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What is Fisheries Science?

What is Fisheries Science?. Eric Hallerman, Head, Dept. of Fisheries & Wildlife Sciences. What is Fisheries Science?. The study of fish, their habitat, humans exploiting them, and all their interactions. Goal – to sustain fisheries resources for future generations.

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What is Fisheries Science?

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  1. What is Fisheries Science? Eric Hallerman, Head, Dept. of Fisheries & Wildlife Sciences

  2. What is Fisheries Science? The study of fish, their habitat, humans exploiting them, and all their interactions Goal – to sustain fisheries resources for future generations

  3. Effect of large woody debris Freshwater fisheries management • Coldwater fisheries management • Focus on maintaining native brook trout Evaluation of streamside buffer zones • Landscape-scale effects of temperature Evaluation of the effects of stream crossings

  4. Freshwater fisheries management River fisheries management • Focus on maintaining native fishes, game and non-game • Shenandoah River: Habitat modeling to inform water use decisions in ShenandoahBasin • New River: Marker-assisted restoration of the native walleye stock • Smith River:New operating regimes for Philpott Dam recommended based on 5 years of population and habitat analyses

  5. Freshwater fisheries management • Reservoir fisheries management • Focus on sport fisheries • Reproductive failure of bass in Virginia’s trophy lakes: • Assessing and modeling individual growth and condition • Protected spawning areas • Management of striped bass in Smith Mountain Lake

  6. Freshwater fisheries management Lakes and rivers fisheries management (international) Mexico – invasive species (aquatic vegetation) Cuba – tourism development (largemouth bass) Nicaragua – invasive species (tilapia) * China – hydropower impacts on fisheries, overfishing problems (poverty)

  7. Management of non-game species • Landscape-scale models of fish distribution and abundance • Habitat associations and causes of rarity in fishes • Use of fish communities to assess water quality • Development of risk-assessment tools for conservation planning

  8. Management of non-game species • ~300 freshwater mussel species in North America • 35 sp. considered extinct • ~70% listed as threatened or endangered • Tennessee River system a biodiversity hotspot… • What can we do to conserve freshwater mussels? • Habitat protection, incl. host fishes, population transfer and augmentation

  9. Forest Agriculture Urban Watershed management • Move towards ecosystem, as opposed to single-species management • Fish in the Shenandoah River are dying in large numbers and we don't know why.April-July 2005: 80% of small-mouth bass and redbreast sunfish died in >100 miles of South Fork Shenandoah River in Virginia.April-July 2006: reports of dead fish continue; hundreds of two of the river's three sucker species are also dying. • Multiple causes, under assessment…

  10. Fish biology • Disciplines: Physiology, genetics, nutrition toxicology, … • Focus on aquatic population genetics: • Which of our brook trout populations are native? • Restoration of native New River walleye • What is the population structure of horseshoe crabs, and how should that affect management? • Which freshwater mussel populations can be used to augment others?

  11. Marine fisheries management • Population dynamics and stock assessment for fishery resources • Fisheries management • design of management programs • Adaptive management • Develop new models and new modeling approaches in fisheries • Groupers, hammerhead sharks, horseshoe crabs • Single-species management, move towards ecosystem management

  12. Human dimensions of fisheries management • How best to involve the public in setting of management policy? • Succession planning for the fisheries and wildlife profession • Management effectiveness of state fish and wildlife agencies • Evaluation of outreach efforts • Continuing education—leadership development, public involvement

  13. Aquaculture • Marine fisheries declining • Aquaculture growing What are the major species produced globally? What are the major species produced in the United States?

  14. Production of food fishes • Classical production systems: • Channel catfish in ponds • Rainbow trout in raceways

  15. Production of food fishes • Recirculating aquaculture systems • Physiology, nutrition, genetics • Cobia, shrimp, flounder, tilapia

  16. Conservation aquaculture Freshwater mussels for out-planting

  17. Is this the kind of work you would enjoy?

  18. What do students of fisheries science study? • Principles of Fisheries and Wildlife Management • Field Techniques • Ichthyology • Fish Ecology • Aquaculture • Fisheries Management • Undergraduate Research or Internship Experience

  19. Where do our graduates go? • Graduate school • State fisheries management agencies, e.g., VDGIF • Federal fisheries management agencies: e.g., USFWS, NMFS, FERC • Consulting firms • Aquaculture firms

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