Written by Daniel Valentinsson, Michele Casini, and Barbara Bland from the Institute of Marine Research, Department of Aquatic Resources, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
Bengt Sjöstrand (1939–2024) has passed away after a long and eventful life, spending a great part of it in fisheries stock assessment and in communicating science and advice, not least in the service of ICES.
Being a passionate ornithologist, Bengt’s early academic career in the 1960s focused on population ecology for birds in alpine and subalpine habitats, which rewarded him with a Licentiate degree at the Department of Zoology, Lund University, Sweden. With the move to the Institute of Marine Research in Lysekil in 1971, Bengt’s skills in numerical population biology were put to good use in a new career as a scientist in the developing field of quantitative fisheries biology and stock assessment, a productive career that would last well over 40 years.
Bengt was a true ICES scientist. Over the years he worked in many ICES Standing Committees, working groups, study groups, and planning groups. He also participated in several ICES-related EU projects. Bengt had a long-term central role in the former Working Group on Assessment of Pelagic Stocks in the Baltic Sea and the subsequent Baltic Fisheries Assessment Working Group (WGBFAS). He was also a prominent name in the Northern prawn (Pandalus) stock assessment working group since its inception in the early 1970s. He also acted as chair for the Baltic Fish Committee and the Pandalus Working Group and was the Swedish delegate in the Advisory Committee of Fishery Management (ACFM) for 25 years (1978–2003). Bengt’s work achievements and competence were further recognized and honoured in 2002 when he was appointed honorary doctor (Doctor honoris causa) at Stockholm University.
As a person, Bengt was unpretentious, kind, and sympathetic. Many of us witnessed the great impact of Bengt´s benevolent sharing of institutional memory and knowledge of Swedish and European fisheries, stock assessment, and broader management aspects with many people around him. Another important characteristic was his strong integrity, both personally and as a scientist in an environment that sometimes could be rather politicized. He also had a great sense of dry humour. A typical example of a Bengt type of joke is that he had calculated that he had spent between two and a half to three years in Copenhagen at ICES meetings over the years, which is a period of time comparable to what you get for manslaughter he would say cheekily. His colleagues remember his typical lunches of marinated herring or a large cold sausage together with a piece of rye bread, and the ready-to-use (or already used) toothpicks he carried in his shirt pocket. Another precious memory for us colleagues was that Bengt always celebrated the annual return of the oystercatcher, i.e. the day when he spotted the first oystercatcher of the spring on a particular skerry from the ferry he commuted to work with, by writing “den är kommen = it has arrived” on the whiteboard in the lab reception and serving cake to the delight of all us colleagues. Bengt was also an active and admittedly good photographer and nurtured a life-long interest in bird watching, hiking, and other outdoor activities.
We wish to express our deepest condolences to Bengt’s family and friends on his loss. He will be sadly missed but fondly remembered in our hearts.
