Person

Marsh, Loisette Matilda (1929 - 2021)

AM

Born
1929
Mill Bay, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
Died
20 May 2021
Cottesloe, Western Australia, Australia
Occupation
Marine zoologist and Museum curator

Summary

Loisette Marsh was one of Australia's few echinoderm taxonomists. After graduate studies on the zonation of limestone rock platforms near Perth, and eight years on Norfolk Island and Fiji (during which time she collected echiniderms for Elizabeth Pope at the Australian Museum), she joined the Western Australian Museum with responsibility for the cnidarian and echinoderm collections. She was a central figure in collecting, cataloging and expanding the Western Australian Museum's coral collection. From 1978 Marsh headed the Marine Invertebrate Zoology Department, later part of the Department of Aquatic Zoology. Her research involved survey dives and cruises, and expeditions to reefs, along the Western Australian coast, and the discovery of tropical species being brought down by (then unknown) Leeuwin Current. She played a large role in the protection of Ningaloo Reef. Her publications include Sea-stingers - and other venomous and poisonous marine invertebrates of Western Australia (1986, with Shirley M. Slack-Smith) and, the result of 60 years of research, A field guide to the shallow water seastars of Australia (2020).

Details

Chronology

1956
Education - MA, University of Western Australia
1960 - 1963
Life event - On Norfolk Island
1963 - 1968
Life event - In Fiji
1968 - 1970
Career position - Demonstrator (part-time), University of Western Australia
1969 - 2009
Career position - Member, Australian Marine Sciences Association
1970 - 1978
Career position - Museum assistant (molluscs), Western Australian Museum
1978 - 1988
Career position - Curator, Marine Invertebrate Zoology Department, Western Australian Museum
1988 - 1993
Career position - Curator of marine invertebrates, Department of Aquatic Zoology, Western Australian Museum
2010
Award - Certificate of Commendation, Whitley Awards, Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, for Field guide to sea stingers and other venomous and poisonous marine invertebrates of Western Australia
2010 - 2021
Award - Honorary Life Member, Australian Marine Sciences Association
2021
Award - Member of the Order of Australia (AM) (posthumous) for significant service to marine science and zoology
2021
Award - Certificate of Commendation, Whitley Awards, Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, for A field guide to the shallow water seastars of Australia

Related Corporate Bodies

Archival resources

Western Australian Museum

  • Loisette M. Marsh - Records, 1972 - 1982; Western Australian Museum. Details

Published resources

Books

  • Marsh, Loisette M.; and Fromont, Jane, Field guide to shallow water seastars of Australia (Welshpool, W.A.: Western Australian Museum, 2020), 543 pp. Details
  • Marsh, Loisette M.; and Slack-Smith, Shirley, Sea-stingers - and other venomous and poisonous marine invertebrates of Western Australia (Perth: Western Australian Museum, 1986), 133 pp. Details

Journal Articles

  • Hutchings, Pat; Brown, Barbara E.; Byrne, Maria; Hamylton, Sarah; and Spencer, Tom, 'The remarkable contributions of ten outstanding women to Australian coral reef science', Historical Records of Australian Science, 34 (1) (2023), 19-35. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR22009. Details
  • Jones, Diana, 'Loisette Marsh AM 1 October 1928 - 21 May 2021', Western Australian naturalist, 32 (2) (2021), 87-100. Details
  • Marsh, L. M.; Fromont, J. and Salotti, M., 'A catalogue of recent echinoderm type specimens in the Western Australian Museum, Perth', Records of the Western Australian Museum, 19 (1999), 391-411. Details
  • Marsh, Loisette, '40 year Honorary Membership', Australian marine science bulletin, 179 (2009), 4-5. Details
  • Sampey, Alison; and Marsh, Loisette M., 'Kimberley marine biota: historical data - echinoderms', Records of the Western Australiam Museum, Supp. 84 (2015), 207-46. Details
  • Veron, J. E. N.; and Marsh, L. M., 'Hermatypic corals of Western Australia: records and annotated species list', Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supp. 29 (1988), 1-136. Details

Resources

Resource Sections

Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn

EOAS ID: biogs/P001970b.htm

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Published by the Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology.
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