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Ruth Gates, a renowned marine biologist who has worked all her life to save the world's fragile coral reefs from the disastrous effects of warmer water temperatures, died on October 25 in Kailua, Hawaii. She was 56 years old.
The Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology in Manoa, where Gates was director, announced his death at Castle Hospital. Robin Burton-Gates, his wife, explained that the cause was a complication of diverticulitis surgery. Gates also had cancer that had spread to her brain, she said.
Gates wanted to be a marine biologist since childhood. She had been fascinated by coral reefs when she had seen it on the television exploits of underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau.
"I have the greatest respect for corals," she said in Netflix's "Chasing Coral" documentary, published in 2017 and which won an Emmy. "They are very sophisticated animals."
A valuable natural resource, coral reefs are often referred to as tropical rainforests, as they provide valuable habitat for essential food sources for millions of people, in addition to being a major source of tourism revenue. .
But in recent decades, at least a third of the world's reefs, which are very sensitive to changes in temperature, have died as a result of global warming, ocean acidification, ecotourism, pollution and commercial overfishing. Scientists say that warming trends suggest that much more could be destroyed in the next 30 years, coral serving as a canary in the coal mine for the eventual collapse of the oceanic ecosystem.
Gates was one of the most prominent scientists who was trying to protect the coral of such a fate. As director of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, which is part of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, she has developed a "super coral" that could be developed to be more resistant to the heat and acidity that beset the marine environment.
"I always think of the planet as a puzzle and all these pieces have to fit together to create the image," she said this year in an episode of HBO's documentary series "Vice." Lost pieces such as coral reefs or the Polar Ice Cap, she said, "will end up annihilating us as a species"
In addition to conducting cutting-edge research, Gates brought to his work a passion that animated a larger-than-life personality and made him a sought-after speaker and the subject of many videos. She was president of the International Society for Reef Studies. she spoke about her work at the United Nations and the Aspen Ideas Festival; and she mentored a generation of graduate students.
She was, it was often said, a woman of the Renaissance.
"She could do everything right," Burton-Gates said during a phone interview. "She was computer literate, fantastic in business, she could renovate houses, she was a fantastic cook, she had a third degree black belt in karate."
According to Burton-Gates, she was also "an excellent athlete at school". And, finally, she could sing. At a karaoke party in Honolulu in 2015, she surprised everyone and interrupted the show by telling "Diamonds Are Forever".
Most of the time, Gates, who was British, put his skills in communication for the preservation of corals. And she used her command of Queen's English wisely.
"She used to laugh at the fact that you could say the most senseless thing, but if you had a British accent, people would believe you," said Margaret McFall-Ngai, director of the Pacific Biosciences Research Center's the University of Hawaii in Manoa, said in a phone interview.
"It's very rare that a scientist as charismatic as Ruth," McFall-Ngai said. "She was the Carl Sagan of the coral reefs."
Ruth Deborah Gates was born on March 28, 1962 in Akrotiri, Cyprus, where her father, John Amos Gates, was stationed while working for British military intelligence. His mother, Muriel (Peel) Gates, was a physiotherapist. With her parents traveling constantly, Ruth grew up mainly in a boarding school in Kent, England.
She obtained a Bachelor's degree in marine biology from the University of Newcastle in 1984 and a PhD in the same field in 1990. She has largely studied corals in Jamaica, just as Caribbean corals were beginning to die. She has conducted additional research at the University of California at Los Angeles and at the University of Hawaii.
She met Burton-Gates, an illustrator, in 2014 through a common friend. They were married on September 28th. A brother, Tim, survives him too.
In 2013, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation donated $ 10,000 for the most promising proposal to alleviate the problems caused by an increasingly acidic ocean. Gates and Madeleine van Oppen, of the Australian Institute of Ocean Sciences, have won the challenge with their plan to develop highly resilient coral strains, much like farmers produce more robust crops.
The foundation then awarded them a $ 4 million grant over five years, with the long-term goal of creating a stock of resistant coral strains that can replace the endangered coral reefs around the world.
Work has its skeptics. A major question is whether the development of these new coral strains is scalable for global application. Another question is whether a mechanism can be created by which strains can be widely distributed. Another problem is whether money can be found to pay for these very expensive businesses.
Beyond this, some people wonder if this process will actually reduce coral diversity, which could have unintended consequences.
Gates has not generally been impressed by the criticism.
"I do not like to say it," she said this year in an interview with Fast Company magazine, "but climate change is leading the most obscene genetic narrowing experiment never done.
His laboratory remains dedicated to the continuation of his work.
"Instead of dwelling on the problems that corals are facing, Ruth focused on developing and testing concrete solutions," said Kira Hughes, research project leader at Gates Coral Lab. , by e-mail. "She acted – to do something now – This would ensure the survival of coral reefs in the future. "
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