Kazu's scientific career

Kazunari gained his PhD from the Graduate School of Marine Science and Technology at Tokai University in 1986, where he studied the morphology, systematics, taxonomy and ecology of squaliform sharks (Yano, Reference Yano1985). Indeed, it is those biologists working with deep-water sharks who will be most familiar with Kazunari's work. The uncertainty in the taxonomy of these species, the limited biological information available, that many of these species seem to have quite cosmopolitan distributions, and that deep-water fisheries have expanded in many areas in recent decades, means that Kazunari's studies are frequently referred to in many scientific studies conducted around the world.

Kazunari's dedication to collecting biological information for such a wide range of species means that he is probably uniquely placed among ichthyologists in the way that he managed to write informative papers on various elements of the taxonomy and life history of so many species of shark (e.g. Yano & Kugai, Reference Yano and Kugai1993b; Yano, Reference Yano, Séret and Sire1999), especially from deep-sea habitats. Indeed, Kazunari published important accounts on the taxonomy and biology of gulper sharks Centrophorus spp. (Yano & Tanaka, Reference Yano and Tanaka1983a, Reference Yano, Tanaka, Uyeno, Arai, Taniuchi and Matsuura1985; Yano & Kugai, Reference Yano and Kugai1993a), black dogfish Centroscyllium fabricii (Yano, Reference Yano1995), Portuguese dogfish Centroscymnus coelolepis (Yano & Tanaka, Reference Yano and Tanaka1983b, Reference Yano and Tanaka1984a, Reference Yano and Tanaka1987, Reference Yano and Tanaka1988), birdbeak dogfish Deania spp. (Yano, Reference Yano1991), lantern sharks Etmopterus spp. (Yano & Tanaka, Reference Yano and Tanaka1989; Yano, Reference Yano1997; Yano & Musick, Reference Yano and Musick2000), slender smooth-hound Gollum attenuatus (Yano, Reference Yano1993a, Reference Yanob), rough sharks Oxynotus spp. (Yano & Matsuura, Reference Yano and Matsuura2002; Yano et al., Reference Yano, Matsuura and Tsukada2002), false catshark Pseudotriakis microdon (Yano, Reference Yano1992; Yano & Musick, Reference Yano and Musick1992), velvet dogfish Scymnodon spp. (Yano & Tanaka, Reference Yano and Tanaka1984b), sleeper sharks Somniosus spp. (Tanaka et al., Reference Tanaka, Yano and Ichihara1982; Yano et al., Reference Yano, Stevens and Compagno2004, Reference Yano, Miya, Aizawa and Noichi2007) and viper dogfish Trigonognathus kabeyai (Yano et al., Reference Yano, Mochizuki, Tsukada and Suzuki2003).

Kazunari was even able to collect data and write papers on those rare and infrequent species that many ichthyologists can only dream about encountering, such as frilled shark Chlamydoselachus anguineus (Tanaka et al., Reference Tanaka, Shiobara, Hioki, Abe, Nishi, Yano and Suzuki1990), goblin shark Mitsukurina owstoni (Yano et al., Reference Yano, Stevens and Compagno2007) and megamouth shark Megachasma pelagios (Yano et al., Reference Yano, Morrissey, Yabumoto and Nakaya1997, Reference Yano, Tsukada and Furuta1998, Reference Yano, Sato and Takahashi1999). Kazunari also described three new species of shark: Japanese velvet dogfish Scymnodon ichiharai (Yano & Tanaka, Reference Yano and Tanaka1984b), Japanese rough shark Oxynotus japonicus (Yano & Murofushi, Reference Yano and Murofushi1985) and splendid lantern shark Etmopterus splendidus (Yano, Reference Yano1988).

In addition to his work on deep-water sharks, Kazunari was an avid diver and managed to make biological observations on various reef-associated elasmobranchs, including manta rays (Yano et al., Reference Yano, Yabumoto, Tanaka, Tsukada, Furuta, Séret and Sire1999) and carcharhinid sharks (Yano & Morrissey, Reference Yano and Morrissey1999). Not only did Kazunari contribute important investigations of elasmobranch ecology, he also was always willing to collaborate in additional biological studies that would further our knowledge of cartilaginous fish (e.g. Ida et al., Reference Ida, Asahida, Yano, Tanaka, Arai, Uyeno, Arai, Taniuchi and Matsuura1985; Uchida et al., Reference Uchida, Toda, Teshima, Yano, Klimley and Ainley1996; Yano et al., Reference Yano, Mori, Minamikawa, Ueno, Uchida, Nagai, Toda and Masuda2000).

Kazunari also found time to co-author or co-edit two important books on elasmobranchs. These include the exceptional account of the intensive biological investigations conducted on the first female megamouth shark examined (Yano et al., Reference Yano, Morrissey, Yabumoto and Nakaya1997). This book contained over 20 chapters on everything from the genetics of the megamouth to gross anatomy, and in addition to acting as senior editor, Kazunari co-authored eight of the chapters (Castro et al., Reference Castro, Clark, Yano, Nakaya, Yano, Morrissey, Yabumoto and Nakaya1997; Nakaya et al., Reference Nakaya, Yano, Takada, Hiruda, Yano, Morrissey, Yabumoto and Nakaya1997; Takada et al., Reference Takada, Hiruda, Wakisaka, Kudo, Yano, Yano, Morrissey, Yabumoto and Nakaya1997; Tanaka & Yano, Reference Tanaka, Yano, Yano, Morrissey, Yabumoto and Nakaya1997; Yabumoto et al., Reference Yabumoto, Goto, Yano, Uyeno, Yano, Morrissey, Yabumoto and Nakaya1997; Yano et al., Reference Yano, Goto, Yabumoto, Yano, Morrissey, Yabumoto and Nakaya1997a, Reference Yano, Toda, Uchida, Yasuzumi, Yano, Morrissey, Yabumoto and Nakayab, Reference Yano, Yabumoto, Ogawa, Hasegawa, Naganobu, Matumura, Misuna, Matumura, Yano, Morrissey, Yabumoto and Nakayac).

Although Kazunari was a distinguished and respected elasmobranch biologist, his work in other fields of marine science should not be forgotten. As well as the plethora of scientific papers that Kazunari wrote on elasmobranchs, he also undertook studies on tuna (Yano & Abe, Reference Yano and Abe1998; Yamada et al., Reference Yamada, Takahashi, Yano, Tanaka and Tanaka2005), salmonids (Yano et al., Reference Yano, Ichihara, Nakamura and Tanaka1984; Yano & Nakamura, Reference Yano and Nakamura1992), sea turtles (Yano & Tanaka, Reference Yano and Tanaka1991) and on the depredation of longline catches by killer whales Orcinus orca (Yano & Dahlheim, Reference Yano and Dahlheim1995a, Reference Yano and Dahlheimb).

In the years preceding his death, Kazunari worked hard on what many will regard as his swan song, his co-authored monograph on the sharks and batoids of Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam (Yano et al., Reference Yano, Ahmad, Gambang, Idris, Solahuddin and Aznan2005), which was published shortly before his death. Kazunari's wealth and breadth of knowledge, dedication to ichthyology (including field studies), and commitment to publishing made him greatly admired by his peers.

Kazunari's professional excellence is only a part of his story. Kazunari was also kind, intelligent, funny and amiable, and for many of his colleagues he became a good friend who opened his home to them whenever they had the opportunity to visit Japan for research, a conference, or just while on holiday (Figure 2). Most importantly, he was a wonderful husband to his wife, Kaori, and beloved father to their four children, Toshikazu, Nobukazu, Nagisa and Hidekazu.

Fig. 2. Kazunari Yano and John Morrissey outside the Jardin de Plantes (Paris, April 1999) on the street commemorating the famous French ichthyologist and naturalist George Cuvier, author of Histoire naturelle des poissons.