FRANCIS JUANES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA RECEIVES AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 17, 2024

Contact: Beth Beard
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FRANCIS JUANES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA
RECEIVES AWARD OF EXCELLENCE FROM THE AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY

(Honolulu) September 17, 2024 – Francis Juanes, Ph.D., Liber Ero Professor of Fisheries at the University of Victoria, received the Award of Excellence at the American Fisheries Society (AFS) 154th Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawai’i. AFS President Cecil Jennings and President Elect Miguel Garcia presented the award to Juanes at one of the conference’s plenary sessions. The Award of Excellence is the Society’s highest award for scientific achievement. It recognizes original and outstanding scientific contributions in the fields of fisheries and aquatic biology.

Dr. Juanes, a distinguished coastal and estuarine ecologist, has dedicated his career to conducting research in fisheries ecology that has advanced ecological theory and filled significant gaps for management agencies internationally. His team’s work has been pivotal in quantifying how individuals, populations, and communities respond to environmental and anthropogenic changes.

“Dr. Juanes’ diverse career explores how fish interact with their environment, and the impact human activities have on them,” President Elect Garcia said.

Dr. Juanes’ earlier work at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst focused on predator-prey dynamics of piscivorous fishes and life history variability of Atlantic salmon, and made significant contributions to foraging theory.

At UVic, Dr. Juanes’ team has strategically focused on the early marine phase life history stage for Pacific salmon. His trailblazing research in winter ecology of juvenile salmonids addresses a critical gap in understanding the decline of many Pacific salmonids and predicting the impacts of climate change.

The Juanes Lab also runs the highly collaborative Adult Salmon Diet Program (ASDP), funded by the Pacific Salmon Foundation. Its objectives are to describe salmon diets throughout British Columbia and to use these diets as indicators of spatial and temporal ecosystem change.

More recently, Dr. Juanes’ team has expanded its scope to consider the entire underwater soundscape to quantify the effects of increased anthropogenic noise on marine species and habitats, including several fish species, invertebrates, and marine mammals. The Juanes Lab is now part of global efforts to influence legislation to mitigate the effects of noise. Canada (and most other countries) do not regulate underwater noise, despite the increasing evidence of its pervasiveness as a pollutant and its harm to aquatic fauna. Evidence provided by the Juanes Lab is being used to help develop national strategies for noise mitigation, particularly Canada’s Ocean Noise Strategy.

Lastly, Dr. Juanes is a longstanding member of AFS. His contributions include a past role as an associate editor of Transactions of the American Fisheries Society and since 2005 the AFS Book Review Editor. He has actively engaged with students at various chapter, division, and society meetings, mentored several Hutton Fellows, and co-organized the AFS Early Life History Section meeting in Victoria in 2018.

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Editor’s Notes:

A high-resolution photo of the award presentation is available: https://flic.kr/p/2qiTDbM. Dr. Juanes was also recently interviewed on the AFS Beneath the Surface podcast.

Founded in 1870, the American Fisheries Society (AFS) is the world’s oldest and largest fisheries science society. The mission of AFS is to improve the conservation and sustainability of fishery resources and aquatic ecosystems by advancing fisheries and aquatic science and promoting the development of fisheries professionals. With five journals and numerous books and conferences, AFS is the leading source of fisheries science and management information in North America and around the world.