WIDE ANGLE: IM Interview -- Biologist Tracks Darwin

The scoop:Charles Darwin spent years going around the world in the HMS Beagle. Integrative biologist Jere Lipps of the University of California at Berkeley has spent his entire career gradually tracking Darwin's crucial steps from England and back again by way of South America, Australia, South Africa and many, many other points along the way. At every spot Lipps has pondered what Darwin saw and wrote about in the 1830s and what he might think if he made the same journey today.

Darwin Tracker: Hi Larry - I'm here. Jere

LarryO': Hello! Ready to go?

Darwin Tracker: I'm ready

LarryO': Okay. Forgive any delays on my side.
I have a toddler screaming at me. So from what I hear you are sort of tracking Darwin's travels. Is that right?

Darwin Tracker: Yes, I got into it by accident--just happened to go to the same places but now I try to see them whenever I pass near.

LarryO': How is it you were happening upon that course of travel?
These aren't all the most popular places to go. He went to a lot more than the Galapagos, after all.

Darwin Tracker: I did a lot of the South American tracking when I worked for about 8 years on the Antarctic Peninsula. I went to Falklands a few times, Tierra del Fuego, Beagle Channel, and last month to Patagonia.
We did two 30-day expeditions to the Galapagos for fossil collecting in the 80s. Tahiti because we teach there. New Zealand and Australia because of travels there.

LarryO': Beagle Channel - named after the ship Darwin was on for that 2(?) year journey?

Darwin Tracker: Darwin and the Beagle spent 42 months in S. America mostly at the tip.
Yes, the Beagle Channel was named by Captain FitzRoy on his previous voyage there a couple of years before the Darwin voyage.

LarryO': Poor old Fitzroy, but that's another story. This is still a very remote part of the world - S. Am's tip. Yes?

Darwin Tracker: In contrast to such long times in SA, he only spent 17 days ashore on 4 Galapagos Is, a few days at Tahiti, NZ, Australia, Tasmania, etc.
I think Darwin would find some places today just like they were - the Beagle Channel, Chonos Island (Chile), Tierra del Fuego, but others he would have a different opinion of - Falklands because of the Brit-Argentine war, Chiloe because of increased population and development, Galapagos and Tahiti for the same reason and tourism.
I set off to understand what Darwin was thinking then, but I returned wondering what he would think now.

LarryO: So you are trying to add a fourth dimension to this critical journey of his?

Darwin Tracker: In a very speculative way - I am trying to understand how Darwin felt about things then and how that might influence his opinions, should he have been able to return now.
For examples, he thought they were killing too many tortoises then, so he'd be happy to see that they are still there.
He'd think Chonos was the same because hardly anyone lives there yet, although in the water he'd wonder about the salmon aquaculture, etc.

LarryO': Salmon farms??

Darwin Tracker: Yes.
These are big enclosures with nets on all four sides (one side to keep out the birds) and the other 3 to keep the fish in and predators out.
Each of these contains $3 million worth of salmon, sometimes sold as Norwegian salmon, but locally here as Pacific or Chilean salmon at about $1.99/lb. Cheaper than the wild ones we get but smaller. Haven't tried them yet. I have images of most of these places and items.

LarryO': Hmm. I guess there were only native fishermen back in Darwin's days.

Darwin Tracker: A few in Chonos and mostly natives.
Farther north at Chiloe there were both European (Spanish mostly) and natives, some of whom farmed too.
He really liked Chiloe unlike the Galapagos, which he did not like.

LarryO': WHAT? Darwin disliked the Galapagos? What would the tourism industry say to that??? What did he not like about them, and what did her prefer elsewhere?

Darwin Tracker: He thought the Galapagos were a "terrible" place, very hot and desolate, with strange animals.
Chiloe on the other hand he called a "fine" island and spent a couple of months in the area.
He also found the Fuegans to be "lowly" people, in fact the lowest. Like the Victorians, he put people in an order. Guess who was at the top!
Tahitians he liked but still ranked low.

LarryO': I guess climates were also ranked a bit by his English origins.

Darwin Tracker: Good point. Yes, I think he thought Britain was the best place. After returning from the Voyage, he never left again

Darwin Tracker: Another myth is that he was a biologist.
He never said so, indeed when asked he always said he was a Natural Historian but when pressed once, he said "geologist".
He took over 1300 pages of geology notes and only over 300 on biology. He collected rocks (mostly sent to Lyell) and biological specimens in abundance.

LarryO': Charles Lyell. That's the guys who taught him about Deep Time and uniformitarianism. Right?

Darwin Tracker: He had Lyell's Principles of Geology on board and had taken that famous field trip.

LarryO: Walking the length of England or something?

Darwin Tracker: He went with Adam Sedgwick, his prof of Geology at Cambridge, on an 1831 field excursion to Wales.
It was this trip that got Darwin recommended to FitzRoy, who needed a geologist on the Beagle to help with magnetic problems he had encountered on his previous trip that interfered with navigation and his surveys.

LarryO': That's a familiar name: Sedgwick.
So what is your next target on Darwin's trail? Anything for the big anniversary year 2009? 1859=1st edition of Origin of Species, right?

Darwin Tracker: I think I have hit the chief places that influenced Darwin, although I'd love to go to Cocos-Keeling Atoll in the Indian Ocean to where Darwin may have influenced FitzRoy to sail just to personally visit an atoll to confirm his theory, which he cemented mentally at Tahiti and Moorea, and perhaps the Atlantic islands.
There will be lots of celebrations everywhere in the modern scientific world, and some anti-celebrations by creationists and other anti-evolutionists.
We will have them here at Berkeley, the AAAS will do it at their annual meeting in Feb, etc. It is the anniversary of both the Origin (150) and his birth (1809-200th).
Ours will be positive; theirs likely will be a little negative.

LarryO': Maybe I'll start working on a nice celebration here in Albuquerque. Darwin is my hero.

Darwin Tracker: That's a good idea - I'm sure the biologists at UNM will celebrate. Actually some cities are even doing it, one I think in Iowa!

LarryO': Not in Kansas, perhaps.

Darwin Tracker: KU will definitely do it, but there will likely be some protesters. Did I send you my article from Feb 12, this year, called Darwin's day?

LarryO': Yes! I have to get back to that.

Darwin Tracker: I hope we will do better this coming year; in fact, I know we will.
Even that journal asked me to organize a special Darwin issue. That, it turns out, is hard to do, but we will have a series of articles at least.

LarryO': Is there something we can post about that? I'd love to help the cause.

Darwin Tracker: Not right now because so far all I have are promises.
As soon as we get the copy, I can let you know. One will review Darwin's book on vegetable mould and worms and how that influenced the study of animals that make tracks and burrows.
Thanks for suggesting that, and I will definitely keep you posted.

LarryO': Thanks. And thanks for your time today. I'll be in touch again soon.

Darwin Tracker: Take care. Jere

Article posted February 5, 2008.

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