TOKYO, Japan (11 Jan 2004) -- Jack Moyer, a marine ecologist who made his home on Tokyo-administered Miyake Island for almost 50 years, has committed suicide in his Kita-ku home, police said. Moyer's body was found lying on a futon beside about 400 pills of an unidentified drug and two bottles of beer. He left two suicide notes, one addressed to his wife and the other to an acquaintance. Moyer first arrived in Japan in 1952 as a member of the U.S. Army stationed at Camp Zama in Kanagawa Prefecture. He saved a coral reef off the coast of Miyake Island, by informing the U.S. military of how fragile it was and prompting an end to exercises there. His studies of the reproductive ecology of coral reef-dwelling fish earned him a doctorate. He lived on Miyake from the time he was discharged from the military until forced to evacuate following a volcanic eruption on the island a few years ago. SOURCE - Mainichi Shimbun | 
