Fonds consists of textual records that document the origins, development, and activities of the Fisheries Centre, particularly its predecessor programmes: the Institute of Fisheries and the Institute of Animal Resource Ecology. The records include correspondence, reports, financial statements, grant documentation, minutes and agendas, course outlines, and published materials.

Fonds covers an extended period, beginning with administrative material, which includes departmental budgets dating back to the early 1920s and continuing through the 1950s. There are also some departmental minutes from the 1940s and 1950s and most of the 1960s. There are records about the construction and renovation of the Biological Sciences Building, minutes from the various committees on which department heads sat, and material about UBC's Botanical Garden. There is also a brief but useful series of records concerning the Life Sciences Council's implementation and early history.

Fonds consists of correspondence, minutes of meetings and numerous reports generated between 1956 and 1961. Also included are several research papers relating to the effects of hydro-electric dams on fish populations. Many of these reports were produced by the University of British Columbia faculty, including Edgar C. Black and William S. Hoar.

The fonds consists of records chronicling various facets of Howard's long career in mining-related activities. It includes material from his student days, his years at Eldorado Gold Mines, and his years as a professor at the University of British Columbia. The fonds includes photographs reflecting the development of mining equipment and technology. In particular, the numerous photographs from Howard's Eldorado days (1942-1946) depict not only mining operations but also capture aspects of social life in Port Radium, a remote community near the Arctic Circle.