In the span of a week, Michael J. Maceina, Professor Emeritus at Auburn University, went from fishing with his family near Mobile Bay to passing peacefully at home in his own bed on June 10, 2020. During his brief battle with prostate cancer he did not stop fishing, he did not stop hunting, and he did not stop spending quality time with family and friends.

Ecosystem transformation can be defined as the emergence of a self‐organizing, self‐sustaining, ecological or social–ecological system that deviates from prior ecosystem structure and function. These transformations are occurring across the globe; consequently, a static view of ecosystem processes is likely no longer sufficient for managing fish, wildlife, and other species. We present a framework

Growing up along the Gulf Coast, wild caught seafood was abundant and affordable. Even in the leanest financial times, there were feasts from the natural bounty of the briny waters—boiled shrimp, marinated blue crab, pan‐fried speckled trout, and char grilled oysters. But, times they are a changing. The future of our seafood supply is something policymakers must address. Demand for fish and shellfish

Ronald W. Goede passed away, age 86, of complications related to cancer. His last days were at home under hospice care with his wife Lisa and family at his side. He was born in Columbus, Nebraska, and graduated from high school in Lincoln. Ron served eight years in the Air Force and earned a B.Sc. from the University of Nebraska, majoring in Zoology and Botany. He completed a M.Sc. in Fisheries Biology

Goals are important for the effective execution of public trust responsibilities by state inland fisheries bureaus, but formulating meaningful goals is not simple. Often bureaus look to their past and to their sister bureaus in neighboring states when crafting goals for their own freshwater resources. Herein, we review the goal themes of fisheries bureaus using publicly available documents and guided

The Smallmouth Bass Micropterus dolomieu fishery in the Susquehanna River basin, Pennsylvania, is one of the most socioeconomically important fisheries in the region and has recently undergone considerable changes. These changes started in 2005, when disease was documented in young‐of‐the‐year (age‐0) Smallmouth Bass. Shortly thereafter, declines in abundance of both juveniles and adults were observed

Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) populations in California are in decline due to the combined effects of habitat degradation, water diversions, and climate change. Reduced life‐history diversity within these populations inhibits their ability to respond to these stressors. Putah Creek, a small creek in California’s Central Valley that once supported Chinook Salmon, is undergoing restoration

Robert (Bob) William Wiley was born December 12, 1940 in Inglewood, California. Bob was the only child born to William Richardson Wiley and Roberta Moore Wiley. Early in his teenage years, a good family friend gave Bob a fishing reel and rod as a birthday gift that sparked his interest in fishing, and eventually the pursuit a life‐long career in fisheries. Throughout that career, he had mentors whom

In this paper, we explore the news messaging surrounding the introduction and expansion of Blue Catfish Ictalurus furcatus in mid‐Atlantic tidal waters. In the early news reports surrounding the non‐native catfish controversy, the species was described with hyperboles and terms that evoked threats, danger, and the need for caution, all of which make science‐based debate difficult. Three evidence‐based

Mentoring has had a recent resurgence as the key to achieving both individual and organizational goals, especially as workforce diversification efforts have led to the hiring of new talent. Few studies have evaluated mentoring within an organization or examined changes in mentoring practices over time. We describe the role and status of mentoring for current fish biologists in the USDA Forest Service

Recreational fisheries have high economic worth, valued at US$190 billion globally. An important, but underappreciated, secondary value of recreational catch is its role as a source of food. This contribution is poorly understood due to difficulty in estimating recreational harvest at spatial scales beyond a single system, as traditionally estimated from individual creel surveys. Here, we address this

John Swenson is a PhD candidate in the Komoroske Lab at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst using molecular tools to understand the population dynamics of living marine resources, with an emphasis on data‐poor taxa. DNA‐based methods have great potential to fill critical data gaps for data‐limited species. A particularly exciting development in recent years is close‐kin mark–recapture (CKMR),

Although it is assumed that the outcomes from scientific research inform management and policy, the so‐called knowledge–action gap (i.e., the disconnect between scientific knowledge and its application) is a recognition that there are many reasons why new knowledge is not always embraced by knowledge users. The concept of knowledge co‐production has gained popularity within the environmental and conservation

The American Fisheries Society (AFS) was founded during the early days of North American fish propagation, when pioneering fish culturists first began to coax food and fishing opportunities from pails of eggs and wriggling fry. In the absence of effective regulations and the will to enforce measures to prevent overfishing and habitat loss, fisheries professionals looked to hatcheries to fully address

This is my first column as President of AFS, and I am honored to have the chance to serve you in this capacity. In these tumultuous times, I pledge to do all I can to keep our organization on track as an effective voice for our members and for aquatic conservation. The coronavirus pandemic has limited our ability to meet in the face‐to‐face venues that AFS normally sponsors, so AFS and various Units

Aquatic science and fisheries degree granting institutions prepare graduates for science, policy, management, and Extension positions across the nation. Increasingly, new graduates are asked to translate their research for diverse audiences but often have received little preparation about outreach, engagement, or science communications during their graduate education. We describe two professional development

Micro‐fishing is an emerging form of recreational angling that targets small‐bodied fish in inland and marine waters. Although most fish are presumably released, some are retained as specimens for home aquaria or dissection to confirm identification. To date, very little is known about the effects of micro‐fishing on individuals (e.g., stress, injury, mortality), populations, or communities owing to

Overfishing contributes to the depletion of fish stocks. Among fishing practices, discarding fish is a waste of valuable resources and results in lost income that is associated with its effects on future stock growth. This practice depends on several factors, although trawl fisheries account for the highest quantity of discards. In this work, the effects of a specific section of the Galician (Northwestern

Inland fisheries, defined as finfish caught in lakes, rivers, and other water bodies, provide economic value and a source of protein at local and international levels. However, no comprehensive compilation of U.S. inland commercial fisheries exists. We sought to obtain data across all 50 states during 1990–2015 and noted a small, but significant, decline in harvest. The minimum harvest averaged 41

Small pelagic fisheries management is difficult because they exhibit large natural abundance fluctuations and are considered forage fish. We discuss the challenges faced by these fisheries within the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) sustainability certification framework, which evaluates the sustainability of fish stocks, the environmental impact, and effective fisheries management. Certification suspension

This column is my second to last as your AFS President. My last President’s Hook will introduce an issue dealing with the wonderful history of our Society and will not be as opinionated. It has been an honor for me to serve you, the AFS membership, over the past year. We have tackled important issues such as human‐caused climate change; we have discussed the importance of continually sharing fisheries

Anyone who knows AFS Meeting and Program Coordinator, Steven Kambouris, knows that Steve works incredibly hard in every endeavor he undertakes. Whether it is making sure presenters have everything they need at AFS Annual Meetings, homeschooling his three children, or making sure he posts videos to his YouTube channel “Kambotrout Fishing” every Friday, he does everything with passion and dedication

The commercially, recreationally, and culturally important Fraser River Sockeye Salmon Oncorhynchus nerka has experienced a productivity decline over the past 3 decades, which—along with greater temporal variation in annual abundance (i.e., cyclic dominance)—may at least partly be due to Steller sea lion Eumetopias jubatus (SSL) predation on returning adult salmon. This assumes that SSLs residing around

Habitat suitability curves (HSCs) are the biological component of habitat simulation tools used to evaluate instream flow management trade‐offs (e.g., the physical habitat simulation model). However, traditional HSCs based on empirical observations of habitat use relative to availability have been criticized for generating biased estimates of flow requirements and for being poorly transferable across

The high‐impact practice of undergraduate research has expanded exponentially over the past 2 decades and has become a much more integrated pursuit across all levels of the educational landscape. Such a rapid expansion and diversity of approaches to these programs have resulted in the need to better understand and evaluate their efficacy in all disciplines. The fisheries profession has long been a

For 15 long decades, the American Fisheries Society has struggled to ensure that science forms the cornerstone for managing North America's priceless aquatic treasures. Our members formed the society 5 years after the U.S. Civil War, acknowledging the need to share and promote science, even during the challenges of Reconstruction. The Society continued to share science and promote the scientific method

It has never been more clear that science must play a key role in policy decisions impacting public health. Yet, the federal law charged with safeguarding our nation’s water, the Clean Water Act (Act), is under siege from all sides, with science in the crosshairs.

Long‐term predator diet studies are powerful ecosystem monitoring tools, as has been illustrated by the use of seabird diets to assess the response of forage fish communities to changing ocean conditions (Thayer et al. 2008). In British Columbia, Chinook Oncorhynchus tshawytscha and Coho Salmon O. kisutch are good candidates for a long‐term predator diet study, due to their ubiquity in coastal waters

Electrofishing, broadly defined as the use of electricity to capture or control fish, was envisioned in an 1863 British patent application by Isham Baggs. Not until the 1920s, when large, stationary generators were available, did electrofishing applications (i.e., fish barriers) begin. After World War II , applications of electrofishing for fisheries management accelerated in diversity and portability

Increasing post‐release survival of discarded fishes is a critical challenge to the development of effective conservation and management strategies for a multitude of commercial and recreational fisheries. Among reef fishes, this challenge is further complicated by pressure‐related injuries collectively known as barotrauma. Left alone, these injuries are often fatal. Tactics to mitigate the adverse

The purpose of this case study was to examine signs as a means of communicating fish consumption advisory information to English‐ and Spanish‐speaking anglers in North Carolina. This study involved a group of stakeholders, including representatives from local and state agencies, non‐governmental organizations, and academia, as well as 38 anglers in focus group discussions to learn about their knowledge

The historical context of current environmental conditions offers vital guidance to North American fisheries professionals as they strive to develop effective management plans and policies. Through this retrospective we highlight the remarkable historic fisheries resources and reasons for establishing public fisheries agencies and the American Fisheries Society (AFS). Through a review of primary historical

Would you accept payment for your fisheries work in “company script” instead of cash? Paying impoverished employees with “company script” in leu of money is something we generally associate with coal operators, logging camps and others in the 19th century. However, in the leanest times of fisheries science during the Great Depression, research of one of AFS’s former Presidents, Homer Swingle (1957–1958)

On a cold Friday afternoon in January, 13 students from the AFS Québec Student Subunit (seven from McGill University and six from Concordia University, myself included) packed into a few cars in Montréal and drove south. We crossed the U.S. border and arrived at a beautiful wooden house in northern Vermont shortly after nightfall, soon joined by three more students from University of New Hampshire’s

Widespread declines in migratory fish highlight the need for increased global efforts to raise awareness of their value and abate threats they face. World Fish Migration Day (WFMD), coordinated by the World Fish Migration Foundation, is a biennial global celebration of open rivers and migratory fish achieved through locally organized events with the common theme of connecting fish, rivers, and people

The United States is the top seafood importer in the world. Nevertheless, opportunities to expand national seafood production, such as offshore aquaculture, are restricted by unclear frameworks for licensing, permitting, and regulating new enterprises. Currently, domestic mussel demand is reliant upon international trade but demand could be met by aquaculture within the Exclusive Economic Zone, especially

Having the longest coastlines in the world and some of the largest freshwater ecosystems, Canada has a rich history of exploitation and stewardship of its marine and freshwater fisheries resources. For thousands of years prior to European settlement, Indigenous peoples across what is now Canada utilized and managed marine and freshwater fisheries that underpinned food systems, cultural practices, and

“How is your fishing?” I used to ask people as a state fish biologist doing creel surveys. One response: “You are a f#$#ing waste of my f$%$ing money. Another said, “You G#d@#n ecologists are filled with more s#$t than the Christmas goose.” At a meeting when I was a professor: “You pointy‐headed liberals are indoctrinating our kids” (I must admit my head shape is somewhat pointy, but I classify myself

Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp. are a group of migratory fishes that support diverse economies, cultures, and ecosystems. As such, there is a broad community of salmon scientists and practitioners interested in their biology, management, and conservation. In an era of rapid global change, stakeholders face a growing challenge—and an unprecedented opportunity—to realize connections across this diverse

As the General Meeting Co‐Chairs for the 150th Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society, we welcome you to Columbus, Ohio to participate in this historic gathering of fisheries professionals. The conference is an opportunity to learn about the latest fisheries science research, reconnect with colleagues and friends, and celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the founding of AFS.

Inspired and hopeful! Those words describe how I feel after seeing worldwide and AFS member response to coronavirus. The pandemic is of course devastating, but some good things are collateral results of a world shifting gears. The kindness, hard work, and decency of people, including fisheries professionals, are on full display. AFS members and staff are staying at home and social distancing. I see

Inland fishes and fisheries make substantial contributions to individuals, society, and the environment in a changing global landscape that includes climate, water allocations, and societal changes. However, current limitations to valuing the services provided by inland fish and their fisheries often leaves them out of key decision‐making discussions. InFish is a voluntary professional network with

Fish are among the most biodiverse vertebrate groups on the planet, playing vital ecosystem roles, supporting considerable commercial, recreational, and artisanal fisheries, and delivering critical ecosystem goods and services for the world's human population. These intrinsic, ecological, and socioeconomic values of fish are well recognized. Much less widely appreciated are the diverse additional ways

Modern survey and fishery observation programs generate vast quantities of data. However, regulatory agencies often lack the capacity to translate those data into effective monitoring information. Here, we describe an approach of automated visualization of raw fisheries data and demonstrate it with a report on 113 groundfish species in Pacific Canadian waters. Our implementation consists of two pages

Recent reviews of salmon and steelhead hatchery programs have led to recommendations to reform hatchery practices and produce better supplementation outcomes. Of particular concern were reductions in performance of supplemented populations due to domestication selection attributed to hatchery production. One key recommendation was to achieve an index of domestication selection termed proportionate

Despite expanding research on the popular recreational fishery, bonefish taxonomy remains murky. The genus Albula , comprising these iconic circumtropical marine sportfishes, has a complex taxonomic history driven by highly conserved morphology. Presently, 12 putative species are spread among 3 species complexes. The cryptic morphology hinders visual identification, requiring genetic species identification

The Idaho Chapter of the American Fisheries Society (ICAFS) held its 58th annual meeting at the Coeur d’Alene Resort in beautiful Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, March 10–13, 2020. The venue featured lakeside views with easy access to the North Idaho Centennial Trail where the 2.5k/5k Spawning Run was held. Attendees included 181 professionals, 18 young professionals, 49 students, and 9 retirees. The student

A few days ago, I was talking with someone who denied human‐caused climate change was occurring. I did the only thing I could as I scientist. I apologized to him.

Poor water quality is one of the greatest threats to fish population recovery, fisheries, and aquaculture. There are examples of game fish species and species of conservation concern threatened by poor water quality conditions across North America (Warren and Burr 1994; Couillard et al. 2008). In the Missouri River–Fort Peck Reservoir, low dissolved oxygen limits Pallid Sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus

Many freshwater fish populations have been greatly reduced, with particular loss of migratory fishes. Recovering depleted populations is challenging as threats are often plentiful and complex, especially in arid environments where demands for water resources are high. Here, we describe how a collaborative, multifaceted approach has spurred natural reproduction—a major step towards Lahontan Cutthroat

The Water Resources Development Act of 2007 authorized creation of the Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee (MRRIC) to provide recommendations to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on a recovery and mitigation plan to avoid jeopardy of three endangered species (Pallid Sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus, interior least tern Sterna antillarum athalassos, and piping plover Charadrius melodus)

We adapted instructional activities from entrepreneurship and art training to improve student skills in creative problem solving in fisheries and natural resource fields. The teaching module included: (1) individual exercises that apply specific thinking strategies to improve originality, flexibility, and fluency for creative thinking; (2) group exercises using an entrepreneurial business framework

From the development of paleolithic fish hooks, spears, and nets to today’s powerful motors and high‐tech sonar, new fishing technology has usually been accompanied by increases in total effort and catch (Jackson 2001). Thus, angler innovation represents a possible mechanism driving hyperstability in catch rates and lack of self‐regulation in fisheries (Tidd et al. 2017), sometimes leading to fisheries

In this review, we focus on per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), synthetic compounds used for a variety of applications, including firefighting foam and manufacturing. Recently, researchers have linked human exposure to PFAS to negative health effects. Hundreds of communities are affected by PFAS contamination, which has raised awareness about the toxicity of these chemicals. Most work has focused

Generating public interest in fish and their biology is often challenging. Many aquatic species are cryptic and largely invisible to the public. Therefore, increasing public awareness of cryptic fishes and elevating their visibility to broad audiences requires innovation. Inexpensive technological advancements now provide fisheries biologists, managers, and researchers with means never before possible

Environmentally literate citizens capable of making informed decisions are essential to successfully managed fisheries. Fisheries‐focused environmental education programs may help build environmental literacy, but experimental evaluations are needed to determine the effectiveness of fisheries education programs. We begin addressing this need with a study of “Shad in the Classroom.” The program engages

Natural history collections provide a wealth of information beyond the scope of their initial purpose, including a historical window into host–parasite relationships. For example, collections can reveal historical infections of fishes by the freshwater gill‐maggot Salmincola californiensis, a parasite of increasing concern because of negative effects on salmonids that use large reservoirs in western

Introduced Suckermouth Armored Catfish (SAC ; family Loricariidae) have invaded freshwater ecosystems globally. In the San Marcos River, Texas, control of invasive SAC includes spearfishing through public tournaments and contracted spearfishing, yet the effectiveness of these control efforts is unquantified. We used a recently developed length‐based Bayesian biomass estimation method to assess spearfishing

High throughput next generation sequencing has propelled advances in genomic inquiry, including discoveries on the composition of the host gut microbiota. Research on mammals has demonstrated critical ways through which the gut microbiota influences host health and fitness, but applications involving fisheries are in their infancy. Given the breadth of research interests and importance of hatcheries