154th Annual Meeting

Globally, recreational fishing is a socially and economically important activity but also affects fish stocks and aquatic environments. Therefore, robust recreational fisheries data are required to support sustainable management of fish stocks and aquatic ecosystems. Technological progress and digitization have led to the development of novel data collection methods such as internet scraping, internet search volume, social/online listening, georeferenced photographs, remote cameras, boat/car counters, drones, smartphone applications (apps), and citizen science approaches. These novel methods can yield valuable recreational fishing data on participation, effort, catch, lethal and sublethal impacts of catch-and-release fishing, angler behavior, and social and/or economic value that could be used to support fisheries management and complement more conventional data collection methods. We welcome presentations on (i) the development and evaluation of novel data collection methods, (ii) comparisons to traditional methods, and (iii) the exploration of opportunities and limitations associated with these novel methods.

Organizer: Simon Weltersbach, Thünen Institute of Baltic Sea Fisheries, [email protected]

Co-organizers: Kieran Hyder, Christian Skov, Aaron Muehler, Paul Venturelli, Paton Willbanks

Supported by: Thünen Institute of Baltic Sea Fisheries (DE), Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (UK), Technical University of Denmark – National Institute of Aquatic Resources (DK)

Establishing quantitative criteria for environmental flows—water needed to sustain biodiversity and the services that healthy freshwater ecosystems support—is essential to reversing worldwide trends in freshwater ecosystem degradation. Yet, environmental flow programs tend to be narrowly focused on the habitat needs of threatened and endangered species. Flow programs are also often limited in spatial scale and may not address the watershed processes that control habitat or population dynamics across the ecological gradients present in rivers and estuaries. This session aims to highlight novel research around the functions, values, and methods to support environmental flows in rivers and estuaries. We are interested in presentations of case-studies, field-based investigations, and modeling applications that explore the effects of flow management interventions on ecosystem functions and consequences for species of interest, other indicators of ecosystem health, and ecosystem services and values.

Organizer: Joshua Israel, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, [email protected]

Co-organizers: Ted Grantham, Joshua Israel

The 6th Mississippi-Yangtze River Basin Symposium (MYRIBS) focuses on the conservation and management of the Yangtze and Mississippi River basins and their respective aquatic resources are hereby encouraged, as well as presentations on studies of other large (i.e., boatable) rivers and their tributaries, and lakes or lake basins in the United States and China, and throughout the world.

We invite presenters working on a broad array of topics including:

• Large river or lake fish ecology and management, mussel and crayfish conservation,
• Non-native species,
• Tools and techniques for sampling rivers and lakes,
• River restoration success and failures, balancing multiple uses of rivers and lakes,
• Long-term monitoring programs,
• Instream flows and hydropower,
• Commercial and recreational fisheries,
• Watershed approaches to river or lake basin management,
• Conservation planning of river networks or lake basins,
• Ecosystem services of rivers and lakes,
• River and lake science and policy, and others.

Organizer: Yushun Chen, Institute of Hydrobiology Chinese Academy of Sciences, [email protected]

Co-organizers: Michael Eggleton, Dana Infante, Patrick Kroboth, Jim Lamer, Michael Moore

Supported by: American Fisheries Society, China Society of Fisheries

The art of science is its ability to translate across cultural barriers. Science literacy has stayed stable over the past 20 years despite increased modes to provide access to science. Incorporating and elevating voices from communities and cultures outside of the traditional presentation of western science allows understanding of the natural world from a holistic perspective. This session welcomes alternative presentations of knowledge through various forms of artistic expression related to fisheries, aquatic ecosystems, and fish conservation. This includes poetry, films, art, photography, music, etc. The goal is to highlight the art of variation through storytelling and presenting information centering on fish conservation and fishing practices while encouraging scientists to think outside the box of traditional, data-heavy PowerPoint presentations, and share their knowledge incorporating creative artistic expression. These types of presentations are essential to sharing and understanding science because it allows scientists to communicate science more effectively to “non-science” communities.

Organizer: Gabriella Moreno, USFWS, [email protected]

Co-organizer: Natasha Wingerter

Supported by: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Red Bluff Fish and Wildlife Office 

Total commercial catches of Pacific salmon by all countries are at historic high levels yet there are ominous signs of a declining abundance. Total Pacific salmon catches by Canada in the past five years are annually less than 10% of the catches from 1970 to 2000. Total commercial catches of Chum Salmon in Japan have declined about 70% of the maximum catches in the 1990s and are back almost to levels before the major expansion into hatchery production in the 1970s. Total commercial catches and escapements of Chum Salmon by all countries are also declining in recent years. In 2020 and 2022, there were unprecedented and unexpected even-year collapses of total commercial catches of salmon by all countries. By the time of the Annual Meeting, it will be known if another even-year collapse occurred in 2024. The average sizes of Pacific salmon are also declining throughout their distributions. Papers will review recent population changes for species of Pacific salmon and consider how to improve the scientific understanding of how a changing climate is affecting production.

Organizer: Richard Beamish, TAFS, [email protected]

Supported by: American Institute of Fisheries Research Biologists

This symposium will highlight the research being conducted within each of the Chapters throughout the Western Division.

Organizer: Laurie Earley, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service / Western Division AFS, [email protected]

Supported by: Western Division AFS

Fisheries resources face numerous threats, including overfishing, habitat degradation, and climate-related changes. Accurately characterizing spatiotemporal distributions and status of these populations is crucial for sustainable fisheries management and ecological conservation. This symposium, organized by leading experts in the field, aims to address these challenges by exploring innovative approaches and technologies for visual fisheries surveys, including the potential of uncrewed data collection systems and artificial intelligence to revolutionize the field. Presentations are invited on topics that reflect recent improvements in survey design, technological advancements, and novel analytical approaches and applications of resultant data. We bring together a diverse group of national and international experts to identify common challenges and recommend transformative solutions that enhance the accuracy, precision, efficiency, and applicability of visual surveys of fish populations. These advancements not only support sustainable fisheries and the emerging blue economy, but also improve our understanding of fisheries ecology under increasingly severe environmental threats.

Organizer: Theodore Switzer, FWC – FWRI, [email protected]

Co-organizers: Matthew Campbell, Kresimir Williams, Benjamin Richards, Nathan Bacheler, Brian Gervelis, Jason Morson, Chris Rillahan, Douglas Zemeckis

This session focuses on current efforts to engage fisheries in the prevention and reduction of marine debris. Specifically, this session will highlight marine debris investments in the National Sea Grant Office by featuring five Bipartisan Infrastructure Law- and Inflation Reduction Act-funded projects across the US. These projects engage community volunteers, students, and fishers in removing fishery-mediated marine debris. Several of these projects also work to upcycle this marine debris into art, bags, roads, and other uses to spark awareness of the issue and build a circular economy.

Organizer: Madison Willert, NOAA Sea Grant, [email protected]

Supported by: National Sea Grant College Program

In coastal fisheries, the design, development, and implementation of fishery management actions can be challenging. Each unique fishery setting has diverse characteristics – such as existing management frameworks, cultural connections and traditional practices, and degree of stakeholder engagement – that influence the process of engaging community members in setting up management actions that are appropriate for the suite of harvested species and can be realistically enforced. This symposium session seeks to bring together community members, scientists, managers and other fisheries practitioners who are working on the design and implementation of community-led fisheries management actions or regulations. We encourage presenters to share experiences and lessons from applied, real settings. Although this may include all aspects of fisheries management, from collecting data to assessing stock status, an emphasis will be placed on tools and approaches that have been used to integrate local knowledge in the design of management actions and direct community member involvement.

Organizer: Serena Lomonico, The Nature Conservancy, [email protected]

Co-organizers: Eric Conklin, Rebecca Most, Peyton Moore, Ulu Ching, Amber Datta

Supported by: The Nature Conservancy, Nature Analytics, Conservation International

Our waterways are relentlessly affected by pollution throughout the year – from industrial waste to mining runoff to agricultural pollution and oil spills, all exacerbated by global warming. When toxins enter lakes, rivers, oceans, or groundwater, water quality and aquatic life suffers. Evaluating water quality is straightforward, but unraveling the complex toxicology based mechanisms behind fish kills, disease outbreaks, and population declines is challenging. This symposium will explore observational and experimental studies tackling these complex aquatic toxicology issues and welcomes studies that move beyond developing water quality criteria to explore physiological impacts of toxicants on fish. We encourage presentations addressing key fisheries and conservation management questions with direct, actionable science.

Organizer: Tawni Riepe, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, [email protected]