The war on science, which has been so demoralizing in recent years, by all reason should be thwarted by the dramatic accomplishments of the SARS–Covid‐19 vaccine development. The rapidity of development, expedited testing, surprising effectiveness, and translation into manufacturing have been stunning. In the game of comparing recent accomplishments in science and technology—the Manhattan Project,

Ecosystem‐based fisheries management (EBFM) is an application of ecosystem‐based management in which abiotic, biotic, and socio‐economic interactions are considered when managing fisheries. The primary objectives of this study were: (1) to understand how state fishery scientists define EBFM; (2) to identify the perceived implementation of EBFM components within state agencies; and (3) to identify potential

Erratum for Fisheries Issue Information, Volume 45, Issue 12, Backpage: Blue Catfish Ictalurus furcatus, https://doi.org/10.1002/fsh.10552 The image in this Backpage was incorrectly identified as a Blue Catfish Ictalurus furcatus. The species is a darkly colored Channel Catfish Ictalurus punctatus. The image has been corrected in the online version. Erratum for Fisheries Issue Information, Volume 45

Canada’s Fisheries Act provides essential protection for fish and their habitat. To manage thousands of projects a year, Fisheries and Oceans Canada implements a risk‐based framework requiring authorization and offsetting for the highest risk projects. Projects considered lower risk proceed via letters of advice. Following changes to the Act in 2012, there were concerns about transparency and cumulative

Writing and publishing fisheries book reviews serves as a useful teaching tool that can provide a variety of skills, including critical thinking, scientific writing, collaboration, and the publication process. Here, I describe the process my students and I have followed over the last 25 years in publishing 19 student‐oriented book reviews, and highlight some of the lessons learned.

Despite immense resources directed towards habitat restoration, recovering fish populations remains a daunting and perplexing issue. In 2015, recommendations for a comprehensive approach to habitat restoration in the Columbia River basin were published in Fisheries, which included elements of landscape ecology and resilience, broad public support, governance for collaboration and integration, and capacity

As a volunteer organization, AFS is its members. We have a small, dedicated staff that offers invaluable assistance in executing AFS programs, but it is the members’ ideas and actions that drive our community’s direction and progress. This column tells a story of how members are once again putting ideas into action on an issue of extreme importance for fisheries conservation.

Inland fisheries face increasing threats to their sustainability. Despite speculation that depensation may exacerbate the effects of stressors on population resiliency, depensation has not been empirically explored in freshwater fisheries. Declining productivity of Walleye Sander vitreus populations in northern Wisconsin foreshadows an underlying change in naturally reproduced juvenile Walleye survival

Graduate students, attending professional meetings is the best thing you can do to kickstart your career. Professional meetings are incredible opportunities to give presentations in front of an audience of both your peers and seasoned scientists. You need this experience to practice and gain confidence in your public speaking. It might surprise you to know that those authors whose papers you have been

Theodore Nicholas Gill’s misconception of Lorenz Okenfuss's use of the Latvian vernacular name Sander for Cuvier’s French vernacular name Les Sandres, as a properly coined Latin name, led to Gill's and subsequent authors' incorrect acceptance of Sander as the senior synonym for Stizostedion. However, some authors aware Sander is a common name and never proposed as a valid generic name, have continued

River fragmentation has adverse effects on fish populations due to restricted migratory pattern, resulting in risk of population extinction. It has been hypothesized that river fragmentation has led to changes in fish population structure. To test the hypothesis, 149 Golden Mahseer Tor putitora were collected from seven locations, including the Ganga River and upstream and downstream of two impounded

Humans have a long history of extracting seemingly abundant resources from marine ecosystems. According to Ocean Recovery, fisheries can continue to provide sustainable nourishment and support global economies far into the future. The Hilborn duo take on the complexities of the past, present, and future of marine resource management from the perspective of optimistic fisheries scientists working in

Better understanding of the degree of “passability” needed to sustain robust sub‐populations upstream of barriers could help address and perhaps eliminate perceived trade‐offs between fish passage and other resource management goals. We used spatially explicit, individual‐based modeling to explore the population‐level consequences of various levels of upstream passability by (1) adult resident trout

I feel confident that we need not worry about a New World Order cabal with black helicopters and a secret underground headquarters under the Denver airport, or that jet aircraft condensation trails are being used to spread secret chemical concoctions that control the weather, population growth, and even people’s minds.

We present a 100‐Watt protocol for backpack electrofishing to capture salmonids in small streams. The protocol requires that electrofisher settings produce ~100 W of average power output. Since 2000, the protocol has been used in Idaho streams ranging in ambient conductivity from ~20–1,000 µS/cm and water temperatures from ~0–28°C, and results in satisfactory capture efficiency and desired fish response

Sustainably managing fisheries for ecological and social objectives in the current era of rapid environmental change requires that managers, scientists, and fishery stakeholders work together to find solutions to complex problems. Recognizing that multiple forms of knowledge generation exist and focusing on the strengths of different ways‐of‐knowing can facilitate a more holistic understanding of these

Virtual interviews are commonplace these days, but I want you to imagine a different kind of virtual interview for a moment; one where you aren’t worried about camera angle or saying the wrong thing; an interview that’s about drawing the other person out, putting them at their ease, and helping them tell their story. That’s what I get to do for each episode of my new podcast, and it has been more rewarding

Olaf LF Weyl, 48, Chief Scientist at the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB) passed away on the Wolf River in Hogsback, South Africa on 14 November. Born in Giessen, Germany, Olaf was raised in southern Africa, where his parents served as development workers. Driven by a passion for fishes and tireless work ethic, Olaf devoted his career towards understanding freshwater ecosystems

Long‐time professor and American Fisheries Society member Robert G. Werner (Bob) passed away on September 13, 2020 at age 84 following a 6‐month battle with cancer. Bob was an active and long‐standing supporter and contributor to AFS, the Northeast Division, and the New York Chapter, for which he served as president in 1976. He was born in Indiana and served in the U.S. Marine Corps, stationed in California

In 1976, the American Fisheries Society (AFS) launched the inaugural issue of Fisheries magazine. Nestled on the lower half of page 27 lay a photo of a bikini‐clad woman on the beach with the caption “This photo doesn’t have any direct relevance to FISHERIES, but your Editor came across it in the Society’s Hawaii meeting photo file and thought the membership might like to share the view.” In the second

It should have been one stupendous 150th celebration in Columbus, Ohio, this past August, but we all know what happened. For only the second time in AFS history, our in‐person annual meeting was cancelled (the other time being World War 2). While we were fortunate enough to host a Virtual Annual Meeting, the events celebrating the 150th in Columbus were postponed to the 2021 Annual Meeting in Baltimore

2020 has certainly been a tumultuous year for those of us in the United States, and this tumult has had effects on the entire world. The year started with the global and still growing coronavirus pandemic, and continued though controversial shootings by police in the United States and related global protests for racial justice, a number of controversial changes in U.S. environmental regulations, and

Black bass Micropterus spp. are highly sought‐after sport fish and, where introduced, are emblematic of the tradeoffs between ensuring productive fisheries and conserving native biodiversity. To disentangle these potentially conflicting interests, we administered a survey of fisheries biologists in the United States to assess perceptions regarding ecological and economic impacts of non‐native black

There are ~250,000 lakes in Ontario that support important cultural, recreational, and economic fisheries. In 2005, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry adopted the Ecological Framework for Recreational Fisheries Management to tackle the heterogeneity of lake resources and angler mobility across the landscape, increase public participation in fisheries management, and streamline an

Inland fisheries are often complex, spatially dispersed, and seasonal. A lack of monitoring can result in unreliable or incomplete catch data, suggesting a role for assessment methods based on population size structure. This paper evaluates and compares empirical size‐based indicators and the length‐based spawning potential ratio model as candidate tools for assessing data‐limited commercial fisheries

Many readers will know Don Noakes as the founding editor of Marine and Coastal Fisheries. Our fisheries science and management community lost Don on October 19, 2020 from complications associated with spinal cancer. He was only 65 years old and just retired in 2019. Don was proud to have graduated from the University of Waterloo as an engineer with expertise in applied time series modelling. He was

As an initial step towards the implementation of an ecosystem‐based approach to management, the Caribbean Fishery Management Council has recently ratified three island‐based fishery management plans that will supplant the existing regional plans. The newly formed management plans account for nuances among the island platforms in the U.S. Caribbean, including ecological, cultural, and social considerations

Nobody would argue with the premise that the human brain is a wonder of biological engineering. It composes only 2% of our body weight, but consumes around 20% of our oxygen supply, blood flow, and energy. Some 100 billion neurons can process 11 million bits of information per second. But our conscious processing only can handle around 50 bits per second, so most of what our brain is doing is invisible

Facing challenges of the COVID‐19 pandemic, government agencies had to quickly react and provide guidelines for outdoor activities such as recreational fishing. Here we review information provided by provincial and state natural resource management agencies in North America during the March–April 2020 period to collate freshwater fishing regulations implemented during the pandemic. Among the 63 jurisdictions

The 2020 Hutton Junior Fisheries Biology Program marked not only the 20th summer that the American Fisheries Society has been offering summer internship placements for high school students, but an opportunity for 11 students to still participate in their Hutton internships, despite the global pandemic. The Hutton Program is a paid internship program sponsored by the American Fisheries Society and its

Effective engagement among scientists, government agency staff, and policymakers is necessary for solving fisheries challenges, but remains challenging for a variety of reasons. We present seven practices learned from a collaborative project focused on invasive species in the Great Lakes region (USA‐CAN). These practices were based on a researcher–manager model composed of a research team, a management

The Cisco Coregonus artedi is a planktivorous fish that is widely distributed in lakes across glaciated areas of North America. With retreat of Laurentide ice, Cisco dispersed from refugia into a vast network of meltwater (proglacial) lakes that eventually receded, stranding populations in depressions—today’s lakes. Refugial populations also colonized lakes that fell outside of the footprint of a proglacial

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

Robb Francis Leary of Missoula, Montana passed on to that great fishing ground in the sky on Monday, July 27, 2020 after a long battle with several health issues. Robb was born on April 11, 1955 in Hartford, Connecticut to Frank R. Leary, Jr. and Arloa Dean Leary. He spent his childhood in the northern Connecticut towns of Suffield and Windsor Locks. In high school Robb won championships in cross country

Open Educational Resources (OERs) represent any form of educational resource that is available free of charge. Few OERs exist for courses in fisheries or other life science courses, and the onset of the COVID‐19 epidemic only exacerbates the need for such resources. To rectify this shortcoming, we build on earlier work (Grossman and Chernoff 2018) and present four OERs designed for fisheries classes

“We are living in unprecedented times.” We hear this almost daily relative to the current COVID‐19 pandemic, the related economic crises, concurrent civil unrest demanding criminal, and social justice reform. Certainly AFS is now in uncharted territory, with the cancellation of all face‐to‐face meetings forcing us to move to virtual meetings. This pandemic forced us to drastically modify the format

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.

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

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

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

Populations of Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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