[1] As a child, Sette developed an early interest in nature and living things and became an avid butterfly collector, which became a lifelong hobby.

Higgins was working as a scientific assistant at the California State Fisheries Laboratory in San Pedro, and he invited Sette to accompany him on an exploratory trawling trip in a fishing boat.

Sette immediately was fascinated with the variety of sea creatures caught in the fishing trawler's nets and decided to pursue a career as a fisheries scientist.

[1][2] Sette scrapped his plans to attend the University of California, instead entering service in the United States Army in 1918 during the late stages of World War I.

"[2] The interest in the reasons for fluctuations in fish size and populations stayed with him for the rest of his life and played a major role in his career.

[1] In addition to his administrative and supervisory responsibilities in Washington, Sette remained active in fisheries biology, particularly as it related to his interest in fluctuations in the abundance of fish stocks.

After a preliminary cruise in 1926, his research aboard Albatross II began in earnest in 1927, focusing on the effects of changes in ecological conditions on Atlantic mackerel eggs and larvae.

Before his research ended abruptly in June 1932, when the aging ship became uneconomical to operate and was decommissioned, he concluded that mortality rates among Atlantic mackerel larvae changed from year to year according to variations in drift based on winds and not, as had earlier been proposed, based on changes in mortality at the critical period when larvae switched over from their yolk sacs to exogenous food sources.

[2] In addition to his official duties, Sette pursued postgraduate studies and received a Master of Arts in Biology from Harvard University in 1930.

Sette became director of the bureau's new South Pacific Fisheries Investigations and established the organization's headquarters on the campus of Stanford University with instructions to "direct and perform research on the nature and causes of fluctuations in pelagic fish populations.

[2] He enlisted the assistance of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, thereby ensuring that ecological factors would be part of the findings in his sardine investigations.

Schofield, who resented federal intervention in California fisheries investigations, openly urged Sette to abandon his mission and return to Washington.

Sette, however, overcame the hostility and opposition through tact and diplomacy, and his previous work in fisheries science and honesty in his dealings won over those who opposed him.

The sardine fishery quickly declined alarmingly, and in response the California state government in 1947 created a Marine Research Committee made up of fishing industry representatives, with Sette as its scientific advisor.

[1][2] Tuna stocks in the Pacific Ocean had also come under significant pressure since the end of World War II, and the Fish and Wildlife Service – which had absorbed the old Bureau of Fisheries in 1940 and would be reorganized in 1956 as the United States Fish and Wildlife Service – responded by building a new Honolulu Laboratory adjacent to the campus of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, Hawaii, purchasing two research ships to support its efforts, and creating the new Pacific Ocean Fisheries Investigations (POFI).

The POFI team's integrated effort under Sette's overall direction greatly advanced scientific knowledge of the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

Again, Sette took charge of a new laboratory and, from a headquarters on the campus of Stanford University, pioneered yet another new aspect of fisheries science, namely, an examination of all available data concerning the oceans and development of an understanding of how they relate to the abundance and distribution of fish.

[1][2] While attending the 1954 meeting of the Oceanography Fisheries Meteorology Committee, he proposed that groups involved in related fisheries science studies in the eastern Pacific Ocean coordinate the planning and execution of their work at sea and exchange information on the results of their research; the Committee approved his proposal at its 1955 meeting, and in 1956 the Eastern Pacific Oceanic Conference (EPOC) was created to carry out his idea by serving as a forum for the discussion of oceanographic research and as a medium for the coordination of research by diverse, geographically separated academic and governmental agencies.

Since joining the Bureau of Fisheries, a predecessor agency of the Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, on January 8, 1924, he has made outstanding contributions, not only as a scientist, but as an organizer of investigations, eminent administrator, and an unusually successful teacher... "He has always placed special importance on the training of scientists under his supervision and has devoted much time and effort to their development.

These efforts have had an important influence upon fishery science in the United States and Canada, as attested by the numbers of his former employees who now hold leading positions in the profession.

In recognition of his important contributions to the scientific program of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries and his eminent career in Government, the Department of the Interior bestows upon Dr. Sette its highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award.