Fisheries August 2015

by Bork · August 10, 2015

Click to find out how to read a text-only version

August 5, 2015

Table Of Contents, as in “This is what’s cool in this issue!”

• CHALLENGE!
• Publications
• Cool Fish
• From the Job Board
• Annual Meeting
• Call for Papers / Proposals / Workshops / Awards
• Policy / Advocacy / Law
• Spotlight on Members
• Unit News
• Young Professional / Student News
• In Short
• Studies
• Calendar / Important AFS Business

To read this newsletter online, please click here

AFS Special Challenge!

We Challenge You!
Help Make a Difference For Students!

The Education Section will match dollar for dollar (up to $25,000) any group, individual, or organization contribution to the Skinner Memorial Fund, if the funds are contributed beforeSeptember 1, 2015. The Education Section has already contributed $25,000 and thus will add an additional $25,000 in match. With everyone’s help we could contribute a total of $75,000! Contributing to the challenge is easy! Just follow this link and in the menu select “Skinner Memorial Fund.” Alternatively, you can contact Denise Spencer ([email protected]) at the AFS office to make your contribution.

Publications

Highlights of Fisheries Magazine – August 2015

In this Issue:

POLICY

Wetlands Thrive on Connectivity
Thomas E. Bigford

MEMBER VOICE

Value Added by Being a Member of a Professional Society
Sean Lucey

AFS NEWS

The Sordid Trail of an AFS Response to New York Times Op-Ed Piece
Douglas Austen

AFS Responds to an Op-Ed in the New York Times on Trout Fishing in the Northeast US

NOAA Fisheries At-Sea Volunteer Opportunities: Hands-On, Hard Work, and a Great Experience
Shelley Dawicki

INTERVIEW

Q&A: The Success Story of the Oregon Chub: An Interview with Paul Scheerer
Bob Hughes

ESSAYS AND FEATURES

Fishing Down Through the Food Web
Villy Christensen

Fishing Impacts on Food Webs: Multiple Working Hypotheses
Trevor A. Branch

Are We Catching What They Eat? Moving Beyond Trends in the Mean Trophic Level of CatchKonstantine J. Rountos, Michael G. Frisk, and Ellen K. Pikitch

Characterizing the Human Dimensions of a Hidden Fishery: Riverine Trotline Fishers
Benjamin D. Dickinson, Donald J. Orth, and Steve L. McMullin

Translating Climate Change Effects into Everyday Language: An Example of More Driving and Less Angling
Jefferson T. DeWeber and Tyler Wagner

Finding the Path to a Successful Graduate and Research Career: Advice for Early Career Researchers
Bryan M. Maitland, Steven J. Cooke, and Mark Poesch

… and more!

Cool Fish

Northern Snakehead Channa argus

There’s not much finesse involved. Leave your dry flies at home, and try not to think in terms like pocket water or drift. When you’re hunting snakeheads in a shallow, urbanized stream, it helps to cover a lot of ground quickly. This means walking up and down the streambank looking for that bullet-shaped body. You can’t miss it in water that’s only a couple feet deep….Read more.

From The Job Board

Annual Meeting

• Don’t miss the Annual Meeting field trips. Click here to sign up!
• Members are sharing rooms and rides on the MESSAGE BOARD. → Password: pterois
• Help for AFS Unit Leaders – Please contact John Boreman ([email protected]) if you need need help developing or amending unit bylaws and procedures, or running a meeting according to Robert’s Rules of Order.
• A free meeting app will be available for download prior to the meeting.
• Need help navigating Portland? Check out our Accommodations and Ground Transportationpages.

• Having a Hard Time Deciding on What To See?! Read What Not to Miss at the Annual Meeting (including the Most Unique Symposium): 5 Questions with Program Co-Chairs.

• Try This! Tweeting the Annual Meeting. With more than 3,500 fish and fisheries professionals converging at the Oregon Convention Center, live-tweeting is a way to connect with fellow attendees as well as those who couldn’t make it. Try capturing your 2015 Annual Meeting experience with Twitter….Read more.

Call For Papers / Proposals / Workshops / Awards

Ever Dreamed of Sailing the Seas?!

Pre-Proposals invited for research on the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s R/V Falkor in 2018. Expressions of Interests in collaborative research should be submitted by December 4, 2015. Click here for details!

BIG AWARD: Bureau of Reclamation to Award $20,000 for New Fish Tracking Ideas – Deadline:August 26. To submit your ideas, click here!

• 2nd Call for Abstracts – 7th WORLD FISHERIES CONGRESS – Click here for information on submitting abstracts. Deadline: August 15.
• 3rd International Muskellunge Symposium.
• 76th Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference.

POLICY / ADVOCACY / LAW

From the desk of the AFS Policy Director
(about Tom Bigford)

• AFS Presents to Interagency Working Group on Aquaculture

• AFS Invited to Special Listening Session on Funding Fish and Wildlife Programs

• AFS Joins Other Groups to Support a Bipartisan Budget Deal

• AFS Partners with State Coastal Managers to Address Natural Resource Issues

• AFS Partners with NAUFWP to Attract and Retain Bright Talent to Fisheries and Wildlife Programs

AFS Policy Fellowship Program Opportunity! AFS is now soliciting applications for the 2015 Fellowship, with a focus on updating the existing AFS policy on “Effects of Altered Steam Flow on Fishery Resources” (see fisheries.org/docs/policy_statements/policy_9s.pdf). Deadline: September 25.

• CANADA: Sockeye face “catastrophic” collapse in South Okanagan. Latest projection shows as low as 18,000 Sockeye expected to return to region.

• CANADA: Parks Canada recovery project flies trout from Sawback to Rainbow Lake.

• CANADA: Ontario researchers launch $5.6M Nunavut fishery project. “Our goal in collaboration with the communities, is to get sufficient fish, both Arctic char and Arctic cod and northern shrimp for the people of the communities.”

• CANADA: Whale entanglements in fishing gear increasing off B.C. coast.

• CANADA: Fishermen clean up “ghost gear” from Bay of Fundy. More than 1,000 abandoned traps, nets, and fishing lines have been hauled up from the bay in last 7 years.

• CANADA: B.C. weather linked to “unprecedented” rates of illness from raw oysters.

• CANADA: Cooke Aquaculture is expanding further in Scotland after buying a Shetland-based salmon producer.

• CANADA: Canada university nets $23m for salmon farming research. New research aims to reduce stress among fish, resulting in healthier salmon and lower costs to producers.

• INTERNATIONAL: Iceland blasts Arctic fishing moratorium. The agreement bans commercial fishing in the Arctic until more research is done on how global warming is affecting fish populations.

• INTERNATIONAL: El Niño expected to drive extreme weather around the world. In California, it might bring relief from a historic drought, while countries like Peru are bracing for calamitous flooding.

• SOUTH AMERICA: Chile’s salmon farmers are using record levels of antibiotics to treat bacteria, driving away some US retailers including Costco Wholesale Corp, which is turning to antibiotic-free Norwegian salmon.

• USA: The Obama administration released a list of the seafood it plans to track boat-to-plate as part of its crackdown on illegal fishing and seafood fraud.

• USA: NOAA appointed a new director of its Office of Law Enforcement.

• USA: Environmental groups are waging a battle against proposed guidelines that would give fishery managers more flexibility in rebuilding depleted fish stocks.

• USA: Florida: A new bill would stop NPS from creating a marine reserve off Miami and force the agency to gain approval from state agencies for any future no-fishing zones.

• USA: Oregon: Warm water has killed nearly half of the Sockeye Salmon making their way up the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest.

• USA: Oregon: FWS trucked more than 160,000 Chinook Salmon, mostly juveniles, out ofincreasingly warm waters in Oregon.

• VIETNAM: Rising salinity in the Mekong Delta is threatening aquaculture.

Spotlight on Members

AFS Member Robert Lackey on the Future of Salmon
Robert Lackey, professor of fisheries at Oregon State University in Corvallis, said the situation is dire, but salmon have proved resilient before, surviving a mega-drought in medieval Europe, for instance.”Their reproduction rates are very, very high. You take the dams out, and within a few years, salmon come back,” he said….Read more.

AFS Member Ethen Preston Receives the Ronald D. Liudahl Endowment
Preston grew up on a farm north of Tower City, N.D., learning his love for the outdoors. He is an avid hunter and fisherman. He is one of the founders and currently vice president of the American Fisheries Society Student Subunit at VSCU. His dream is …Read more.

HELP GROW OUR SOCIETY. When members share their success stories, other people want to join! Don’t be shy. Click here to send us information!

Unit News

• Need help with meetings and bylaws? Click here!
• Unit Help Needed? Contact Jasmine Sewell – [email protected]

Young Professional / Student News

STUDENT ANGLE: From Landlocked to Longlining: A Summer with Sharks Puts Stress into Perspective
Research experience can powerfully ignite students’ curiosity, expose them to potential career paths, and ultimately prepare them for the world of science. Unfortunately, as a biology undergraduate with a strong passion for marine science in the landlocked state of Tennessee, it is difficult to…Read more.

STUDENT ANGLE: Exploring the Wonders of the Arctic from a Lab Bench
Lab work is not for the faint of heart; it can be just as challenging as working in the elements. To answer questions about cortisol differences among populations, we first needed to extract cortisol, a known stress hormone, from Beluga Whale blubber. We had to develop new methods…Read more.

We are looking for volunteers to judge this year’s The Best Student Paper/Poster (BSP) Competition at the AFS conference in Portland. We have an excellent line-up of oral presentations and posters this year, each representing a lot of hard work by an eager student. If you are interested in serving in this capacity please reply via email to Matt Catalano at [email protected].

Students and Young Professionals – Submit Your News Online.

In Short

• New fish vaccination research gets cash injection.
• Whirling disease has been confirmed in Rainbow Trout collected from Watauga River, NC.
• Mix fish secretions with shrimp shells to make super sunscreen.
• Puget Sound Salmon Losing, Jellyfish Winning.
• Researchers Say These Fish Scales Could Be Prototype For Flexible New Body Armor.
**• Coryphopterus Curasub: A Fish Too Deep For Science.**
• Toxic Salmon Plague Could Treat Cancer.

STUDIES

Climate Change and Decadal Shifts in the Phenology of Larval Fishes in the California Current Ecosystem
In terrestrial ecosystems, earlier phenology (i.e., seasonal timing) is a hallmark organismal response to global warming. Less is known about marine phenological responses to climate change, especially in Eastern Boundary Current Upwelling (EBCU) ecosystems that generate >20% of fish catch. The phenology of 43 EBCU fish species was examined over 58 years; 39% of phenological events occurred earlier in recent decades, with faster changes than many terrestrial ecosystems. Zooplankton did not shift their phenology synchronously with most fishes. Fishes that aren’t changing their phenology synchronously with zooplankton may be subject to mismatches with prey, potentially leading to reduced recruitment to fisheries. Adjusting the timing of seasonal management …Read more.

Fishing Catch Research Pinpoints Best Assessment Method
Edith Cowan University researchers are working on tools to improve future fishing management and conservation by developing effective geostatistical methods with which to model the spatial distributions of recreational fishing catch rates. Natural resources modelling and simulation research group and centre for marine ecosystems researchers compared the accuracy of the three interpolation techniques known as indicator kriging (IK), Poisson kriging and ordinary kriging when working out recreational fishing catch rates.They used data from a 12 month Department of Fisheries survey of 2,977 boat-based recreational fishers who caught Australasian SnapperPagrus auratus, Baldchin Groper Choerodon rubescens, and the blue swimmer crab Portunus armartus….Read more.

Calendar / Important AFS Business News

Attention Certified Fisheries Professionals. If you were approved as FP-C in 2010, your certification will expire at the end of this year. Find the renewal application form at fisheries.org/application-forms.

If you want to be certified or renew your certification, you must be a member of the Society. Not a member? Contact us.

AFS August 16-20, 2015 – 145th Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society– Portland, Oregon

AFS Policy: August 16-19 – AFS’s special symposium on the 19 fish habitat partnerships that provide the framework for habitat protection and restoration work nationwide.

September 7-11, 2015 – 17th International Conference on Diseases of Fish and Shellfish – Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

September 7-11, 2015 – XV European Congress of Ichthyology – Porto, Portugal

AFS September 20-22, 2015 – 41st Annual Meeting of the Atlantic International Chapter of AFS – New Brunswick, Canada

October 11-14, 2015 – 5th International Symposium on Stock Enhancement and Sea Ranching (ISSESR) – Sydney, Australia

October 14-18, 2015 – The Second Mississippi-Yangtze River Basins Symposium – Wuhan, China

October 19-22, 2015 – North American Sturgeon and Paddlefish Society Annual Meeting – Oshkosh, Wisconsin

AFS Policy: November 8-12 – AFS / TCS special symposium on “Fish as Indicators of Coastal Watershed Health” at the CERF biennial meeting in Portland, OR. The multi-session event will showcase fisheries issues, AFS role, and connections with CERF and TCS.

November 10-12, 2016 – 2nd International Congress on Applied Ichthyology and Aquatic Environment – Mesolonghi, Greece

January 24-27, 2016 – 76th Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference – Grand Rapids, Michigan

AFS February 17-21, 2016 – AFS Southern Division Spring Meeting – Wheeling, West Virginia

May 21, 2016 – 2nd World Fish Migration Day

May 23-27, 2016 – 7th World Fisheries Congress – Busan, South Korea