News

Functional Age as an Indicator of Reservoir Senescence

It has been conjectured that reservoirs differ in the rate at which they manifest senescence, but no attempt has been made to find an indicator of senescence that performs better than chronological age. We assembled an indicator of functional age by creating a multimetric scale consisting of 10 metrics descriptive of reservoir environments that were... Read More

Development of Fish Passage in China

China began to develop fish passage at hydroelectric dams in the 1960s, but few were implemented until the 2000s, when a federal law was passed in 2002 that required fish passage at new hydroelectric dams that block fish migrations. Because of this regulation, in the past 10 years, about 40 fish passage facilities have been... Read More

Myths That Continue to Impede Progress in Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management

Ecosystem-based fisheries management has been perceived as something desirable but pragmatically unachievable due to several impediments identified earlier during its implementation phase. Over the years, many of these impediments have been resolved but not well communicated to stakeholders, managers, scientists, and policymakers. As a result, several past impediments to implementing ecosystem-based fisheries management have taken... Read More

News Bites – March 2015

Empirical Dynamic Modeling: what is it and how does it forecast salmon fisheries? Which fish are the smartest?  What is driving declining seagull populations in the Salish Sea? How do you sample beluga whale breath? An impressive collection of baby fish photographs Are humans affecting how fish find their way home? Pacific sardine populations collapsing Reconsidering... Read More

Highlights of Fisheries Magazine – March 2015

Highlights of Fisheries Magazine – March 2015 In this Issue: President’s Commentary • AFS Membership: How Much Should it Cost? by Donna Parrish Policy • Our Renewed Effort to Make the Most of Science by Thomas E. Bigford Journal Summaries • AFS Journals Support Sustainable Aquaculture • Predicting Brook Trout occurrence in stream reaches throughout... Read More

Imprinting of Hatchery-Reared Salmon to Targeted Spawning Locations

A New Embryonic Imprinting Paradigm for Hatchery Programs Straying by hatchery-reared salmon is a major concern for conservation and recovery of many salmon populations. Fisheries managers have attempted to minimize negative ecological and genetic interactions between hatchery and wild fish by using parr-smolt acclimation facilities to ensure successful olfactory imprinting and homing fidelity. However, the... Read More

Relating Scientific Names to Common Names for Important Fisheries Species of the Mexican Pacific

by Mauricio Ramírez-Rodríguez Publications that involve the identification of important fisheries species generally do not relate scientific names to common names in landing records. For this reason, and in order to contribute to improving the  quality of fisheries statistics and the works based on them, Mexico’s National Commission of Aquaculture and Fisheries (CONAPESCA) and the... Read More

A Historical Record of Sawfish in the Southern Gulf of Mexico: Evidence of Diversity Loss Using Old Photos

by Manuel Mendoza-Carranza and Alejandro Espinoza-Tenorio (Fisheries magazine: February 2015) Despite the conspicuous character of sawfish (Pristis spp.) in shallow estuarine waters, current records in the southern Gulf of Mexico are so scarce that they have been declared locally extinct from many areas where they formerly occurred (Fernandez-Carvalho et al. 2013). In Mexican waters of... Read More

Conserving Pacific Lamprey through Collaborative Efforts

Pacific Lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus) have been an important part of the ecological community and co-evolved with aquatic species of the western rivers of the United States. Scarce information on Pacific Lamprey has hindered conservation and management efforts. To assess and conserve Pacific Lamprey, we developed a conservation initiative composed of three parts: assessment, conservation agreement,... Read More