Midyear Report to the AFS Governing Board, August 2005
To: Barb Knuth, President AFS
From: Dave Willis, President, Fisheries Management Section
Date: August 3, 2005
I. 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 1, AS 3, and ITO 5. FMS, in conjunction with the Fisheries Administrators (FAS) Section and the Water Quality Section (WQS), wrote a letter of support urging full funding for the Clean Lakes (314) and Non-Point Source (319) programs, as well as the Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund. The letter was developed by FAS President Doug Stang, and also signed by WQS President Workman and FMS President Willis, and sent to both the Chairman and Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations.
Goals AS 2 and ITO 2. Brian Graeb (SD) is chair of the Sauger Symposium committee. 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. The FMS will be a co-sponsor of a 2005 AFS symposium on “Catch-and-Release Science and its Application to Conservation and Management.”
Goals AS 2, AS 3, and ITO 2. FMS will co-sponsor (with the Fisheries Administrators Section) a symposium at the 2005 meeting in Anchorage that will focus on the fisheries/aquatic aspects of the new State Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategies.
Goals AS 2, ITO 1, MS 1, and MS 6. Wayne Hubert (WY) is Chair of a FMS ad hoc committee working with the Education Section to initiate the process for completion of the Third Edition of Inland Fisheries Management in North America.
Goal AS 3 and ITO 5. FMS previously helped provide input to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). Tom McMahon (MT) did a lot of work to represent both our section and AFS as a whole. The SFI group now has an external review panel, and Dan Hayes (MI) volunteered to serve as the AFS representative on that panel. Just what is SFI? The SFI was developed in 1995 by the American Forest & Paper Association, a national trade group that represents forest and paper companies. AF&PA assembled a task force of experienced professional foresters who spent 18 months crafting the SFI. This collaboration produced a set of forest principles and detailed guidelines that require companies to reforest harvested land promptly, provide for wildlife habitat, improve water quality and ecosystem diversity, and protect forestland of special ecological significance.
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.
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.
Editors: Scott Bonar (AZ), Wayne Hubert (WY), David Willis (SD)
Chapter Authors:
1. Introduction/ Principles of standardized sampling: Scott Bonar (AZ), Alison Iles (AZ), and Salvador Contreras-Balderas (Mexico)
2. Warmwater fish in small standing waters: Kevin Pope (TX), Rob Neumann (MN), and Scott Bryan (AZ)
3. Warmwater fish in large standing waters: Steve Miranda (MS), Jeff Boxrucker (OK), and John Ney (VA)
4. Warmwater fish in wadable streams: Charles Rabeni (MO), John Lyons (WI), Norman Mercado-Silva (WI), and Jim Peterson (GA)
5. Warmwater fish in rivers: Chris Guy (MT), Scott Rogers (AZ), Johannus Pitlo (IA), and Patrick Braaten (MT)
6. Salmonids/coldwater species in small standing waters: Nigel Lester (ON), Paul Bailey (ND), and Wayne Hubert (WY)
7. Salmonids/coldwater species in large standing waters: Dave Beauchamp (WA), Roy Whaley (WY), and Donna Parrish (VT)
8. Salmonids/coldwater species in wadable streams: Jason Dunham (OR), Russ Thurow (ID), Andy Dolloff (VA), and Gordon Haas (AK)
9. Salmonids/coldwater species in rivers: R. Allen Curry (NB), Robert M. Hughes (OR), Mark McMaster (ON), and Dave Zafft (WY)
10. Two-Story Fisheries: Phaedra Budy (UT), Roger Schneidervin (UT), and Chris Luecke (UT)
11. Standards for comparison (Averages and Standards of Commonly-Used Fisheries Indices): Mark Brouder (AZ), Scott Bonar (AZ), and Alison Iles (AZ)
12. Data management and statistical analysis: Mike Quist (IA), Kim Bonvechio (FL), and Mike Allen (FL)
13. Data conversion: Jim Peterson (GA) and Craig Paukert (KS)
14. Preventing Transfer of Invasive Species While Sampling: Stewart Jacks (AZ), Roger Sorensen (AZ). Jeffery L. Gunderson (MN), Scott Smith (WA), Steve Sharon (WY), and Ron Kinnunen (MI)
PROJECT SPONSORS:
AFS Fisheries Management Section
AFS Education Section
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
U.S. Geological Survey
U.S. Bureau of Land Management
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
National Park Service
Agencies that have expressed interest in participation and requests are pending:
Arizona Game and Fish Department
AFS Warmwater Streams Committee
AFS Southern Division
U.S. Bureau of Land Management
Goal MS 4. Gwen White (IN) from the Equal Opportunity Section requested that our section provide $500 for their student travel support program. Members decided that a $500 per year contribution should be a line item in the FMS annual budget.
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. Since that time, the issue appears to have “quieted.”
(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 will be sent via e-mail directly to the Society Financial Officer.