154th Annual Meeting

Multiple analytical tools are now available to incorporate spatially explicit habitat, movement, and mortality into models to understand the drivers of species distributions and test the effects of different management actions and/or climate change on fish distributions and population abundances. Furthermore, the amount of spatially explicit fisheries data and associated environmental covariate data will continue to increase as technology advances. Thus, it is important that spatially explicit analytical methods also continue to develop so we can find an appropriate balance between model complexity and model fit over different spatial scales and in different types of ecosystems (e.g., oceans, lakes, rivers, etc.). We intend this symposium to include presentations that have incorporated space into analyses of fish and fisheries data or have investigated how accounting for space affects outcomes. We welcome talks that describe analyses of fisheries catch data, fish telemetry data, and the processes related to fish distributions.

Organizer: Mark Henderson, U.S. Geological Survey–Vermont Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, [email protected]

Co-organizers: Jordan Massie, Matthew Futia

Indigenous communities in and around the Pacific, including Kanaka Maoli, First Nations, Native Americans, Māori, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Ryūkyūan, and additional Pacific Peoples, are united by deep, long-standing relationships with the ocean, but face common challenges when managing coastal fisheries due to globalization, colonialism, and climate change. This session aims to foster solidarity and collaboration among fishers, practitioners, and researchers from these communities and their allies. We invite participants to share examples and strategies for successful Indigenous-led fisheries stewardship while navigating contemporary, often non-traditional and externally imposed systems of power and influence. This hybrid session welcomes diverse contributions, including oral presentations, poetry, and artwork, to encourage broad engagement and celebrate multiple forms of knowledge dissemination. Emphasizing Indigenous and Pacific community representation, the event seeks to provide a platform for sharing knowledge and building connections to support sustainable coastal fisheries across the Pacific.

Organizer: Sara Cannon, University of British Columbia, [email protected]

Co-organizers: Nakoa Goo, Niegel Rozet, Magul Rulmal, Colton Van Der Minne, Amber Datta, Nicole Crane, Kalena Kattil-deBrum

Supported by: Centre for Indigenous Fisheries at the University of British Columbia Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, One People One Reef, Kua’āina Ulu ’Auamo, AFS International Fisheries Section

Effective fisheries management in the Anthropocene requires contributions from multiple knowledge sources, ways of knowing and perspectives. This session will showcase the transformative potential of interweaving Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and genomic data for fisheries management. TEK encompasses a collection of insights from diverse sources and perspectives, built on long histories of observation. Genetic/genomic approaches have become essential tools for assessing diversity and structure of fish populations, elucidating the genetic underpinnings of key traits, and monitoring natural and captive productions. In this session, we welcome contributions from researchers and practitioners from Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities which showcase studies on (1) the development and application of genetic/genomic tools for sustainable fisheries and (2) interweaving of knowledge systems to support fisheries stewardship. The session will conclude with a panel discussion to reflect and identify opportunities and good practices to interweave TEK with genetic/genomic approaches for fisheries conservation and management.

Organizer: Andrew Kinziger, [email protected]

Co-organizers: Sozos Michaelides, John Carlos Garza, Thais Bernos, Anne Beemelmanns

Understanding the risk to fish populations associated with changing river hydrographs in light of climate change, hydropower operations, changes in water availability, etc., requires a multifaceted analytical approach making use of a combination of biological studies, and biological and hydrological models. This session is designed to further discussion on how to integrate assessment methods to understand current or future risk to populations and species associated with future changes in river hydrographs.

Organizer: Audrey Thompson, Klein Schmidt Group, [email protected]

Supported by: Kleinschmidt Associates

NOAA Fisheries is working with scientists, tribal nations and other community members to restore habitats and fish species via Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) investments. At this session, tribal and community partners will share how their traditional knowledge and practices—together with the NOAA investments—help achieve their science and restoration goals. We will conclude with a panel to facilitate conversations around lessons learned and ways to build project ideas into future restoration and scientific actions.

Organizer: Laurel Jennings, NOAA NMFS Restoration Center, [email protected]

Co-organizers: Anna Kagley, Larissa Lee, Erika Ammann, Lani Watson, Regina Southworth

Supported by: NOAA Fisheries

The knowledge co-production broadens the net cast when establishing what is valued and ultimately how fisheries are managed. Purposeful engagement with fishing communities allows for a critical evaluation of the effectiveness of a management process as well as establishing how a resource should be valued when exploring management options. The focus of this session is to explore how stakeholder engagement within the MSE process has evolved over time as a result of previous lessons learned and shared. Contributions related to 1) engagement aimed at, and accounting for different needs, interests, and beliefs, 2) how stakeholder input impacts the metrics used to evaluate the effectiveness of management strategies, 3) how less quantifiable metric of value are accounted for, and 4) processes used to disseminate information and connect stakeholders. Through interactive discussion, the session aims to identify how the MSE process can be further refined to ensure knowledge co-production is captured and integrated in meaningful ways into the MSE process.

Organizer: Robert Ahrens, NOAA Fisheries, [email protected]

Co-organizers: Howard Townsend, Desiree Tommasi

Supported by: NOAA

As part of fisheries governance initiatives, conservation measures such as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and seasonal closures have been deployed as important management strategies in the rebuilding of depleted marine fish stock. Whilst there is limited knowledge on MPAs in Africa despite its global popularity as an important marine conservation initiative, other measures such as closed seasons are key fisheries management procedures aimed at helping protect fish stocks and increase their population in most coastal countries in Africa. This panel presents narratives on marine conservation initiatives in Africa focusing on the implementation of closed fishing season and marine protected areas (MPAs). This section interrogate the role of local knowledge in fishery conservation initiatives such as closed fishing season and MPAs and how such conservation initiative  improve coastal livelihoods, marine governance and sustainability.

Organizer: Victor Owusu, University of Education, Winneba, [email protected]

Co-organizer: Moses Adjei

A number of large MPAs in the open ocean have been established and more are planned.  This session will address what is known about the consequences of these closed areas, in terms of changes in the marine ecosystem, impacts on fisheries, and impacts on local communities.  There will also be a focus on the methodology needed to estimate the impacts, in particular what constitutes a control.  We anticipate papers will be presented evaluating existing examples, and model based evaluations of the potential impacts.  

Organizer: Ray Hilborn, University of  Washington, [email protected]

Supported by: Western Pacific Fisheries Management Council

Lateral line depigmentation (LLD) has been described using a variety of terms, including hole in the head disease and head and lateral line erosion, and has been documented in many species of marine fishes, particularly ornamental fish in captivity. Few instances of LLD have been reported in freshwater fishes, however in recent years LLD has been documented in trout, char, and salmon in North American hatcheries. The etiology of this syndrome remains a mystery in freshwater fishes. In this session we will explore this syndrome as it applies to salmonids in culture, including presentation, diagnostics, avenues of investigation, potential causes, and implications for fish health and fitness.

Organizer: Marika Kirstin Gale, Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC, [email protected]

Supported by: Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC

Achieving sustainable fisheries requires operational methods of monitoring and multiple ways of understanding fish reproductive potential in light of climate dynamics and a variety of anthropogenic factors. This session will showcase some of the challenges to assessing fish reproduction, what we have learned and how we can move forward to incorporate these lessons learned into sustainable actions. Striving for a fuller understanding of the reproduction of fishes includes incorporating multiple knowledge sources including but not limited to: fisher knowledge or support, multiple technical methods (i.e. macroscopic, histological assessment, or observations), environmental interactions, and fish behavior. A major focus will be on how we continue to improve our methods and continue to improve collaborative information gathering across multiple knowledge sources to meet fisheries management needs. This session will be inclusive and a place for fishers, students, scientists, or fishery managers to share lessons learned and ways forward.

Organizer: Eva Schemmel, NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, [email protected]

Co-organizer: Erin Reed

Supported by: NOAA