The Scottish Fisheries Museum is home to the Buckland Foundation, an organisation founded to support contemporary fisheries research.
Frank Buckland
Frank Buckland (1826-1880) and his father William Buckland, a distinguished geologist and latterly Dean of Westminster, were determined to do all that they could to improve the diet of the poor.
Although Frank followed his father in believing that the key to improving the health of the less fortunate lay in the introduction of novel species to their dining tables, he was especially impressed by the potential of the lightly-exploited fisheries of the Victorian era to supply cheap and nutritious food. He was among the first naturalists to realise that making the most of the resources of the sea would require a comprehensive understanding of the biology of the main commercial species and of the world that they inhabited.
In his will, Frank Buckland left a substantial sum of money to promote understanding of the fisheries through public lectures given by an annually appointed “Buckland Professor”.
Click for news about Buckland Events
Click for a List of Buckland Professors
Click for the Buckland Lecture Content where the lecture material is available in a suitable format.
NEW: The 2019 Lecture Material has been added.
The administration of the funds and the appointment of the Professor are undertaken by three Trustees and a Clerk who, together, comprise the Buckland Foundation and whose registered office is based here at the Scottish Fisheries Museum. Thanks to a further bequest by Mr. Frederick Smith of Grimsby, the Foundation is also able to support summer studentships to enable undergraduates to undertake projects in centres of fishery expertise including, on occasion, the Scottish Fisheries Museum.
Click for the current and previous Report of the Trustees
The museum is also home to the Buckland Collection, the remnants of the UK’s first fisheries museum.
Click for photographs of the Buckland Collection of fish casts
For enquiries about the Buckland Foundation and its publications, please click to Contact the Buckland Foundation.
