On behalf of the American Fisheries Society, John Boreman provided comments to Congress regarding HR 996, the “Invasive Fish and Wildlife Prevention Act”. The final version of his letter is below. As John Boreman stated, “the Introduced Fish Section, and especially Jeff Hill, did an excellent job or preparing a balanced and useful critique”.
AFS comments on the Invasive Species Screening Act (PDF)
Thanks to Brandon Peoples and the Virginia Tech Chapter of AFS for the most recent edition of the SDAFS newsletter!
Get it HERE!
John Boreman, AFS President, distributed the attached handout at the AFS Congressional briefing on climate change and fisheries that occurred May 9th, 2013. According to John, this event was well-attended and the questions raised by the staffers were very perceptive.
The External Affairs Committee and the Potomac Chapter sponsored the event on behalf of AFS.
Are you going to the upcoming Southern Division AFS Conference in Nashville next month? If so… You are cordially invited to participate in a half-day workshop hosted by the SDAFS Black Bass Conservation Committee. The workshop will focus on progress and next steps for the Native Black Bass Initiative (NBBI). Formed in 2009 through a collaboration between the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the NBBI provides a framework for collaborative, watershed-scale conservation of endemic black bass populations in southern US rivers and streams. The 10-Year NBBI Business Plan developed in spring 2010 aims to guide more than $30M toward on-the-ground conservation projects that support the long-term sustainability of focal endemic black bass populations. The purpose of the workshop will be to review accomplishments from years 1-3 of the NBBI Business Plan, and to identify updated priorities and next steps for years 4-10.
Workshop details, including date, time and location, are included in the workshop agenda. If you have any questions about the workshop, please contact Tim Birdsong (Chair, NBBI Coordinating Committee) at (512) 389-4744 or Timothy.Birdsong@tpwd.state.tx.us .
Safe travels,
Wes Porak, Chair
SDAFS Black Bass Conservation Committee
AFS President Boreman to join us in Nashville: American Fisheries Society President and Southern Division member, John Boreman will join us for the Spring Meeting in Nashville. John has graciously agreed to serve as a judge for the Student Best Paper Session on Friday afternoon, and he will be around the meeting until Sunday. Take advantage of the opportunity to interact with the President of our Society. John will welcome the opportunity to hear about your work, interests, and concerns.
SDAFS has been a leader within AFS in terms of our widely emulated effort to podcast Spring Meeting presentations for wider viewing. This groundbreaking effort has been successful due to the tireless work of Greg Summers. We offer sincere thanks to Greg, and we welcome Jessica Baumann (NC) who will work with Greg in Nashville and then take over leadership of the podcast effort for subsequent meetings.
By the time we meet in Nashville, the Southern Division will have a new chapter: Puerto Rico! A dedicated contingent of fisheries professionals there has been working for several years to get an AFS chapter established, and this week their hard work came to fruition when the AFS Governing Board approved their petition. There still are a few details before the Chapter becomes official, but all that should be taken care of before Nashville. A contingent from Puerto Rico will be traveling to Nashville, so join us there in welcoming the newest Chapter of AFS formed in a number of years.
Featured Photo by Oquendo>Wikmedia
We have some exciting news for student activities at the upcoming Spring Meeting, to be held Feb 7-10, 2013 in Nashville.
1. A Student-Mentor Lunch will be held on Saturday February 9th. The Student-Mentor lunch pairs a student with a professional to discuss career directions and offer advice. If interested, please check the box on your registration form or contact Julie Harris (jeharris@ncsu.edu) with your name, the school you attend, and any preference you may have to meet with a mentor from an academic institute, agency, or private firm.
2. There are a limited number of free student rooms available for the annual meeting. If you are interested, please email Julie Harris (jeharris@ncsu.edu) with your contact information (name, email, address, school you attend, and phone number), as well as your gender to make appropriate room assignments. If interested, contact Julie as soon as possible, the free rooms are filling fast!
3. One officer of each student subunit will receive free registration for the meeting from the SDAFS. To receive free registration, the officer must be a member of the AFS parent society. The designated registrant must register during the early registration period (by January 15th, 2013), but will receive full reimbursement from the Division. If you are designated by your subunit to receive this offer, please contact Julie Harris (jeharris@ncsu.edu) for details.
4. Undergraduate students who are members of the parent society of AFS will receive a $35 rebate on registration. Please bring your registration receipt and proof of AFS membership to the meeting, and contact Craig Bonds (SDAFS Treasurer, craig.bonds@tpwd.state.tx.us) at the meeting for reimbursement.
5. Finally, on Sunday February 10th there will be a Student Leaders Workshop at lunch, held in the Pinnacle Room of the Sheraton. This lunch is open to any Student Subunit officer, and will include an AFS Leadership workshop by Dr. Steve McMullin, and discussion regarding the Student Colloquium. If you are an officer of a student chapter or subunit, please plan to join us for this lunch. Please RSVP to Julie Harris jeharris@ncsu.edu.
This years’ meeting is shaping up to be a terrific venue with excellent talks and turnout. Please join us in Nashville!
Cordially,
Mike S. Allen
SDAFS President Elect
We would like to thank Patrick Cooney for his hard work in developing two excellent logos for the Division vote, and for his continued work to make the image a great fit for the SDAFS. Thanks Patrick!
Congratulations to the following candidates, who were recently elected to serve the Southern Division:
Dennis Riecke, Vice-President;
Craig Bonds, Secretary/Treasurer;
Tim Churchill, Division Representative to the AFS Nominating Committee.
Balloting was extremely close, with only a few votes separating all the candidates.
The Division extends sincere thanks to Kim Bonvechio, Linda Lombardi, and Jill Jenkins, the other candidates who were willing to stand for election. All three have been strong contributors to AFS at a number of levels, and we thank them for their continued professional commitment. As a volunteer organization, SDAFS operates only on the hard work, good will, and professional ethics of its members, and all the candidates who were on our ballot are examples of such professionalism among our Division members.
Thank you to all the members who took the time to vote.
The podcasts from the 2012 SDAFS Spring Meeting in Biloxi are available for viewing here. There are 152 podcasts published but please be advised that there are presentations that are not viewable. Some were requested by authors not to be published. Others are unavailable because of “technical difficulties” (unplugged mikes, underperforming laptops and operator errors).
You will be required to have downloaded and installed either Adobe Flash Player or Adobe ShockWave Player (a link is available on the site for ShockWave) on your computer to view these presentations.
The Summer 2012 Southern Division newsletter is now online!
Podcasts from the 2011 SDAFS Spring Meeting in Tampa, FL are now available online. They can be viewed here.
Note: To view these presentations you must have downloaded and installed Adobe ShockWave Player (there is an Adobe download button on the site) and you must be using Windows Internet Explorer browser (either for Windows or Mac OS operating systems). You must also enable ActiveX on your IE browser.
Minutes from the 2011 SDAFS EXCOM and Business Meetings held in Tampa, Florida are now available for review.
The January 2007 Directory of Hatcheries located within the Southern Division has been developed by the Aquaculture Technical Committee.
The Aquaculture Committee has developed a draft BMP Plan for fish hatcheries to address new NPDES rules promulgated by the USEPA.