum. By 1925, when his paper, The Story of the Oyster, was published, the extent of Roughley's knowledge of the zoology and cultivation of oysters, and the pests which affected that cultivation, was apparent. In 1928, Roughley was the first to discover that the Sydney Rock Oyster changed sex, from male to female, during its life cycle, something that brought him international attention. Roughley remained humble about his understanding of the oyster; he told an oyster farmers' conference, in 1930, that what he had "ascertained about the oyster was like a bucketful of water to an ocean".
His work had a practical impact, when he suggested a method of managing the oyster disease, 'winter mortality', in 1926. For many decades afterwards, the oyster farmers of the Georges River limited the impact of winter mortality, by moving their oysters on trays, to more sheltered waters with lower salinity, such as near the Woronora River confluence and Bonnet Bay, and then placing the trays on racks higher in the intertidal zone. The method became known as 'wintering'. It did reduce 'winter mortality', but the disease could not be completely eliminated, and it came at the cost of slower growth to maturity. Another method used was to harvest the more mature oysters as the weather cooled.
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Theodore Roughley
Theodore Cleveland Roughley (1888–1961) was an Australian zoologist, author, and public servant. He is best known for his work on the Sydney Rock Oyster and its commercial cultivation, and for his books and other publications, mainly on marine science, which he skillfully illustrated with his own artwork and photography. In the later part of his career, as Superintendent of Fisheries, he implemented measures for the scientific management of fisheries in New South Wales, including catch size limits and closures of certain waters to commercial fishing. He was a well-known and influential public figure in his time. He was also known informally as Ted Roughley and, as an author, T. C. Roughley.
Roughley was born at Ryde, New South Wales, on 30 September 1888. He attended Sydney Boys High School, finishing school at end of 1906.
He studied medicine at University of Sydney, for three years from 1907, but did not complete his medical studies, finding more interest in zoology. He studied art under Julian Ashton. It was only in 1933, when he was already a well-known zoologist, that the university awarded him a Bachelor of Science degree, on the basis of his work, The Life History of the Australian Oyster (Ostrea commercialis)', published in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales.
A tall and athletic man, he played first grade cricket for Petersham in the Sydney First Grade Premiership Competition, as well as playing baseball and cricket at University.
Roughly joined the staff of the Sydney Technological Museum, in 1911 as an Economic Zoologist, a position that he would hold for 28 years. In that role his focus was on the zoology of fishes and other seafood, as it affected their role as economic resources. He quickly became recognised for his photography and microscopy.
In 1916, his book, The Fishes of Australia and their Technology, was published. Roughley is also credited with the original artwork for its 70 beautiful colour plates showing fishes of various species. Some of the plates correctly captured the colours of freshly caught specimens of species whose colours fade quickly after death. The book also set out proposals about how the fishing industry in Australia might be expanded and improved. Decades later in 1952, Roughley, self-deprecatingly, would refer to this work as "a rather pretentious volume".
In 1922, Roughley's, long paper, Oyster Culture on the Georges River, New South Wales, was published in hardcover by the museum. By 1925, when his paper, The Story of the Oyster, was published, the extent of Roughley's knowledge of the zoology and cultivation of oysters, and the pests which affected that cultivation, was apparent. In 1928, Roughley was the first to discover that the Sydney Rock Oyster changed sex, from male to female, during its life cycle, something that brought him international attention. Roughley remained humble about his understanding of the oyster; he told an oyster farmers' conference, in 1930, that what he had "ascertained about the oyster was like a bucketful of water to an ocean".
His work had a practical impact, when he suggested a method of managing the oyster disease, 'winter mortality', in 1926. For many decades afterwards, the oyster farmers of the Georges River limited the impact of winter mortality, by moving their oysters on trays, to more sheltered waters with lower salinity, such as near the Woronora River confluence and Bonnet Bay, and then placing the trays on racks higher in the intertidal zone. The method became known as 'wintering'. It did reduce 'winter mortality', but the disease could not be completely eliminated, and it came at the cost of slower growth to maturity. Another method used was to harvest the more mature oysters as the weather cooled.