2026/07/27 by James A. Crossman, James A Crossman, William E Pine +5
Environmental Science · #Conservation, Ecology, Wildlife Education #Fish Ecology and Management Studies #Marine and fisheries research
paper · doi:10.1093/fshmag/vuag043
openalex publication_date 2026/07/27 · openalex created_date 2026/07/28 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
May 10, 1962–May 25, 2026 Josh Korman was a renowned fisheries ecologist and statistician, someone colleagues sought out to help understand complex ecological questions, and someone people wanted to work with because his love for science was infectious. Josh worked on hard questions, where ecological complexity, uncertainty, and competing values all had to be weighed together. Across this work, he returned again and again to the same essential questions: how the pieces of a system fit together, what the evidence showed, what remained uncertain, and what that meant for fish, rivers, and people. He passed away on May 25, 2026, survived by his wife, son, and daughter, as well as his mother, sisters, and nieces and nephews. He is mourned deeply within the fisheries community by countless close colleagues, those he mentored, and all who had the fortune of interacting with him. Josh was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He studied oceanography at McGill University before crossing Canada and earning a MS in biological oceanography and a PhD in zoology from the University of British Columbia. For most of his career, he led his own consulting business, Ecometric Research, while maintaining adjunct professor status at the University of British Columbia. Josh was passionate about science, and his drive and curiosity led him to a career integrating knowledge across disciplines to better understand fish population dynamics, the effects of river regulation on aquatic systems, and the development of adaptive management programs to support evidence-based decision making that prioritized environmental values. Josh was a systems thinker and a tremendous field biologist. He saw the connections among fish and streamflow, food webs and temperature, data complexity and uncertainty, management actions and human values. He understood that rivers are complex systems and that good science requires rigor, humility, and openness to other perspectives, although he was never one to abandon an opinion when the data supported it. Josh’s published work was defined by his unique ability to combine field ecology with novel analytical approaches, leading to publications across a broad range of fisheries science disciplines. His research covered quantitative ecology, population dynamics, field biology, and advanced statistical modeling, addressing both fundamental ecological questions and practical fisheries management issues. He advanced understanding of salmon and trout (Family: Salmonidae), sturgeon (Acipenseriformes), Delta Smelt Hypomesus transpacificus, and other fishes across North America. Across these species and systems, he developed innovative approaches for estimating fish population vital rates, improved the statistical foundations and designs of fisheries monitoring programs, and evaluated the effects of habitat change, river regulation, and environmental variability on aquatic ecosystems. Collectively, his published works, particularly in the rivers of British Columbia and the Colorado River, helped inform modern fisheries management and conservation, reflecting Josh’s lifelong enthusiasm for understanding fish, rivers, and the natural world. Early in his career, Josh helped develop the Grand Canyon Ecosystem Model, which linked dam operations, sediment, food webs, and fish population dynamics. That work was foundational to the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program and helped set the standard for the decades of scientific excellence that followed. Josh spent 25 years working in the Colorado River ecosystem, especially in Glen, Marble, and Grand canyons. His leadership and field research contributed to a body of science that provided world-class information in support of adaptive management of Glen Canyon Dam, clarifying the interactions among reservoir operations and the physical and biological resources of the downstream canyons. His work helped people understand how management actions and changing environmental conditions affect both native and nonnative fishes in the Colorado River. Throughout this intensive field research, Josh mentored many early-career biologists, helping them understand how the information they were collecting fit into the bigger picture and fostering in them the gift of curiosity. Closer to his home in British Columbia, Josh spent a good portion of his career developing and implementing adaptive management programs to support water use decisions in highly complex regulatory and constrained resource management environments. Being recognized as both independent and highly capable, he was able to co-develop fish production model frameworks with regulators in the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, academics, and hydroelectric operators. These collaborations resulted in truly groundbreaking programs being implemented at Bridge River, to address outcomes from court proceedings between the regulator and operators, and at Cheakamus River, to address significant discord between representatives of local First Nations, regulators, public stakeholders and the operator. He had a strong connection and love for the Cheakamus River. Across more than 20 years, he rafted, snorkeled, and fished the Cheakamus for his research, all while staying at his off-grid cabin nearby. He has been broadly recognized as the expert in identifying key factors influencing production of steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss in that watershed, in addition to disproving widely held beliefs around the priorities of river regulation and fish stranding in water use planning. It was this fierce pragmatism that made him so effective at designing programs that informed decision making across multiple values and evaluating performance measures associated with operational changes. Josh contributed to the conservation and recovery of threatened and endangered species through recovery potential assessments, biological descriptions, and evaluations of conservation actions. He was a valued member of the Upper Columbia River White Sturgeon Acipenser transmontanus program and loved being on the water, adding humor to the scientific rigor of the program. Josh made a lasting impression on the field team, and his mannerisms remain integral to the program, especially when samples need to be partitioned perfectly. Those who knew Josh remember not only his scientific insight, but also his kindness, generosity, and steadiness. He listened carefully, asked hard questions, and helped others see complicated problems more clearly. Josh’s work and abilities to convey science was elegant; he could make complexity understandable without pretending it was simple. His legacy lives in the science he advanced, the decisions he informed, the colleagues he supported and mentored, and the many people touched by his friendship. He will be remembered as a gifted scientist, a generous collaborator, and a deeply kind person. This tribute benefited greatly from others who generously shared memories and reflections about Josh.