Midyear Report to the AFS Governing Board, March 2005
To: Barb Knuth, President AFS
From: Dave Willis, President, Fisheries Management Section
Date: January 28, 2005
1. Motion Report
- Recommended Motion: None
- Minority View: None
- Background for Motion: Not applicable
II. Activity Report
(A) Charge or Annual Program of Work: No specific charge or program of work defined.
(B) Summary of Outcomes and Accomplishments Organized by Focus Area in Strategic Plan with the appropriate goal, strategy, and target referenced.
Aquatic Stewardship
Goals AS 2 and ITO 2. Brian Graeb (SD) is chair of the Sauger Symposium committee, and is responsible for ensuring that our section meets all requirements to sponsor such a symposium at the 2006 AFS meeting in Lake Placid. All members interested in or involved in sauger work are requested to contact Brian (brian.graeb@sdstate.edu). Early interest indicates that we should be able to assemble an outstanding program, perhaps because the sauger is both a native species of concern in many locations and still an important sport fish.
Goals AS 2 and AS 3. Julie Meka (AK) requested that our section provide $400 in travel support for speakers to travel to a 2005 AFS symposium on “Catch-and-Release Science and its Application to Conservation and Management.” A motion was made, seconded, and passed at the annual business meeting in Madison to approve this funding request. The FMS will be a co-sponsor of this symposium at the 2005 meeting.
Goals AS 2, AS 3, and ITO 2. Former FMS President Tim Hess (AK) asked for FMS co-sponsorship of a symposium proposal for the 2005 meeting in Anchorage that would focus on the fisheries/aquatic aspects of the new State Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategies. Jeff Koening, the Director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Tim will co-chair this symposium, with speakers to be invited from each Region of the country. FMS will co-sponsor this symposium with the Fish Administrators Section, although no financial support was requested or committed.
Goal AS 3 and ITO 5. Based on formal action at the FMS business meeting in August 2004, we sent a letter to Chief Dale Bosworth, US Forest Service, indicating the strong support of the Fisheries Management Section for the recommendations contained in the report of the “Rise to the Future Task Force 2003.” Implementation of the report’s recommendations would enhance the Service’s ability to provide national leadership in the conservation of aquatic resources and in the provision of diverse sport fishing experiences. The aquatic natural resources of the National Forest System are indeed a national treasure, valued by anglers and non-anglers alike. In fact, for some species the national forests provide key habitats that are critical to their continued survival. Strong leadership from the Chief’s Office and the National Leadership Team will be invaluable in conserving these resources for the benefit of our nation’s citizenry.
Membership Services
Goal MS 1. Randy Jackson (NY) is chair of our Genealogy Committee, and distributed a survey requesting educational backgrounds of section members. Our professional roots are highly intertwined in the fisheries profession, and Randy will have quite a task finding a suitable method for summarizing this complex information.
Goals MS 2, AS 1, AS 3, ITO 2, ITO 3, and ITO 5. Standardization in industry, medicine, and science has led to great advances. However, despite the positive effects of standardization, fisheries sampling across North America is typically at a state, provincial, or local level. In the 1980’s and 1990’s work to move toward standardizing sampling procedures in North America was conducted by the Fisheries Techniques Standardization Committee, Fisheries Management Section of the American Fisheries Society. This work resulted in a compilation of methods that were being used across North America; however, no recommendations were made for a subset of methods to standardize lake, pond, river, or stream surveys.
Standard Sampling Methods for North American Freshwater Fishes will describe standard methods to sample fishes in particular freshwater environments. The goal for this book will be to recommend a small group of methods for each of the primary freshwater environment types -- small lakes and ponds, reservoirs, large natural lakes, wadable streams, and large rivers, with a distinction between coldwater and warmwater fishes. Chapters will cover each of these habitat types individually for warmwater and coldwater fishes, as well as principles of sampling, standards for comparison (average and range of size structure, catch per effort, growth, and condition indices) for common North American fishes, data management and statistical analysis, and methods for data conversions. Authors include a mix of academic and agency personnel from Canada, Mexico, and the United States: Scott Bonar, Alison Iles, Salvador Contreras-Balderas, Kevin Pope, Rob Neumann, Scott Bryan, Steve Miranda, Jeff Boxrucker, John Ney, Charles Rabeni, John Lyons, Norman Mercado-Silva, Jim Peterson, Chris Guy, Scott Rogers, Johannus Pitlo, Nigel Lester, Paul Bailey, Wayne Hubert, Dave Beauchamp, Roy Whaley, Donna Parrish, Jason Dunham, Russ Thurow, Andy Dolloff, Gordon Haas, R. Allen Curry, Robert M. Hughes, Mark McMaster, Dave Zafft, Mark Brouder, Mike Allen, Mike Quist, Jim Peterson, and, Craig Paukert, and Kim Bonvechio. Editors are Scott Bonar, Wayne Hubert, and David Willis. Senior Editor Bonar has contacted Aaron Lerner to investigate publication through AFS.
All authors have been assigned their tasks, and draft outlines, which will be shared among chapter authors, are to be completed by May 15, 2005. Scott Bonar and Alison Iles sent letters in January 2005 to 59 heads of state and provincial fisheries programs to obtain any standard sampling protocols that they currently have in place.
Funding to date: Fisheries Management Section $10,000 Education Section $2,000 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service $30,000 (over 2 years) USGS Cooperative Research Unit Program $12,500
Funding requests pending: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation $30,000 National Park Service $30,000 U.S. Bureau of Reclamation $30-50,000
Contacts are being developed to also allow requests to the U.S. Forest Service, and the Canadian and Mexican agencies.
Goal MS 4. Gwen White (IN) from the Equal Opportunity Section requested that our section provide $500 for their student travel support program. Via a friendly amendment approved by Boxrucker and Stang, the motion was changed to make the $500 per year contribution a line item in our budget for coming years. The motion passed unanimously.
Information Transfer and Outreach
Goal ITO 2. Past-President Rideout reviewed the Fisheries Administrators Section’s decision to support, in conjunction with the Fisheries Management Section, an exchange program with the United Kingdom’s Institute of Fisheries Management (IFM) involving our respective Section’s President’s. The FAS proposed to support up to $1000 for airfare for their president over two cycles to attend the IFM meeting. The basic approach would be that each Society’s President would attend the other’s meeting in alternate years. AFS would be represented alternately, by the President of FAS then FMS. At our Madison business meeting, a motion was made, seconded, and passed to join the FAS and support our President for two cycles also.
Goals ITO 5, AS 1, and AS 3. Over the past several months, concerns have arisen in relation to the current process for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to competitively outsource a major portion of the National Fish Hatchery System work (Solicitation # 982105R053 “Aquatic Species Husbandry A-76 Study,” due 28 February 2005), which put the work of animal caretakers and biological science technicians on hatcheries out on bids. The federal hatchery system has long been a partner in both sport fish and rare fish management programs. Production of the appropriate numbers, sizes, and quality (e.g., genetics) of fishes for stocking programs is an essential function for the fisheries resources of this country. Thus, FMS first responded via e-mail to Secretary Gale Norton, followed by a formal letter drafted and signed by Gus Rassam and Barb Knuth.
(C) Recommendations or Suggestions for Future Consideration: None.
III. Financial Status (provided only to Society Financial Officer and will not be copied and distributed in the briefing book): Files were sent via e-mail directly to the Society Financial Officer.