American Fisheries Society Archives

Save the Date – Stakeholder Engagement Day, November 8 – American Fisheries Society, Baltimore, MD

August 12, 2021 — The following was released by the American Fisheries Society:

Monday, November 8, is Stakeholder Engagement Day at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society. This one-day event allows commercial and recreational fishing and aquaculture industry stakeholders to learn about relevant research, contribute to presentations and panel discussions, and attend an evening networking event with fisheries scientists and managers. Stakeholders who are interested in attending this part of the AFS Annual Meeting are invited to apply for a reduced one-day registration rate of $50 (reduced from the $380 full rate).

Online applications must be submitted by Friday, October 29. Applicants will be notified within two weeks of submission if their application for reduced registration has been approved based on their involvement with the commercial fishing, recreational fishing, or aquaculture industries, as well as their potential involvement with cooperative research or events for Stakeholder Engagement Day. Upon notification, successful applicants will be provided with additional information about Stakeholder Engagement Day. If your application is not approved, you may still attend the meeting at the standard registration rate.

Event Schedule

While daily schedules are under development, a preliminary list of the meeting’s symposia highlights the research that will be discussed at the full meeting.

Scientist-Industry Networking Event

Stakeholder Engagement Day attendees will be invited to attend a joint scientist-industry networking event following the meeting. This social will be co-sponsored by the American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists (AIFRB) and other partners. Please keep an eye on this webpage for additional details.

Sponsorship Opportunities

Some scientific and fishing organizations have generously offered financial or other (e.g., merchandise, seafood for networking event) support for Stakeholder Engagement Day to facilitate industry participation. Please reach out to our subcommittee co-chairs if your organization would like to contribute to the success of Stakeholder Engagement Day.

Contact Us

If you have any questions, or would like more information about opportunities to participate in panels, present on your fishery or collaborative research partnership, or potential financial assistance to support your attendance at the meeting, please contact one of the co-chairs (email contact info below) of our subcommittee on Stakeholder Engagement.

Sub-Committee on Stakeholder Engagement

Max Appelman (NOAA)
Dave Bard (NOAA Affiliate)
Mark Chandler (NOAA): mark.chandler@noaa.gov Co-Chair
Dr. Willy Goldsmith (American Saltwater Guides Association)
Catherine Krikstan (NOAA Affiliate)
David Sikorski (Coastal Conservation Association – Maryland)
Jeffrey Vieser (NOAA Affiliate): jeffrey.vieser@noaa.gov Co-Chair
Dr. Douglas Zemeckis (Rutgers University): zemeckis@njaes.rutgers.edu Co-Chair

Experts laud climate benefits of proposed US expansion offshore fish farming

July 19, 2021 — Earlier this month, the American Fisheries Society and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) presented a congressional briefing on developing marine aquaculture to build climate resistance and climate-friendly food production.

According to panelists, the world will need about 60 percent more food by the year 2050 in order to keep feeding a growing population, including 60 percent more animal protein by 2030.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NEW JERSEY: Aquaculture to take centre stage at Atlantic City event

August 16, 2018 — Aquaculture will be the main focus of this year’s meeting of the American Fisheries Society (AFS), with presentations on breeding, rearing, and harvesting of aquatic organisms in freshwater, brackish, and marine environments.

Some eight hours of the AFS event, which will take place in Atlantic City, New Jersey on 21-22 August, will be dedicated to exploring aquaculture policies, protections, and management.

“AFS has been a leader in the science, practice, and policy of aquaculture since our founding in 1870 as the American Fish Culturists’ Association. Aquaculture is a fundamental part of how we manage fisheries resources, recover imperiled species, and satisfy growing demand for seafood. The programming planned is a continuation of our members’ work to make aquaculture effective, efficient, and aligned with the principles of natural resource stewardship,” said incoming AFS President Dr Jesse Trushenski.

Globally, the shellfish aquaculture industry is experiencing a period of rapid growth. In 2014, US production of clams, oysters, and mussels exceeded 40 million pounds and was valued at $300 million. Shellfish aquaculture can be a source of sustainable seafood, an important contributor to local economies, and provide ecosystem benefits to the coastal environment. These sessions at the AFS annual meeting will provide a forum for discussing current aquaculture research and policy in the United States and abroad.

Dr Daphne Munroe, leading scientist at the Rutgers University Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, explains why this science is crucial: “As aquaculture continues to grow, it is important that science and data collection keep pace. We are learning more and more about how to monitor and manage aquaculture, and we must ensure that we develop data-informed policies, backed up by the best possible science if we want to foster sustainable growth. Conversations like the ones we will have at AFS are one way that we as researchers, put our science in the hands of policy-makers and managers.”

Read the full story at The Fish Site

CO2 Benefits the “Rats and Cockroaches” of Marine World

July 7, 2017 –Beneath the waves, swelling levels of carbon dioxide could be boosting some species to ecological dominance while dooming others.

A study published yesterday in Current Biology suggests ocean acidification is driving a cascading set of behavioral and environmental changes that drains oceans’ biodiversity. Niche species and intermediate predators suffer at the expense of a handful of aggressive species.

Sea-level rise and coral bleaching often dominate discussions about how climate change affects the ocean, but a host of more subtle—and harder to research—trends also play a role in reshaping the world’s marine ecosystems. Among the most pressing questions is how fish react to rising levels of CO₂, said Tom Bigford, policy director at the American Fisheries Society.

“The hurdles for behavioral changes are far lower than the hurdles for life and death,” said Bigford, who worked with fish habitats at NOAA for more than three decades.

Now, for the first time, researchers from the University of Adelaide in South Australia have cataloged the changing ways marine species interact with each other.

For three years, they observed marine environments near undersea volcanic vents where CO₂ levels are high—providing a window into the future acidity of ocean water—along with adjacent areas of normal acidity. They also conducted behavioral experiments on fish from the different zones to test their responses to food and habitat competition.

Receding kelp means less habitat for intermediate predators, with about half as many near the volcanic vents.

But the acidified conditions proved to be a boon to what the researchers called “the marine equivalent to rats and cockroaches”—small fish with low commercial or culinary value.

Read the full story at the Scientific American

Science offers solutions as well as problems, fisheries experts maintain

May 24, 2017 — While celebrating their 50th year of advancing fish science, members of the American Fisheries Society Montana Chapter gathered in Missoula worried that their public was wriggling off the hook.

“We tend to deliver a lot of wha-wha-wha, and then a blast of data,” AFS President Joe Magraf told about 400 biologists, fisheries managers and policy makers gathered at the group’s annual conference on Tuesday.

“We don’t express things well when talking to decisionmakers. The Clark Fork River was not a place you wanted to dip your toes into 50 years ago. Now it’s a great place to fish. That’s what fisheries biology is all about — creating places like Missoula.”

Looking back on that half-century of fisheries science, University of Montana Regents Professor Emeritus Fred Allendorf recalled how DNA analysis went from almost nonexistent to become a driving tool for biology.

It explains what happens, for example, when artificially stocked rainbow trout interbreed with native cutthroats in Montana streams. The first generation of mutts lose the cutthroats’ preference for sticking to the streams of their birth and instead spread to any water with good spawning habitat.

Subsequent generations produce babies that have even less cutthroat genetics, which contain the adaptive tricks cutthroats spent millennia developing to survive in mountain waters. Five generations down the line, the hybrids have lost 50 percent or more of their reproductive fitness. In other worlds, the unfit fish populations start to crash.

Allendorf said that scientific process nevertheless becomes controversial when it gets displayed as evolution. He cited public opinion surveys showing Americans ranked 33rd out of 34 developed nations for general acceptance of evolution theory, just above Turkey.

Read the full story at the Independent Record

Douglas Grout Elected New ASMFC Chair

November 4, 2015 — ST. AUGUSTINE, Fl. – The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Today, member states of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission acknowledged the many accomplishments of outgoing Chair, Dr. Louis B. Daniel of North Carolina and elected Douglas Grout as its new Chair.

In assuming the chairmanship, Mr. Grout spoke enthusiastically about his new position, “I am honored to be elected by my colleagues from the 15 Atlantic coast states, and pledge to uphold the trust they have placed in me as I serve my term chairing the Commission. Under my watch, I will work to lead the Commission responsibly through the many challenges inherent in managing our nation’s coastal fisheries. I look forward to working closely with the Commission’s management partners and will ensure the voices of our many stakeholders are heard.”

“My predecessor, Louis Daniel, has cemented his legacy as a champion of marine fisheries and a role model to those they support by guiding the Commission through two productive years that included major management decisions for two of the Atlantic coast’s most iconic species, Atlantic striped bass and Atlantic menhaden. Evidenced by the fact that a record number of Commission-managed fisheries are thriving, Louis never backed away from making tough decisions and always did what he believed to be the right thing. Under his leadership, the Commission transitioned smoothly through a period of major staff turnover, avoided an Endangered Species Act listing of American eel, and completed numerous benchmark stock assessments. In a tough fiscal environment, he also fought to provide the states with the resources they needed to get the job done.”

Mr. Grout currently serves as the Chief of the Marine Fisheries Division of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department where he has worked for over 30 years. He has been actively involved in the Commission process for many years, beginning in 1988 serving on the Management and Science Committee and numerous species technical committees. He received the Commission’s Award of Excellence in the Scientific/Technical/Advisory category in 2005. As a Commissioner, he has chaired the Northern Shrimp Section, the American Lobster Board, and most recently, the Atlantic Striped Bass Board. Mr. Grout received his M.S. and B.S. in Zoology from the University of New Hampshire and is an American Fisheries Society Certified Fisheries Scientist.

The Commission also elected James Gilmore from New York as its Vice-Chair.