Beginning in 1963 and extending until 1968, Suttkus served as principal investigator for the Environmental Biology Training Program, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, to train students in field investigations. Also, early in his academic career, Suttkus began a variety of activities as a consultant, mostly on environmental and zoological surveys. The consultantships supplemented his university salary. In these activities, he continued to build the ichthyology collection. At times, his investigations and collaborations with other academic scientists took him into areas of zoology beyond fishes.
