A professor at HSU since 1988 and former chair of the University's Department of Fisheries, Fritzsche will attend the Sampled Red List Index Marine Fish Workshop, jointly organized by the Zoological Society of London and the Global Marine Species Assessment, headquartered at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Va.
The society is a government-funded research institute that specializes in scientific issues regarding the conservation of animal species and their habitats.
The Global Marine Species Assessment, founded in 2005, is the first international review of the threat of extinction for every marine vertebrate species, plants and selected invertebrates. Data are compiled and analyzed spanning some 20,000 marine species. The data are used to determine the risk of extinction.
January's workshop will assess the conservation status of about 350 species of marine fish. Experts will detail the biology and ecology of these species and evaluate the threats to them.
Dr. Fritzsche is a world authority on pipefish, seahorses, cornet fish, and trumpet fish, among others. He has worked for more than three decades with the U.N. Food & Agriculture Organization to develop fish identification guides for fishery workers around the world.
He earned his Ph.D. in 1976 from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and was named Humboldt State's Outstanding Professor for 1990-91.