Theme Days

Thursday, September 17: Student and Early Career Professional Day

Preparing future scientists of fisheries: how to become a more a-lure-ing candidate

Hosted by the Student and Early Career Professionals Subsection

Updated: Thursday, August 6, 2020

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Registered attendees: See the daily schedule to add theme day events to your schedule (click the plus signs).
Links to join live events will be visible to registered attendees on the page for each session shortly before the session begins.

Twitter hashtag: ##AFS_StudentECPDay

Slack channel: #theme_day_sep17_student_and_ecp

This workshop is meant to develop some of the skills that students and early career professionals have identified as lacking in traditional curriculums so that we can better prepare our members for a career in fisheries. The workshop will be divided into three sections: (1) the speaker panel on Thursday, September 17th from 10 am to 5:10 pm EDT where professionals from various fisheries career paths within government, academia, and NGOs identify skillsets needed, what employers look for, demands of the career, and tips for success, (2) CV critiques, and (3) mock interviews which will be available throughout the conference.

Mock interviews and CV critiques being offered are designed to help prepare students and early career professionals for a career in fisheries with help of fisheries professionals. Participants will be able to apply for a mock job posting (technician position, graduate assistantship, post doc, state biologist, NGO project manager, or assistant professor) which they can tailor their CV to and/or prepare an interview for. General questions will be asked during the interview, so no skill-based experience is necessary to participate! We ask that participants email us at afsstudent@gmail.com with their resume/CV by 5:00 pm EDT August 14th, 2020 to sign up for a CV critique and/or mock interview. In your email, please include which job posting you would like to be interviewed for (job postings found below) and your availability during September. The bulk of the interviews are planned to be scheduled during the two weeks of the conference (September 14th-25th), however we can work around the interviewee’s/interviewer’s schedules. Interviews will be scheduled by August 21st. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please email us at afsstudent@gmail.com.

Mock interview and CV critique positions:

• Assistantship posting
• Asst Prof posting
• Biologist posting
• NGO posting
• Postdoc posting
• Tech position posting

Workshop Schedule[su_spacer]

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• Introduction to workshop
• Careers Workshop
  • Federal/State Government – University Partnership Programs (10:00 a.m. – 11:25 a.m. EDT)
    • Donna Parrish, USGS Vermont Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
    • Pat Mazik, USGS West Virginia Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
    • Gayle Zydlewski, Sea Grant
    • Discussion and panel questions
  • Government: State and Federal U.S. and Canadian (11:35 a.m. – 1:35 p.m. EDT)
    • Rowshyra A. Castañeda, Great Lakes Laboratory for Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences/Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO)
    • Rebecca Krogman, Iowa Department of Natural Resources
    • April Croxton, NOAA Fisheries
    • Zach Penney, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission
    • Jay Hesse, Nez Perce Tribe’s Department of Fisheries Resources Management
    • Discussion and panel questions
  • Non-Governmental (2:35 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. EDT)
    • Austin Happel, Daniel P. Haerther Center for Conservation and Research, John G. Shedd Aquarium
    • Molly Payne Wynne, The Nature Conservancy
    • Laura Miller, Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions
    • Discussion and panel questions
• Student and Early Career Subsection Business Meeting (4:10 p.m. – 5:10 p.m. EDT)
  • • Student Awards Presentations
• Student Networking Event (6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. EDT)

Escape Room

The AFS Virtual Escape Room is designed to submerse participants into the fisheries world during these virtual and socially distant times. There are 8 multi-level adventures to be completed while racing the clock! These challenges address a wide array of fishery disciplines and experience. Roughly an hour to an hour and a half should be allotted to completing the escape room.

Students and Early Career Professionals will be paired with other participants and given their own video platform to communicate effectively to complete the escape room. Other participants are encouraged but will simply receive the link to the escape room and are expected to provide their own platform and participants.

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Friday, September 18: Climate Change

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Registered attendees: See the event page to add this event to your schedule (click the plus signs).
A link to join this live event will be visible to registered attendees on the event page shortly before the session begins.

Twitter hashtags:  #AFS_ClimateDay and #SaveOurFishClimateStatement

Slack channel: #theme_day_sep18_climate_change

CLIMATE DAY
Friday, September 18, 2020
1-3 pm EDT

 WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION  

 EDUCATION: Communication to inspire action

• Climate Communication Best Practices
• Climate Ambassador Program Launch
• Students’ Outreach Projects
  • Announcing Competition for Outreach Materials
  • Kahoot Climate Game – Test your knowledge!

POLICY: From Science to Action

• Aquatic Scientific Society Climate Statement
• Proposed AFS Policy Recommendations
• Congressional Landscape and Conservation Community Engagement

SCIENCE: Research Agendas for Climate Change

• Current Landscape of Fisheries Science and Climate Change
• Key Steps For Climate-Informed Fisheries Management
• Climate Panel Q & A

CLOSING STATEMENT

Monday, September 21: British/European Fisheries

[su_button url=”https://afs.confex.com/afs/2020/meetingapp.cgi/Session/9665″ target=”blank” style=”flat” background=”#145593″ color=”#ffffff” size=”10″ center=”yes”]Event page[/su_button][su_spacer]

Registered attendees: See the event page to add this to your schedule (click the plus sign).
The link to join the live session will be visible to registered attendees on the event page shortly before the session begins.

Twitter hashtag: #AFS_UK+EuropeDay

Slack channel: #theme_day_sep21_uk_and_europe

• Gary Carvalho, President, Fisheries Society of the British Isles, and Research Professor of Molecular Ecology at Bangor University
• Jann Martinsohn, Head of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector, European Commission Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy
• Robert Arlinghaus, Professor of Integrative Fisheries Management, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Humboldt University, Berlin

Threats and opportunities for sustainability in marine fisheries: a European perspective[su_spacer]

Gary Carvalho is Research Professor of Molecular Ecology, based in the Molecular Ecology and Fisheries Genetics Laboratory, Bangor University, UK, and held former positions at Swansea and Hull Universities, UK. He is currently President of the Fisheries Society of the British Isles, member of the Advisory Group to the IUCN Species Survival Commission Specialist Group on Conservation Genetics, member of the Evidence Advisory Group, Natural Resources Wales, and recent Chair of the ICES Working Group on Application of Genetics in Fisheries and Aquaculture. He has aimed throughout to render genetic concepts and tools more accessible to marine wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture managers, environmental and conservation biologists. Contributions in particular have been to the demography and population structure of wild fish populations by applying molecular genetic approaches. Many studies have dispelled long-held beliefs depicting marine fishes as comprising large, unstructured populations that are slow to react to environmental pressures and exploitation. For example, his work on European anchovies, Atlantic Cod, and Atlantic Herring showed fine scale population structure, that have immediate and important application for the management of the species. Projects on New Zealand snapper, guppies, and cod revealed rapid genetic changes in exploited populations and remain the most cited articles demonstrating rapid evolution in overexploited stocks. Carvalho received the Beverton Medal in 2018 for groundbreaking research in fish and fisheries science. In addition to research, he has taught population genetics and evolution in the context of natural resource management for 30+ years, and was co-convener of the first ICES training course to focus on utility of genetics in fisheries and aquaculture held last year in Portugal. He is a current Editor of Fish and Fisheries and the Proceedings of the Royal Society, London, B.

Scientific Advice to the Common Fisheries Policy of the European Union: A Square Peg in a Round Hole?[su_spacer]

Jann Martinsohn is Head (f.f.) of the Water and Marine Resources Unit at the European Commission Joint Research Centre. He and his team focus on scientific advice to European Union (EU) freshwater and marine policies and governance. He contributes in particular to the Common Fisheries Policy and the EU Blue Growth Strategy. His specific interest is to contribute to the European Union Common Fisheries Policy, the Blue Growth Strategy and the introduction of genetic and genomic approaches to marine conservation as well as fisheries and aquaculture management.

After two years of civil service, working as a rescue driver and paramedic and providing individual care for severely disabled people, Jann studied molecular biology specializing in immuno- and evolutionary genetics. He also graduated in marine science while living in New Zealand, where he studied at the “southernmost university of the world” and worked on a deep sea trawler targeting orange roughy, black dory and hoki around the Southern island. Jann holds a diploma in marine science (University of Otago, New Zealand) and a Ph.D. in immunogenetics (University of Cologne , Germany). He was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow in Miroslav Radman’s department of Evolutionary and Medical Genetics at the research faculty of Necker-Enfants Malades (Paris, France), where he worked on in-vivo directed evolution.

Jann has co-organised international conferences, has been steering committee member of acclaimed projects, contributed to FAO fisheries groups as well as scientific support to the European Commission and the European Parliament, and is elected chair of the Working Group on Applied Genetics for Fisheries and Aquaculture (WGAGFA) under the remit of the International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES).

Key challenges for recreational fisheries in central Europe[su_spacer]

Photo by IGB/David Ausserhofer

Latin America Theme Day: September 22, 2020 1-3 pm (EDT)

[su_button url=”https://afs.confex.com/afs/2020/meetingapp.cgi/Session/9666″ target=”blank” style=”flat” background=”#145593″ color=”#ffffff” size=”10″ center=”yes”]Event page[/su_button][su_spacer]

Registered attendees: See the event page to add this to your schedule (click the plus sign).
This event is open to all – the link to join the live session will be posted on the event page shortly before the event begins.

Twitter hashtag: #AFS_LatinAmDay

Slack channel: #theme_day_sep22_latin_america

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is one of the most diverse regions in the world encompassing a land area of 20,038,832 sq. km. with a human population of at least 646,430,841, more than twice that of the U.S. The LAC covers an extensive region made up of 48 countries and territories from the Bahamas south to Chile and Argentina. The LAC has extensive marine resources in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and some of the largest and most diverse freshwater ecosystems in the world like the Amazon River. The LAC region is also one of the most impacted where we are seeing unprecedented rates of habitat loss, species extinctions, and an overall decrease in vertebrate populations. Climate change, deforestation, oil extraction, mining, dam construction, depletion of aquifers in arid lands, and overfishing are just a few of the many threats to the fishery and aquatic resources in the LAC. The World Bank (2018) reported that over 10,493,944 metric tons of fish were landed for commercial, industrial, recreational and subsistence purposes, twice the amount landed in the U.S. The LAC theme day is a forum for fisheries professionals, students and others to learn about the fisheries issues, management, science, and challenges to conserving fisheries from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Additionally, we will discuss how fisheries professionals, management and scientists from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean can be greatly enhanced through development of a strong, vibrant and active professional society.

• Introduction and welcome
• Keynote Presentation: Breaking Down Barriers to Fisheries Conservation in the Americas: Challenges and Future Implications, Dr. Felipe Amezcua Martinez*, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mazatlan, Mexico
• Panel Discussion
• Contributed Paper Author Introductions
• Q&A Session

Keynote Speaker

Felipe Amezcua is a research professor at the Institute of Marine Science and Limnology of the National University of Mexico and is based at a station of the Institute in Mazatlan (Gulf of California). He specializes in the ecology of estuarine and coastal fish of the Gulf of California as well as small-scale fisheries. He completed his undergraduate studies in Biology at the Faculty of Science from the National University of Mexico and received his Ph.D. in Marine Biology from the University of Liverpool (UK).

Felipe has extensive experience in the fin fish fauna of the coastal areas of the southeast Gulf of California, and has worked and participated in projects and workshops on conservation, and fisheries management, and regulation with governmental entities in Mexico, as well as with international institutions and organizations such as Ecologists Without Borders, the Federal University of Pernambuco, and others.

His project experience includes research on fisheries and the carrying capacity of reservoirs and estuarine areas to develop management plans; the effects of fisheries on the fish fauna, trophic ecology and ecological connectivity of estuarine areas and the adjacent marine environments; public policy and its relation to sustainable resource use by small scale fishers,  and more recently, the use of otoliths and vertebrae to determine migration patterns of fish and sharks, and the presence of microplastics in fish.

He is actively involved with fisheries associations and has served as President of the Mexican Fisheries Society, as well as the Mexico Chapter and the International Fisheries Section of the American Fisheries Society.

Contributed Paper Presentations (recorded in English and Spanish (optional) for viewing):

[su_button url=”https://afs.confex.com/afs/2020/meetingapp.cgi/Session/9663″ target=”blank” style=”flat” background=”#145593″ color=”#ffffff” size=”10″ center=”yes”]See recorded presentations[/su_button][su_spacer]

Location and Removal of Lost Fishing Gear in Puerto Rico: Avoiding Long-term Impacts of Ghost Gear
Raimundo Espinosa*, Conservación ConCiencia, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Identifying What Shark Species Inhabit Puerto Rico’s Waters: A Collaborative Approach to Shark Research and Conservation
Dalyan Lopez* and Raimundo Espinosa, Conservación ConCiencia, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Fish Community Response to Removal of a Low‐head Dam in the Floodplain of the Río Grande de Arecibo, Puerto Rico
Sean A. Locke and Johann Cancel, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, Puerto Rico

A Citizen Science Approach to Enhance Dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) Data Collection to Improve Science Management
Wessley Merten*, Dolphinfish Research Program, Beyond Our Shores Foundation, U.S.

Synergistic collaboration through borders: the quest for the American Eel
Gabriela Ulmo-Díaz¹, Augustin Engman², Bill McLarney³, Carlos A. Lasso Alcalá⁴, Dean Hendrickson⁵, Etienne Bezault⁶, Eric Feunteun⁷, Fernando L. Prats-Léon⁸, Jose Benchetrit⁹, Jean Wiener¹⁰, Robert Maxwell¹¹, Ryan Mohammed¹², Thomas Kwak¹³, Louis Bernatchez¹

¹Department of biology, Institut de biologie intégrative et des systèmes, Université Laval, Québec (Québec), Canada

²Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries, University of Tennessee

³Asociacion ANAI, Apdo. 170-2070 Sabanilla de Montes de Oca, Costa Rica

⁴Programa Ciencias Básicas de la Biodiversidad, Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos, Alexander von Humboldt, Colombia

⁵Department of Integrative Biology, Biodiversity Center, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, USA

⁶Lab. BOREA (CNRS,MNHN,UPMC,IRD,UCN,UA) Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Station Marine de Dinard, CRESCO, France.

⁷Lab. BOREA (CNRS,MNHN,UPMC,IRD,UCN,UA)  Université des Antilles    Campus de Fouillole, Guadeloupe, French West Indies / France

⁸Laboratorio de parasitología, Centro de Investigaciones Pesqueras. Playa, La Habana, Cuba.

⁹Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Kent, Ontario, Canada

¹⁰Fondation pour la Protection de la Biodiversité Marine (FoProBiM) – Haiti

¹¹Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Inland Fisheries Section, 1213 N. Lakeshore Dr. Lake Charles, LA, USA 70647

¹²The University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago & Environmental Research Institute Charlotteville (ERIC), Tobago.

¹³U.S. Geological Survey North Carolina, Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

Fishery of the Balsas River Catfish (Ictalurus balsanus) in the Amacuzac River, Mexico
Humberto Mejía Mojica¹*, Topiltzin Contreras-MacBeath¹*, Gabriela Beltrán López¹, Janet González Montes de Oca², Manuel Rivas González³ and Mara Erika Paredes Lira¹

¹Laboratorio de Ictiología, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Mexico

² Maestría en Manejo de Recursos Naturales, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Mexico

³ Escuela de Estudios Superiores del Jicarero, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Mexico

Fish Community Structure and Composition in the Moderately Urbanized Amacuzac River, South Central Mexico
Gabriel Cordero* and Norman Mercado Silva*, Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Conservación, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Mexico

Mexican Fisheries: Their Management and Administration to Regulate Impacts of Fishing Activities on Fish Habitat
Dr. Felipe Amezcua Martinez*, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mazatlan, Mexico

Funcionamiento del Servicio Estadístico Pesquero Colombiano (SEPEC)
Dr. Luis María Manjarrés Martínez*, Grupo de Investigación en Evaluación y Ecología Pesquera (GIEEP), Universidad del Magdalena, Santa Marta, Colombia

 Fisheries Resource Issues Ex-ante and Ex-post Studies Cases from Environmental Licenses in Colombia (HidroItuango Dam and Pacific Coast, Colombia)
Diego Castro^1*, Silvia Vanegas^1*,Yolanda Casallas Abril^1*, and John Galvez²

¹Autoridad Nacional de Licencias Ambientales (ANLA), Economic Bureau, National Environment Agency, Colombia

² Peninsular Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office (FWCO), U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Ecology of Microplastic Contamination in Estuarine Fish Community
Dr. Mario Barletta*, Costeiros e Estuarinos (LEGECE), Departamento de Oceanografia (DOCEAN), Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), Pernambuco, Brasil

Wednesday, September 23: Consortium of Aquatic Science Societies (CASS)

Registration for this session is open for members for any CASS society: Click here. Access instructions will be emailed to you.
Virtual Annual Meeting registered attendees: Click here to access the event page and add this event to your schedule (click the plus sign). A link to access the session will be visible to registered attendees on the event page shortly before the session begins.

Twitter hashtag: #AFS_CASSDay

Slack channel: #theme_day_sep23_cass

The American Fisheries Society is offering a free pass on September 23 for a special event at its 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting focused on the exciting collaboration of the Consortium of Aquatic Science Societies (CASS). Hear from society leadership as they envision the future our professional societies in a changing world, focusing on diversity and influencing policymaking with the best available science. Learn more about the societies’ collaboration on Clean Water Act policy, highlighting our work to influence the Supreme Court victory in the Maui groundwater case and efforts to champion a science based definition of “Waters of the U.S.” Finally, join us for the launch of the Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting scheduled for May 16–20, 2022 in Grand Rapids, Michigan where scientists, engineers, students, educators, policy makers and other stakeholders from across the aquatic sciences will share science, network, and collaborate. Register here for your pass!

Schedule

1:00-1:05 pm EDT Opening remarks

1:05-2:00 pm President’s Panel: Hear from society leaders about the relevance of scientific societies in a changing world.  Panelists will discuss the role of CASS and aquatic science societies in increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in our disciplines, and in translating science to policy and management as we look to the future.

2:00:-2:05 pm AFS Fellows Award presentations

2:05-2:10 pm Launch of Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting: May 16-20, 2022, Grand Rapids, Michigan

2:10-3:00 pm Policy Panel: Learn more about the societies’ collaboration on Clean Water Act policy, highlighting our work to influence the Supreme Court victory in the Maui groundwater case and efforts to champion a science based definition of “Waters of the U.S.”

Thursday, September 24: Canadian Fisheries

[su_button url=”https://afs.confex.com/afs/2020/meetingapp.cgi/Session/9668″ target=”blank” style=”flat” background=”#145593″ color=”#ffffff” size=”10″ center=”yes”]Event page[/su_button][su_spacer]

Registered attendees: See the event page to add this your to schedule (click the plus sign).
This event is open to all – the link to join the live session will be posted on the event page shortly before the event begins.

Twitter hashtag: #AFS_CanadaDay 

Slack channel: #theme_day_sep24_canada

• Introduction and welcome
• AFS Award of Excellence presentation to Villy Christensen, University of British Columbia
• Villy Christensen acceptance speech
• Keynote 1: Andrea Reid, “Indigenous Fisheries: Past, Present and Future”
• Q&A
• Keynote 2: Rowshyra A. Castañeda, “A Brief History of Fisheries in Canada”
• Q&A
• Larkin Award presentation

Andrea Reid – Indigenous Fisheries: Past, Present and Future

Photo by Alex Sarna

Dr. Andrea Reid is a citizen of the Nisga’a Nation and an incoming Assistant Professor with the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries (starting January 2021). There, she will lead the Indigenous Fisheries Research Unit, working to build a national and international hub for the study and protection of culturally significant fish and fisheries. Her research program adopts highly interdisciplinary and applied approaches to improving our understanding of the complex interrelationships between fish, people and place. Reid’s PhD in Biology (Carleton University ’20) centered on multiple stressor effects on Pacific salmon, using tools and insights from Western and Indigenous sciences in tandem. Reid is a cofounder of Riparia, a Canadian charity that connects diverse young women with science on the water to grow the next generation of water protectors. She is also a National Geographic Explorer (Grantee ’12,’15,’16,’19) and a Fellow of The Explorers Club (FI’19). Twitter: @andreajanereid.

Rowshyra A. Castañeda – A Brief History of Fisheries in Canada

Rowshyra is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Great Lakes Laboratory for Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences at Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). She completed her BSc in Biology at McGill University (2010), where participated in two field semesters abroad, in Panama and in East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda), to attain a minor in Field Studies. She completed an MSc supervised by Prof. Anthony Ricciardi at McGill University (2013). Her Master’s research was focused on the population dynamics of an invasive bivalve, Asian clam, that was limited to a thermal plume created by a nuclear power plant. She then worked as a lab manager for the Ricciardi Lab for a year and completed a project on microplastics population in the St. Lawrence River. She went on to complete her Ph.D. at the University of Toronto and University of Toronto Scarborough with Prof. Nicholas Mandrak (November 2019). She was co-supervised by Prof. Olaf Weyl at the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB), where she was affiliated and spent two semesters. Rowshyra’s research was focused on developing the use of underwater cameras to detect and quantify rare freshwater fishes (imperiled and early invaders). She did her field work in waterbodies in Ontario, Canada and in multiple provinces in South Africa. Her current research is focused on threats and recovery of imperiled freshwater fishes and the ecology and impacts of invasive freshwater fishes and invertebrates. She is an Associate Editor for the journal Biological Invasions. Aside from research, Rowshyra is passionate about creating inclusive and diverse spaces and has volunteered on several committees and for non-profit organizations that promote and take action on increasing equity, diversity, and inclusion in STEM. Twitter: @rowshyra.