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Fisheries Collaboration Network
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Summer internships for high school students
Explore our initiatives to build community in the Society and in the fisheries profession
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Quick answers to common questions
The American Fisheries Society stands strong in its support for the federal workforce. Federal fisheries professionals serve as the stewards of America’s natural resources. But the current termination of federal employees threatens the very foundation of fisheries and aquatic resources stewardship in this country. This stewardship is at risk, and with it the public trust resources citizens have enjoyed for generations. The continued layoffs and other attempts to reduce the workforce will erode the knowledge, skills and experience needed to manage our natural resources. This will have long-term devastating impacts on everyone who relies on public lands and waters for their livelihoods and well-being, as well as devastating an essential professional workforce for years, perhaps decades. The value this workforce brings to conservation, science, and stewarding our public trust resources cannot be overstated – all of which benefits every U.S. citizen.
We’ve begun compiling the resources and information for AFS members to help you as best we can through this challenging time, along with actions that anyone who supports our federal fisheries programs can take.
Personal stories of the impacts from these jobs cuts are very helpful for our outreach to legislators and agencies. If you were terminated, not due to performance, but as a direct result of the Administration's efforts to reduce the federal workforce, please share your perspective using our online submission form.
Career Center: Visit our Career Center’s Job Board to see the latest opportunities from around North America. To assist those seeking new employment opportunities in our field, AFS is waiving the fee to list job openings in our Career Center for the next 3 months. Just use the code “AFS_Cares” when you log into your account at jobs.fisheries.org. If you help with your account or if you need to reset your password, contact membership@fisheries.org.
Webinars: We’ve launched a series of career and employment focused webinars – see below for recordings.
Resources for Federal Employees:
Resources for Organizations Affected by Grant Freezes
Communications: Those who have lost access to their email address can contact membership@fisheries.org to set up a new login for their AFS account. All members are now also able to add a secondary email address. To add a secondary email address, log into your AFS account. Under the “ADDRESSES” box, click on the “Secondary” tab. Click on the edit pencil to add your alternate email address.
Email Your Senators and Representative
Go to Congress.gov.
Look to the right of the homepage, enter your Zip Code in the search bar for “Find Your Member” and hit “enter.”
This will pull up your Senators (2) and Representative (1).
Click on the links provided for each one. There will be a prominent link or button on your Member of Congress’ website to “Contact” them.
Click on the link to email your member of Congress. This will take you to a form where you will enter your personal information, as specified, and cut and paste the following message (you can customize to describe local impacts):
Message:
“I am writing with deep concern for our nation’s fish and wildlife as a result of mass termination of federal fish and wildlife professionals and the funding freeze of federal grants. The termination of fish and wildlife professionals working in federal agencies threatens the very foundation of natural resource management in this country and will have long-term devastating impacts on public lands and waters. The indiscriminate firing of fish and wildlife biologists, hatchery managers, foresters, climate change experts, university professors, park rangers, and naturalists is unprecedented, irresponsible, and places our nation’s fish and wildlife in peril. Further, freezing previously awarded federal grants impacts important research and ongoing fish and wildlife conservation work. We are especially concerned about the dismantling of the USGS Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units that research real-world fish and wildlife management challenges in tandem with state fish and wildlife agencies and local universities. Americans who hunt and fish; visit and recreate in national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and other public lands; and benefit economically from the $1.2 trillion outdoor recreation economy will be negatively impacted by these actions. We urge you to support our nation’s fish and wildlife, stand up for these federal employees, and stand by our commitments to federal fish and wildlife research and conservation.”
Write an Op-Ed for Your Local Papers
Science Homecoming offers a quick way to find all of your local newspapers.
Record a Video
investNscience is collecting short video clips of scientists explaining their work so that people can put a face to our research and its impact.
Learn about Working with Policymakers
The American Geophysical Union has a YouTube series of videos on understanding how to work with policymakers.
The American Fisheries Society (AFS) extends our support to the furloughed fisheries and aquatics professionals affected by the U.S. federal government shutdown. This was caused by Congress being unable to reach agreement on the federal budget for the coming fiscal year. This means that critical conservation operations of our federal
This week’s paper comes from Marine & Coastal Fisheries, and was supported by the Virginia Tech Coop Unit, Sport Fish Restoration, and Sea Grant. Such a great example of fisheries collaboration. This study undertook a Management Strategy Evaluation, based on Blue Catfish management in the James River in Virginia….
As I mentioned last week, I was recently in Washington, D.C., representing AFS to a number of Congressional staffers, and meeting with fisheries folks from a variety of federal agencies. I had an outstanding meeting with David Hu and Liann Ball from the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area, and I learned
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Building Resilience for Our Profession The fisheries profession, in the United States and beyond, is experiencing unprecedented change in both speed and scope. As I contemplate this occurrence, the analogy of a construction crew comes to mind. What would our expectations of that crew be, if we knew that the
