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| NEWSLETTER |
SEPTEMBER 2001
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The past few days have been a horrible nightmare for all of us and even worse for others that are directly impacted by the recent tragic events. On behalf of the Chapter Executive Committee, we express our deepest sympathies to our members who may have lost family or friends as a result of this terrorist attack. We ask that all members please pray for the victims, their families and friends and the rescue workers who are desperately sifting through the rubble with hopes of finding survivors.
We continue to make progress on our annual plan of work. All the standing and ad hoc committees have been busy addressing committee charges. Shari Bryant has been working very hard with Duke Power Company to set up the best annual meeting ever in 2002! Mark your calendars for February 5-6; Shari has arranged for some excellent hotel rates and the meeting facilities are outstanding. Lawrence Dorsey is coordinating two excellent workshops scheduled for before and after the meeting. The EXCOM has reserved some space at each workshop free of charge for students. The Chapter will support some student travel to the meeting and we are still looking for ways to help out our young professional membership with travel or AFS membership.
The Annual Meeting in Phoenix was an excellent meeting and Tom McMahon did an outstanding job as host and General Chair. They came close to putting on the best meeting ever, but they couldn't quite pass us. The Plenary session was held in the lavish Orpheum Theatre. AFS President Carl Burger arranged for some excellent plenary speakers and he did an excellent job of orchestrating the event. There were some excellent fisheries management and ecology papers and I thought the "Fisheries Sustainability in North America" symposium was timely and extremely informative. I encourage everyone to attend the annual meetings whenever possible as they are excellent venues for networking and learning what's happening in AFS. The next meeting will be in Baltimore in August 2002.
And now a special word of thanks to John Crutchfield! For anyone who does not know what I am referring to, please look on page 25 of the September issue of Fisheries for the story about the NC Chapter hosting a Russian fisheries biologist. On behalf of the NC Chapter, executive officers and myself, John will you please accept our warmest THANK YOU for everything you did to help make this visit such a success. Your untiring efforts and personal commitment to making the visit so successful demonstrates your true leadership and commitment to the field of fisheries science. Your efforts have single-handedly propelled our Chapter to the leadership role in mentoring and outreach. Again, thank you for your efforts on this project and all the other things you do to help the Chapter!
Remember to mark your calendars for the annual Chapter meeting, February 5-6, 2002. nbsp; As always, please don't hesitate to contact me by phone at (919) 733-3633 x 280 or send me an E-mail: curryrl@mail.wildlife.state.nc.us if you have ideas or issues you want to discuss.
I hope you have had a fun and safe summer!
Bob Curry
Second Call for Papers.
The 2002 annual meeting of North Carolina Chapter of the American Fisheries Society will be held on February 5 and 6 at Duke Power's McGuire Office Complex in Huntersville, North Carolina. The program will include oral presentations on any fishery-related topic. Students are encouraged to submit presentations. Presentations may include completed projects or works in progress. Presenters should plan for a 20-minute program that includes a question/answer period. There will be awards for "Best Paper" and "Best Student Paper". Submission deadline is January 4, 2002.
Abstracts for presentations should be submitted electronically to Shari Bryant at E-mail bryants5@earthlink.net or on a 3.5" diskette in either Microsoft Word or WordPerfect format. Presenters are requested to provide their name, affiliation, telephone number, e-mail address and a brief biographical sketch for a 20-30 second introduction. Send submissions to Shari Bryant, NC Chapter AFS, 2002 Program Chair, P.O. Box 129, Sedalia, NC 27342-0129. Phone (336) 449-7625. Registration fee for the meeting will be $30.00 ($15.00 for students) and includes breaks and social.
Accommodations A block of rooms has been reserved at the Ramada Ltd. in Huntersville. The rate is $40.00 per night. Contact the Ramada Ltd. at (704) 892-6597 to make your reservations. Be sure to mention you will be attending the North Carolina Chapter of the American Fisheries Society meeting. The deadline for reserving your room is January 10, 2002. Submitted by Shari Bryant
NCAFS Poster for the 2002 SDFS Mid-Year Meeting
A poster outlining the history of the North Carolina Chapter is being developed. The poster will be displayed at the 2002 Southern Division AFS mid-year meeting in Little Rock, Arkansas on February 20-24, 2002. The theme of the poster will be "From the Mountains to the Coast" and will attempt to display the diversity of habitats and fish species found in North Carolina. The draft of the poster includes a background graphic that resembles a stream meandering through the landscape. For each year of the Chapter's existence various species of fish will be used as bullets to highlight important activities. Fish species will include those found in mountain, piedmont and coastal habitats. A brief overview the Chapter's history and list of past presidents will be included as well as photos of mountain, piedmont and coastal habitats. We hope to have the poster completed by the Chapter's annual meeting on February 5-6, 2002 at the Duke Power's McGuire Office Complex in Huntersville, North Carolina. Submitted by Shari Bryant
After a break in activity for the summer, the student subunit is jumping
into the new semester with a wide variety of activities. The
student subunit provided travel grants in the amount of $85 to five members
attending the AFS annual meeting in Phoenix, AZ. This meeting
was a great success for all and included student presentations by Bill
Pine, Regan McNatt, Robert Aguilar, Wes Neal, Nate Bacheler and Chris Taylor.
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We are planning a fall sampling of the fish community in Yates Mill Pond near NCSU campus. This Pond was recently made a part of a Wake county park and the subunit initiated a cooperative effort for fish community assessment last semester. In addition, we are working to form a similar arrangement pertaining to the recently refilled Lake Raleigh. Lake Raleigh is located on NCSU campus and offers the subunit an opportunity at stewardship in our own backyard. Tanyia Pritchard and Dr. Peter Rand have submitted a Campus Ecology Fellowship Program proposal to support this work. We hope to have favorable news on this subject in the future. |
The subunit is planning a social trip for early November to tour the Pisgah Fish Hatchery in Pisgah National Forest. This trip will also allow us an opportunity to camp and 'wet a line' in the Davidson River. Our social trip last semester to Hazel Creek in Smokey Mountain National Park was an adventure and we hope to make this one even better.
Our regular meetings will be held on the first Tuesday of every month at 6 pm in David Clark labs building on NCSU campus. We sponsor speakers of interest from around the state and all interested parties are invited to attend. Speakers for this semester include Jim Francesconi of the NC Division of Marine Fisheries and members of the environmental community on current hot issues in North Carolina. You can obtain more information and directions to campus on our website http://www.ncsu.edu/stud_orgs/sfs/ or please contact the current president, Rich Fulford. (Email: rsfulfor@unity.ncsu.edu) Submitted by Rich Fulford
Are You Certified?
In my transition to Chair of the Education Committee, John Crutchfield mentioned that it might be a good idea to write an article about the American Fisheries Society's (AFS) Professional Certification Program. For those that are already certified, you are well aware of the certification process and the revised requirements for maintaining your certification. If you are not certified, you owe it to yourself and your profession to seek AFS certification.
The obvious question is "Why should I be certified?" I can do no better than refer you to Dirk Miller's article "The Benefits of Professional Certification". It can be found at http://www.fisheries.org/Professional_Development/Certification/09_2000_certification.shtml. Dirk does an excellent job of describing why we as fisheries professionals should take the extra step and become a Certified Fisheries Professional.
On a personal level, I think obtaining certification just makes sense. There are many professions where certification is required or at the very least expected. Would you rather have a bridge built by an engineer or a Professional Engineer (PE)? The finished product of both individuals may be the same, but the PE has an added measure of credibility that the non-certified engineer doesn't possess. Certification demonstrates to your employer, your constituents, and co-workers that you have met and are maintaining the professional standards set forth by your peers.
For those of you who are currently still in school or even those looking for other jobs, professional certification status is beginning to appear on job announcements. Possessing your certification will ensure you are considered for vacant positions requiring this qualification. Even if certification is not a requirement, being certified may give you the edge over another applicant. As an added benefit for those currently employed in fisheries, many employers will pay for certification. My employer, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, began paying for certification last year.
If you are already certified, the acronym PDQP has crept in to your vocabulary since AFS changed the certification process in 1998. PDQP's, or Professional Development Quality Points, are now a required element in the certification and re-certification process for Certified Fisheries Professionals. Part of the job of the Education Committee is to provide continuing education opportunities for chapter members. I would encourage all chapter members to use the continuing education courses as a method to earn Category I and II PDQP's. Presentations at chapter meetings satisfy requirements for Category III requirements and Category IV requirements can be met by submitting your work for publication in an AFS journal. Finally, Category V PDQP's can be earned through AFS service.
For a complete description of the American Fisheries Society's Professional Certification Program, see the Certification Web Page at http://www.fisheries.org/Certification.shtml
If you have other ideas for courses, please contact me at E-mail: dorseylg@vnet.net Submitted by Lawrence Dorsey
Environmental Concerns Committee
The first issue has been developed into a position statement and was submitted to the EXCOM committee at the September business meeting for their review. The title of this position statement is - North Carolina Instream Sand and Gravel Mining. Should this position statement be approved for submittal to the Chapter, you can expect to see a copy of it in the December NCAFS newsletter. Members will have the opportunity to read all position statements that are drafted by this committee and to vote on their acceptance. Should this position statement appear in the December NCAFS newsletter, more information will be provided at that time about the voting process. The committee is working hard on developing a second position statement at this time.
If members have suggestions for issues, please send them at any time. Please contact Danielle if you would like to get involved penderdr@mail.wildlife.state.nc.us. Submitted by Danielle Pender
The Ad Hoc Membership Committee has been comparing membership lists obtained from the parent society and the chapter. These were used to create a comprehensive list, which will be the basis for recruiting as well as monitoring chapter membership in the future. Based on this information, there are currently 170 AFS members at the parent society level in North Carolina, and of those, 116 are also members of the NC Chapter. There are 20 additional chapter members that are not members at the parent society level. In addition, there are 3 members of the chapter from other states, for a current NC Chapter membership of 139. The membership breakdown is 95 regular, 7 lifetime, 31 student, and 6 retired. If you have any thoughts about increasing membership or are interested in serving on the membership committee, please contact committee chair Christian Waters by phone at (252) 208-7764 or Watersct@coastalnet.com. Submitted by Christian Waters
The AFS Nominations Committee reports all candidates for 2002 Pres-Elect and Sec/Treas have been selected. Reid Garrett and Tom Kwak have agreed to run for President-Elect, with Kim Sparks and Dave McHenry running for a two-year term as Secretary/Treasurer. Along with strong backgrounds in fisheries, each of these candidates are committed to the goals and objectives of NCAFS and, just as importantly, the parent society. The Committee appreciates the willingness of these individuals to serve the Chapter, and is excited to offer the membership such a strong package of candidates. Please take a minute and read the biographies of these fine candidates. We will conduct a ballot in the December newsletter. Submitted by Chad Thomas
Reid Garrett, Candidate, President-Elect - Reid Garrett is a Senior Technical Specialist in CP&L's Natural Resources Unit and has been with the Company since 1982. Reid has primary responsibilities as the overall site lead of environmental programs and issues, particularly fisheries, for three major power plants in North and South Carolina. Other areas of expertise include aquatic toxicology, contaminants, water quality, and thermal issues. He is the Laboratory Supervisor of the CP&L Certified Biological Laboratory in North Carolina and Laboratory Director of the CP&L Certified Environmental Laboratory in South Carolina for toxicity testing and biological population surveys. Reid graduated from Troy State University in 1977 with a B.S. degree in Marine Biology and an M.S. degree from the Auburn University Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures in 1983. He has been an active member of AFS since the early 1980s.
Tom Kwak, Candidate, President-Elect - Tom Kwak is the Leader of the NC Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and Associate Professor of Zoology at NC State University. He completed B.S. and M.S. degrees at the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in Fisheries from University of Minnesota. Tom's previous employment has been in research biologist and faculty positions at the IL Natural History Survey, MN Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, San Diego State University, and the AR Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit. His interests and expertise are in ecology and management of stream and river fisheries and undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education. He's been an AFS member since 1984 and has been active in three divisions, five state chapters, and two student subunits. He has served the AFS as chair of the Publication Awards Committee and Best Student Paper Awards Committee, and member of the Symposium Review, Nominations, Warmwater Streams, Rivers and Streams, Program and Publications (SEAFWA), and Environmental Affairs committees at state, division, and society levels.
David (Dave) McHenry, Candidate, Secretary/Treasurer - Dave McHenry is an environmental biologist with the Weyerhaeuser Company Southern Environmental Field Station located in New Bern, North Carolina. After graduating from North Carolina State University with a B.S. in Fishery Science in 1991, Dave began his career with Weyerhaeuser as a technician conducting various water quality, fish contaminant, and toxicity data collection activities for effluent discharge permits of southeastern pulp and paper mills. After completing a M.S. in biology at East Carolina University in 2000, he became a scientist and expanded his work investigating, tracking, and analyzing water quality and biological information from aquatic environments surrounding Weyerhaeuser Company facilities and forest holdings. Dave is specifically interested in assessing the ecological functioning and condition of aquatic systems through the study of biological communities. Furthermore, he enjoys building cooperative relationships with other governmental, institutional, and industrial groups toward protecting fishery resources in our human-influenced aquatic environments. Partly to develop these interests, Dave has been a member of AFS and the North Carolina Chapter for the better part of the past 11 years. When not pursuing his professional life, Dave enjoys getting in a tree or on the water for deer and ducks or spending time with his wife Angela and the new addition to the family, Jennifer.
Kimberly Sparks, Candidate, Secretary/Treasurer - Kimberly Sparks is a Research Environmental Scientist at RTI, a not-for-profit environmental consulting firm. Her current work involves providing GIS and database support to US EPA Office of Water programs. She has been a member of AFS since 1997 and won the W. Don Baker Memorial Award in 1998 for her presentation on major spawning habitats used by American Shad in the Roanoke River. Ms. Sparks received her M.S. in Zoology from North Carolina State University in 1998.
News from around North Carolina
NCSU News from Tom Kwak - The NC Chapter congratulates Bill Pine
for being awarded a Skinner Memorial Award from the AFS Education Section
and for an Honorable Mention of his recent article for a Best Paper Award
for the North American Journal of Fisheries Management.
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Bill is a graduate student in the North Carolina Cooperative Fish and
Wildlife Research Unit at NC State University, pursuing a doctorate degree
in Zoology. His dissertation research is on the ecology and
population dynamics of introduced populations of flathead catfish; the
research is collaborative with the NC Wildlife Resources Commission.
Bill was one of 14 graduate students to receive the Skinner Memorial Award from the Education Section to support travel to the 131st Annual Meeting of the AFS, held in Phoenix, Arizona, August 19-23. At the meeting, Bill presented a paper entitled "Trends in the Suwannee River, Florida, population of the Gulf of Mexico sturgeon, using capture-recapture data and an age-structured model" that he coauthored with his former advisor from University of Florida, Mike Allen. Among other activities at the meeting, Bill also served as Moderator for a session on population dynamics. The AFS Publication Awards Committee notified Bill that the paper he published last year in the North American Journal of Fisheries Management was evaluated and selected by committee members among the top six papers published in that volume of the journal. The article, that Bill coauthored with Mike Allen, is referenced below. |
Allen, M.S. and W.E. Pine III. 2000. Detecting fish population responses to a minimum length limit: effects of variable recruitment and duration of evaluation. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 20:672-682.
and more NCSU News from Tom Kwak - Ed Malindzak, NCSU undergraduate
in Fisheries and Wildlife, traveled abroad to Sweden this summer to attend
a four-week course on natural resources.
| Funded by scholarships from the NCSU Department of Forestry and the
Study Abroad Office, Ed participated in the program "Sustainable use of
Natural Resources in Sweden". The course was held in Sweden in cooperation
with NCSU and Purdue University. The participants included
two students from NCSU (including Ed), 18 students from Purdue, and seven
students from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
The aim was to give a holistic view of the use and management of soil and water as natural resources in different geographical, ecological and socioeconomic conditions. An additional goal was to train students in communication and cooperation spanning cultural and disciplinary borders. Specific areas of concentration included water quality and commercial fisheries in the Baltic Sea, the commercial and recreational importance of the inland salmon fisheries, acidification and restoration of lakes and streams, past and present logging operations and their effects on streams and the landscape, wetland and tundra ecosystems and their importance, and modern sewage treatment facilities. Ed visited many sites throughout Sweden, including Stockholm, the Island of Uto in the Stockholm archipelago, Ammarnas in the north of Sweden, and many points along the Vindeln river in north and central Sweden. |
:Ed Malindzak overlooks the Arctic Circle in Sweden |
Ed highly recommends this program and other international exchange opportunities as invaluable experiences for students and professionals alike. The rest of the summer, Ed served as a technical assistant for the NC Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and as research assistant studying introduced flathead catfish populations in NC rivers.
Museum of Life and Science News from Chad Hallyburton - Teen Youth Partners at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham will be able to further their fish conservation efforts with the help of a grant from the North American Native Fishes Association. For the past three years, the Museum's Youth Partners have conducted field research to learn more about native fishes in the Triad region of North Carolina. The Gerald C. Corcoran Education Grant will fund their efforts to evaluate the relationships between seining effort and species capture rates in three Piedmont streams. The project will be conducted this fall, and the Youth Partners hope to present their findings at the February NC-AFS annual meeting.
AFS News from Fred Harris - Bylaws changes were approved by the membership in Phoenix. So the reduced membership rates for young professionals and new members will be effective for 2002.
Plans are being made for the 4th World fisheries Congress, which will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia from May2 - May 6, 2004. AFS is the sponsor of this Congress. The theme of the meeting is "Reconciling Fisheries with Conservation: the Challenge of Managing Aquatic Ecosystems." Several committees are currently working on different aspects of the meeting.
Anchorage, Alaska was selected as the site of the 2004 AFS meeting. Anchorage won out over strong bids from Portland and Salt Lake City.
Barb Knuth was installed in Phoenix as the newly elected 2nd VP.
2003 SDAFS News from Kent Nelson, General Program Chair - The North Carolina Chapter of AFS will host the 2003 SDAFS mid-year meeting (February 12 - 16th) at the Hilton Riverside in Wilmington. The contract has been signed with the facility and work has begun on organizing the event. Chairs have been selected for most committees. These Chairs will be seeking help to work with them on this big job and I hope chapter members will assist. Following is a list of those who have volunteered to head committees. I encourage members to contact them if they wish to serve on a particular committee.
Hugh Barwick, chair Fund Raising, requests that chapter members notify him of potential sources of revenue to contact to help financially support the meeting. Because companies frequently plan a year ahead on what activities they will support, our requests need to be made soon.
The meeting will give us not only an excellent opportunity to share study results, but also to provide educational workshops. I'm sure Tom Kwak who will be organizing the Program will be glad to receive any suggestions with regard to potential workshops. Let's work together to hold a great meeting!
USEPA Health News forwarded by Tom Kwak - To all MS-222 users, Please be warned that the fish anesthetic, ethyl-m-aminobenzoic acid methanesulfonate, commonly referred to as MS-222, exhibits retinal toxicity. A case study in the Journal of Ophthalmology (see below) refers to an ichthyologist with an occupational history of skin exposure temporarily experiencing decreased vision. Please continue to wear nitrile gloves and splash goggles when working with MS-222. Note that the above individual was a fish pathologist who immersed his bare hands and arms in a dilute MS-222 solution almost daily for 30 years. It took seven months of total avoidance for his retinal abnormalities to self-correct. The short article (which is available upon request) mentions that the chronically exposed scientist's electroretinogram abnormalities resembled those of acutely exposed laboratory animals.
Found in: Retinal Toxicity Associated with Occupational Exposure to
the Fish Anesthetic MS-222. 1997. Bernstein, P.S.,
K.B. Digre, and D.J. Creel. American Journal of Ophthalmology,
124:6, pp. 843-844.
| Mentoring News from Kim Baker - Recently the Scientific Services
Section at Duke Power got the chance to involve Bess Sturges, a senior
at Providence HS in Charlotte, with some of their projects.
She spent time touring the Catawba Nuclear Station, a mosquito spraying
facility, various wildlife habitat enhancement programs, and the Environmental
Lab. At the Environmental Lab she toured the toxicity testing
lab, the aquatic invertebrate lab, and the fisheries lab. She
also spent time assisting Mark Rash evaluate fish impingement on the intake
screens at McGuire Nuclear Station.
Bess hopes to major in Meteorology and Environmental Science. Additionally she has spent time 'shadowing' metereologists at two TV stations in Charlotte. She will be applying to Harvard, GA Tech, Cornell, PENN STATE, and NCSU. |
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AFS News forwarded by Joe Hightower - Some very nice fish images are available through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service web site, including 68 done by our own Duane Raver, retired editor of Wildlife in North Carolina. You can locate them by starting at: http://images.fws.gov/ and selecting "Raver, Duane" from the list of keywords. The only restriction on use is as follows: "All images are for public use but please credit the photographer and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Example: USFWS/ John Doe"
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Spotlight on Students and Young Professionals
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Spotlight on Robert Hand, NCWRC Biologist I - Robert has been employed as a fisheries biologist with the NCWRC since January of 2000. He lives in Elizabeth City, and helps coordinate management of gamefish populations in the Roanoke, Chowan and Pasquotank River basins. Robert spent his childhood in Auburn, Alabama, frolicking within ear shot of hallowed Swingle Hall, and eventually succumbed to its allure, earning a B.S. degree in fisheries science. From Auburn, Robert headed to Mississippi State where he worked on stock dynamics of the blue sucker in Mississippi flood plain rivers under the watchful eye of Don Jackson. After graduation, he was hired by MSU as a fisheries consultant, and spent three months in Malaysia (and you thought Manteo was Far East!) developing a student exchange program. Robert, who was recently promoted into a Fisheries Biologist I position with the NCWRC, spends the majority of his work time assessing the area's anadromous fish populations. Once spring migrations have ceased, Robert's focus turns to management of resident gamefish populations, primarily largemouth bass. |
Outside of Commission activities (is there really time for anything
else?), Robert enjoys camping, hiking and bicycling. He also
enjoys fishing (imagine that!), traveling and investing.
| Spotlight on Rich Fulford, NCSU graduate student - Richard was born in Tulsa, OK and developed his love of the natural world fishing the reservoirs of Oklahoma with his father. His career in fisheries started quietly enough when he volunteered to help build an aquaculture farm at the University of Oklahoma and was wowed with endless stories of Peace Corps glory. He also wrote an undergraduate thesis on the effects of prolactin on osmoregulation in Tilapia. After graduating (B.S. in Zoology, cum laude) from the University of Oklahoma in 1991, he went off to see the world as a Peace Corps volunteer, serving in Fiji from 1991-1993 as a freshwater aquaculture extension specialist. There he learned the joy of sitting cross-legged for hours on end, drinking strange concoctions from coconut shells and listening to stories about rugby and pig hunting. |  |
Upon his return, Richard began his graduate studies at Old Dominion University under the guidance of Ray Birdsong. Dr. Birdsong's tragic death caused a move to Louisiana State University where Rich became interested in the morphology of larval Morone. He completed his MS degree in Fisheries and Wildlife in 1998, fell in love, got married and learned to make a passable gumbo. Later that year he began his doctoral studies at North Carolina State University under the guidance of Jim Rice. This began a four-year summer pilgrimage to Milwaukee to study the recruitment dynamics of larval yellow perch, Perca flavescens. Richard's current interests involve interactions of transport and feeding success for larval perch and their implications for annual recruitment variability.
Richard hopes to graduate while he still has the energy for more adventures,
and to continue to contribute to the activities of the American Fisheries
Society. A member of AFS since 1995, Richard also received
the W. Don Baker Memorial Award (and the best student paper award) at the
2000 NC AFS Chapter meeting for his presentation, "Scaling up in the Study
of Recruitment Dynamics: An Example from Lake Michigan." He
is currently president of the Student Fisheries Subunit at North Carolina
State University.
Rodney is currently employed by Carolina Power & Light Company as an assistant biologist. His work duties include fisheries, water quality, and benthos field sampling and laboratory fish identification. |
Spotlight on Rodney Lemonds, CP&L Assistant Biologist -
The North Carolina Chapter would like to welcome Rodney Lemonds as a new
member to the chapter and parent society. Rodney, a native
of Troy, North Carolina, graduated from Appalachian State University with
a B.S. Degree in Biology during May 2001. Rodney's area of
study was landscape ecology, and he minored in geography and geographical
information systems.
While at Appalachian State, Rodney worked as a biological research assistant involved in research on fish and crayfish populations in the New River. He also conducted an independent research project on shrew populations in the Appalachian Mountains while an undergraduate at ASU. Besides these activities, Rodney also worked part-time as a hunting and fishing guide in the Boone area while attending school. And he also found time to play varsity baseball for Appalachian State as a starting pitcher. His noteworthy accomplishments on the baseball mound included Appalachian's most valuable pitcher in 1998 and 2000. He also holds three Appalachian baseball records and two Southern Conference records. His coach and teammates who appointed him to the Student Athlete Advisory Board for the period of 1999 to 2001 recognized his academic and athletic leadership in the classroom and on the baseball field. |
| Spotlight on Kevin Hining, NCWRC Assistant Biologist - I am a native of North Carolina, and grew up in Rutherfordton, Morganton, and Shelby. I received my undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies from the University of North Carolina at Asheville in 1995. Upon completion of a 6 month contract position with the Smithsonian Institute I enrolled in the Biology graduate program at Western Carolina University. While at Western Carolina University I worked at the Mountain Aquaculture Research Center and assisted with several projects involving brook trout genetics and salmonid aquaculture with Dr. Peter Galbreath. My MS project was an age and growth study of southern Appalachian rainbow trout, with an emphasis on the validation of scale and otolith annuli for age estimation. This project was conducted under the guidance of Dr. Jerry West and was funded in part by the Fisheries Division of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where I worked during the summer of 1997 and 1998. |  |
Upon graduation from Western Carolina University I went to work for the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality as a Regional Biologist. My responsibilities were centered around the determination of surface water quality through the analysis of biotic communities, mainly aquatic macroinvertebrates. In April of 2000, I returned to the realm of fisheries management by accepting a contract position with the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife in Roxbury, VT.
In October of 2000 I accepted my current position as the District 7 Assistant Fisheries Biologist with NCWRC. My current responsibilities include fisheries survey, research, and habitat protection activities within the reservoirs and rivers of northwestern North Carolina. In addition, we attempt to provide outreach to adults and young adults on fisheries management, the importance of aquatic habitat preservation, and the pure enjoyment of fishing.
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55th Annual SEAFWA Conference - Oct. 13-17, 2001, Louisville, KY. http://www.kfwis.state.ky.us/afs/kyafs.htm
Fourth Annual North Carolina Stream Restoration Conference - Oct. 16-19, 2001, Raleigh, NC. The theme of this year's meeting will be Stream Repair and Restoration: A Focus on the Urban Environment. http://www5.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/wqg/sri/
2002 NCAFS Annual Meeting - Feb. 5-6, 2002, Huntersville, NC. Stay tuned to this website for more details.
2002 SDAFS Mid-Year Meeting - Feb. 20-24, 2002, Little Rock, AR. http://www.sdafs.org/meetings/02sdafs/2002home.htm
If you are aware of meeting information that would be beneficial to the membership of the NCAFS, please send it to the newsletter editor for inclusion in the next newsletter. E-mail: djcoughl@duke-energy.com
I'm looking for a part-time (10-15 hrs/wk) research assistant to lead teen Youth Partners at the Museum of Life and Science through hands-on research projects involving the Museum's exhibits (butterfly house, etc.). The pay is $10/hr and the assistant must work on Saturdays. The most-qualified applicants will have research and teaching experience and a desire to work with youth. Graduate students and advanced undergraduates get first consideration. If you know of ANYONE who might be interested, please have them contact me ASAP.
Chad Hallyburton, Youth Programs Manager, Museum of Life and Science, (919) 220-5429 ext. 353, or E-mail: chadh@ncmls.org
Ohio DNR, Fisheries Biologist - We are losing a fisheries biologist at our research station on western Lake Erie to retirement, effective December 1, and hopefully will be filling that position soon afterwards. A formal posting of the position announcement won't occur for couple of months but I am now initiating an active search for prospective candidates. The position will be full-time and permanent, with a primary focus on fish community research and fisheries management in the historically-productive, western basin of Lake Erie.
As you may be aware, vacancies in the six biologist positions at the Sandusky Station are rare. We have a data-rich environment with substantial opportunities for scientific research, stock assessment work, as well as interagency interactions, due to the tremendous public interest in Lake Erie fisheries. In short, opportunities abound for the ambitious person. Candidates should have expertise in either aquatic ecology or biometrics (e.g., geospatial statistics, modeling, etc.) and a graduate degree will be required. Most importantly, we are looking for goal-oriented candidates with drive and the personal skills to be an integral part of our Lake Erie team.
If you know of qualified and potentially-interested candidates, please have them contact me at their convenience for further information. Timing is secondary to finding the right person for our position. Thanks for your assistance! Roger L. Knight, ODNR, Division of Wildlife, Sandusky Fish Research Station, 305 E. Shoreline Drive, Sandusky, OH 44870, (419) 625-8062, (419) 625-6272 fax, or E-mail roger.knight@dnr.state.oh.us.
Fishery related jobs can be found on the AFS web site at: http://www.fisheries.org/jobs.html This site also offers links to job postings on non-AFS web sites.
If you have a fishery-related job opening and would like to post it in the next NCAFS Newsletter, please send your announcement to the newsletter editor. E-mail: djcoughl@duke-energy.com
Valuable Links - Courtesy of AFS
The American Fisheries Society Home Page offers a wealth of links to assist you in your fishery endeavors. Information on ordering AFS books, public outreach, annual meetings, chapter links and joining the AFS can be found at http://www.fisheries.org/
Additional links can be found courtesy of Dr. Mike Allen and the Southern Division, AFS. http://www.sdafs.org/links/msallen1.htm
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