Advancement of fisheries science and conservation

Over the past few years moving through the AFS Officer roles, I have been getting ready for this year serving as your President. The reality of this position is that 1 year goes fast and I have done a lot of work in preparation; however, to be effective, I have identified four themes I will concentrate on this year. Last month, I discussed my ideas regarding membership and this month I will highlight actions designed to advance fisheries science and conservation. As a professional scientific organization, it is important that we continue to support the work of our members. One of the major items for this focus area is planning the AFS Annual Meeting. As AFS President, you are expected to preside over the Annual Meeting and ensure its success. But I’m not doing this alone! One of my key responsibilities is establishing and guiding teams that help organize this important event to advance fisheries science and conservation. Meeting planning starts years before the actual event with locations typically selected your first year as an Officer; so, in fall 2023, Pittsburgh was selected for the 2027 meeting. That provided a bit of karma, as the first AFS Annual Meeting I attended as a graduate student was in Pittsburgh in 1990. As First Vice President, I started planning and identifying the local team and program committee in 2025, including a trip to Pittsburgh to discuss logistics and a theme. Meeting planning has become much easier since AFS hired staff to coordinate and contract the local arrangements, including conference venue, hotels, and catering that local planning teams (typically state agency staff) used to do. This has allowed for more consistency and better rates—thank you Shawn Johnston and Lauren Tanner for all your hard work on these events! For the 2027 meeting, Shawn, AFS Northeastern Division officers, and I tried to find a site in eastern Canada (Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City) but the costs were prohibitive, and Pittsburgh ultimately provided the strongest bid. The local planning team helps with overall logistics, the spawning run, raffle, professional development, student activities, outreach and media contacts, and, new for this meeting, community engagement. Given the current challenges with meeting attendance, I have tried to plan a meeting with a variety of activities to make it easier for more people to attend. The meeting theme, “Bridging the Gap: Fish Health, Fisheries Management, and Fish Culture” was specifically identified based on observations in my current job as well as to increase participation from fish health and fish culture professionals and foster better collaboration with fisheries managers. We will also be hosting the third Diadromous Symposium, which will be a multiday symposium. Finally, we are collaborating with fish culture scientists to potentially host an Aquaculture Summit at the AFS Annual Meeting. We are trying something new in 2027: Wednesday afternoon of the conference will be dedicated to providing field trips/professional development opportunities for all attendees with a goal of engaging with the local community and letting Pittsburgh know we are there and what we do. We are evaluating several additional ideas to help foster the feeling of ONE Society and the diversity of disciplines and backgrounds represented, so look out for an AFS webinar and information in Fisheries in the coming months to learn more. Our goal is to provide a wide array of opportunities to connect with others in your specific area of expertise as well as learn more about other disciplines and receive hands-on training. Another important component of advancement is to foster collaboration with key partners, such as the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, and to mutually support resource policy issues. To accomplish this, I will lead AFS to continue to find more and innovative opportunities to join forces with other conservation organizations in advancing fisheries science and aquatic conservation. In addition, I will continue to foster relationships and form partnerships on mutual policy issues initiated by President Whelan with the Congressional Sportsman’s Foundation, Trout Unlimited, and Ducks Unlimited. Finally, we have lost a large portion of U.S. federal employees from the work force and as members of AFS. I plan to develop an understanding of scientific needs and information gaps resulting from those losses to maintain a history of aquatic resource management across North America. Specifically, I will task a Special Committee to evaluate the large reduction in the U.S. federal workforce and how AFS can serve as the central location to archive what has been lost, facilitate the effort to retain scientific knowledge, and identify a path forward for future rebuilding efforts. Importantly, I also will explore ways to understand how this has affected our international collaborations. While the loss is disturbing and saddening, we as professionals must face the new reality and find a way forward while preserving important institutional knowledge so we don’t fall into the trap of “shifting baselines” (Pauly, 1995). Thus, the current situation provides an opportunity to better engage across North America and worldwide to advance aquatic science. The Special Committee will do the following: Include retired federal workers to provide a “historical” perspective of past and present baselines. Potentially work with The Wildlife Society and Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies representatives to gain a broad perspective across natural resource management and conservation. Engage Canadian and International colleagues to understand job losses and retirements globally. Integrate findings from a draft survey from the Wildlife Management Institute (not completed yet) related to current conservation practices and how that has changed as well as examining the foundational elements of the North American Model of Wildlife Management (Geist et al., 2001). If you are interested in participating in this Special Committee, please get in touch with me. I hope to have it in place by the end of the year.