The AFS Fish Culture Section is proud to sponsor the session “Getting it Right: Conservation Aquaculture for Recovery, Restoration and Supplementation” at the upcoming 154th Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society in Honolulu, HI. The session aims to build bridges between fisheries management and captive propagation communities of practice to ensure that efforts are maximized and conservation outcomes enhanced through conservation aquaculture efforts. Captive rearing is a common tool in fisheries and wildlife management, and applications include supporting recreational and harvest-based fishing; restoration and recovery of declining populations; and outreach and education. Implementation occurs via a variety of vectors: zoos, aquariums, hatcheries. Outcomes range from wild supplementation or release programs to refugia maintaining individuals or populations entirely in captivity. Despite the multi-faceted role that rearing programs play in management, wild populations exposed to captively-raised cohorts may experience altered performance and even transgenerational shifts in variation. Successful application relies on continued efforts to improve processes, protocols, and decision-making.
With varied objectives and emerging challenges, the captive-rearing community must apply rapidly advancing technologies and techniques to meet goals and targets that are often moving while also supporting interests of stakeholders across the conservation spectrum and ensuring the health and persistence of fish and wildlife communities.
We ask that authors submit papers relating to one or more of the following topics:
- Descriptions of advancements in genetic management and techniques fostering improved outcomes.
- Descriptions of means to enhance or enrich captive environments that lead to shifts in performance.
- Strategies or tactics to acclimatize individuals or populations either for release into the wild or for introduction to captivity.
- Strategies or tactics to reduce domestication of captive animals.
- Efforts to target fitness or improve performance in wild release or supplementation programs.
- Means to manage, diagnose, treat, or prevent disease outbreaks and pathogen exchange.
- Emerging methods for monitoring and evaluation of released individuals in the wild.
Organizer: Taylor Lipscomb, US Fish and Wildlife Service, [email protected]
Co-organizer: Nate Wilke
Supported by: AFS Fish Culture Section