154th Annual Meeting

Anthropogenic changes to the landscape and climate require fisheries managers to employ flexible and adaptive management strategies ensuring continued resource availability. Introduced and invasive species management has embraced flexibility, adaptation, and innovation out of necessity as new species of concern emerge, novel technologies are developed, and habitat is modified. Introduced and invasive species management can offer a wealth of examples and strategies for how other fisheries managers can ensure resilience in their systems in the face of changing climatic conditions. The Introduced and Invasive Species Section invites submissions to this symposium that highlight how introduced and invasive species management is adapting to climate change with the use of novel management strategies, models, innovations, and collaborations.

Organizer: Alison Coulter, South Dakota State University, [email protected]

Co-organizers: Nathan Lederman, Marybeth Brey, Wesley Daniel, Seth Love

Supported by: AFS Introduced and Invasive Species Section

Understanding how fish populations and their habitats respond and adapt to global change has become a fundamental challenge. With rapidly increasing data volume and expanding spatio-temporal extents of conservation and management problems, the role of advanced statistical methods for making valid inferences and predictions is more important than ever. Even in a world dominated by artificial intelligence, advanced statistical methods that account for multiple sources of uncertainty and spatio-temporal dependencies are critical tools for meeting the increasingly complex problems driven by global change. This symposium is designed to highlight applications of advanced spatio-temporal statistical methods to advance understanding of fisheries conservation and management. Presentations will focus on pressing topics, including accounting for sample design (inferences under preferential sampling), extrapolation of species abundance and distributions, spatio-temporal modeling of streamflow, and the relevance and role of statistical methods in the context of artificial intelligence development to address fisheries management and conservation questions.

Organizer: Tyler Wagner, United States Geological Survey, [email protected]

Co-organizers: Tyler Wagner, Gretchen Hansen, Erin Schliep, Christopher Wikle

The effects of fishing pressure, habitat loss and alterations, and climate change on fish populations can negatively impact fishing communities, coastal economies, culturally important resources, and world food supplies. In general, fisheries monitoring is a time-consuming manual process involving large data sets prone to human error. State and federal agencies as well as non-government entities have been interested in advanced technological solutions to enhance current fisheries monitoring capabilities. Although much work has been done in these areas, development of such systems has shown limited success. This symposium will bring together colleagues to present their current work, culminating in a panel to discuss advancements in the field and various applications. Presentations may also include community collaborations and integration of these technologies with cultural practices. The intent is to provide a forum to build collaborations that further develop and refine these technologies for more effective wide-ranging applications.

Organizer: Robert Vincent, MIT Sea Grant, [email protected]

Co-organizers: John Sheppard, Meghna Marjadi

Supported by: MIT Sea Grant, MA Division of Marine Fisheries, MIT CSAIL, Woodwell Climate Research Center, Northeastern University, UMass, Mystic River Watershed Association, Ipswich River Watershed Association, National Park Service, TNC, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe

Understanding the life processes of aquatic organisms and their responses to changes in their environment presents numerous challenges to fisheries science and the management of fish populations. Advances in quantitative methods are needed to transmute information from data into knowledge and infer the biological, ecological, environmental, and anthropogenic processes that generate observed data, while accurately characterizing uncertainty. Innovations in quantitative methods improve the return on investments in technology and data, expand insight into critical ecological processes and help quantify what we do not know. This symposium will highlight recent developments in quantitative methods that help advance the field of fisheries by providing novel solutions to complex and challenging problems. We will focus on research in mathematics, statistics, probability, artificial intelligence, and computation with applications to fisheries science and management, and with emphasis on novel and creative development of quantitative methods to help solve challenging problems.

Organizer: James Faulkner, NOAA Fisheries, [email protected]

Co-organizers: Dalton Hance, Adam Pope

Supported by: NOAA Fisheries, USGS, Bonneville Power Administration

There are few fisheries that do not catch sharks accidentally. Estimates suggest millions of sharks are caught as bycatch each year worldwide, consequently hampering population rebuilding plans. Bycatch represents a global problem that demands local solutions. The shark repellent industry has grown substantially in the 21st century. For example, earlier studies of electrosensory bycatch reduction devices using either magnets or electropositive metals produced mixed results. Newer technologies, such as microprocessor-based systems, show promising results in reducing shark interactions in fisheries. Currently, the market offers five main types of shark deterrents: (1) magnetic repellents, (2) electric repellents, (3) sound repellents, (4) semiochemical repellents, and (5) visual repellents. This symposium will showcase research evaluating efficacy of devices and tools designed to minimize unintended capture of elasmobranchs. We particularly seek presentations on cooperative research between scientists and fishers and “co-production of knowledge.”

Organizer: Sara Mirabilio, North Carolina Sea Grant, [email protected]

Co-organizer: John Mohan

This symposium will focus on the various types of acoustic sonar technologies, novel applications, and recent advancements that have enhanced efficiency. Presentations will be dedicated to discussing new techniques that will allow fishery biologists to conduct noninvasive surveys and effectively sample large volumes of water with minimal disturbance. We will highlight the use of recreational-grade systems and discuss how those types of systems are increasingly being used to estimate fish abundance. The symposium will also address many key challenges associated with sonar uses and how researchers are coming up with new effective ways to implement sonar technology, including uses of image processing algorithms and artificial intelligence to minimize manual processing time.

Organizer: Robin Calfee, Columbia Environmental Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Columbia, MO, [email protected]

Co-organizers: Josey Ridgway, David Kazyak, Jesse Fischer, Jose Rivera, Aaron Cupp

Supported by: US Geological Survey

Amphidromous post-larval fisheries are unique and globally widespread. Despite this, they have remained largely unknown to fisheries science. Due to being data deficient, many amphidromous post-larval fisheries have been labelled as highly unsustainable regardless of whether that is the case. Furthermore, there is a wealth of traditional knowledge held by indigenous practitioners that could help inform management decisions. This special session will bring together researchers, traditional practitioners, and managers from around the world with the goal of exchanging knowledge and presenting on topics including, but not limited to, conservation, management, traditional knowledge, fishing methods and technologies. This session will bring together different case studies to reimagine what amphidromous post-larval fisheries management looks like and how to incorporate traditional knowledge into management plans.

Organizer: Andrew Watson, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, [email protected]

Co-organizers: Yinphan Tsang, Mike Hickford, Gerry Closs, David Schiel

Supported by: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research

Recently, there have been numerous publications of animal movement and migration models which span the gamut of cognitive behavior models to statistical approaches dealing with either a single species, or the entire trophic web, layered on underlying physical models ranging from high-resolution computational fluid dynamics models of small domains to large-scale systemwide hydrologic models. What are the roles of these differing models within a water management and ecological stewardship landscape? What are their assumptions and limitations? Is there any cross-pollination of ideas across these models possible? Through a series of talks followed by a panel discussion, this session will explore ideas for collaborative knowledge co-production on how to use these models for water management under changing climate conditions.

Organizer: Vamsi Krishna Sridharan, Tetra Tech, [email protected]

Supported by: NMFS, ERDC, USGS, Tetra Tech

This symposium explores the transformative impact of satellite remote sensing (RS) technology on fisheries assessment and management. Presentations showcase innovative applications of satellite RS in understanding fish populations, mapping habitats, and informing decision-making processes. Key topics include techniques for mapping fish habitats, monitoring population dynamics, and integrating satellite RS data with traditional fisheries management strategies. Case studies highlight successful applications of satellite RS across different ecosystems, offering insights into challenges, opportunities, and future directions for research and application. Aimed at researchers, policymakers, fisheries managers, and industry stakeholders, this symposium provides a vital forum for advancing our understanding of satellite RS in fisheries assessment and management.

Organizer: Jessica Burnett, NASA, [email protected]

Co-organizers: Nima Pahlevan

Supported by: NASA

The field of fisheries science has grown considerably in the past half century. However, the human aspect of fisheries management is often understudied. While great strides have been made in understanding fish populations, fisheries ultimately manage people, not fish. Social sciences help illuminate the complex human dimensions of fisheries, from individual decision-making to community resilience. The application of social sciences in fisheries is crucial for successful sustainable management of fisheries. This session invites social scientists to share recent advancements in the fisheries realm, including but not limited to the fields of: sociology, economics, policy, psychology, and interdisciplinary research. We encourage a diversity of presentations to showcase the different ways in which social sciences are applied in fisheries. The goal of this symposium is to provide a platform for social scientists to share and learn from one another, and to highlight the importance of social sciences in understanding fisheries and management.

Organizer: Gabriella Marafino, NOAA, [email protected]

Co-organizers: Jaeheon Kim, Chelsey Crandall, Mackenzie Mazur

Supported by: AFS Socioeconomics Section