b'say goodbye to a man who added so much to their lives, as he did important work that advanced the preservation of dozens of marine species across the worldwhile saving thousands of distressed and injured animals by his own hand.While Tonys work in Texas is what made him publicly fa-mous and most acclaimed, it was his work at Columbia University that made him something of a legend in the world of oceanography. Tony Amos was the only (known), published and professionally recognized ocean researcher to not hold a college degree of any kindhigh school only, and educated in the field. While working as a research technician on expedition in the Indian Ocean in 1965, Tony discovered and proved the origins of a mysterious visible front at sea.We would hear this roaring noise and see this immense line of breaking waves in the middle of the oceanthree hundred miles off the coast of Sumatra, Tony explained. The line of waveswhitecaps in factwere accompanied by no wind and stretched for as far as the eye could see in opposite directions. Riding atop the waves was a vibrant population of sea life, from sea snakes and small sharks to flying fish and sea turtles, along with a ravenous population of sea birds feeding from above. He also observed gar-bagewine bottles and soda cans, even planks of woodtraveling along the front. It was Tonys first observation of refuse at sea.It was an exciting time in ocean science because it was just becoming electronic, Amos explained, and I was working on a new instrument, the CTDConductivity, Temperature, Depth me-terand I asked the chief scientist if I could take measurements along the line of the front.Tony Amos was the only (known), published and professionally recog-nized ocean researcher to not hold a college degree of any kindhigh school only, and educated in the field.Tonys discovery that the front was the result of heavy rains running into the Indian Ocean from feeding rivers, was parallel to that of historic ocean researcher, Fritjof Nansen, who used his Nansen Bottle to take underwater samples of similar offshore fronts produced by fjords in Norway. Sixty years later, Tony had essentially invented the electronic Nansen bottle and deployed it to prove a similar ocean phenomenon on the opposite side of the earth. He was encouraged to present his findings at the convention of the American Geophysical Union in Washington, D.C., where Tony Amos made history in the field of marine science by accom-plishing more than many PhDs, strictly through his intelligence and ingenuity. He was accepted, acclaimed, and on his way to a career in marine science that took him to all the worlds oceans, and to Antarctica almost forty times.This little celebrated side of Tony Amos long biography is Tony Amos photographed for Texas Monthly magazine in 1996 holding his famed HP Algebraicknown by few, but deserves accolades equal to those he received Scientific Calculator on which he recorded his daily beach surveys of birds, other animals, andfor his work saving marine life. At least to us old Ocean nerds.debris on Port Aransas Beach. Rocky Kneten photo 50 THE COOASASTTAL BEND MA TheC talBend.comom56 THE C AL BEND MAGAGAZINEZINEFEAJanuary/TURED: The StFebruary 2018ories that Mattered TheCooasastalBend.c'