Symposium will address data-poor fish stocks
December 12, 2014
907-474-6703
12/12/2014
Alaska Sea Grant will mark a milestone by hosting the 30th Wakefield Fisheries Symposium in Anchorage, May 12–15, 2015.
The symposium's theme is “Tools and Strategies for Assessment and Management of Data-Limited Fish Stocks.” Researchers who would like to give presentations on data-poor fisheries can submit abstracts online at http://seagrant.uaf.edu/conferences/2015/wakefield-data-limited/call.php by Jan. 30.
The Alaska seafood industry's economic output is nearly $7 billion annually, and it employs about 77,000 people. Good fisheries management is essential to the Alaska economy and to the nation’s seafood supply. Data limitations occur in most fisheries areas around the world, and most recreational fisheries are data-poor. In Alaska, data limitations affect management of several commercial fisheries, including sharks, rays, octopus, scallops, and some crabs and rockfish.
Since 1982, Alaska Sea Grant, headquartered at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, has assisted federal and state fisheries managers by bringing together international researchers at the Lowell Wakefield Symposium Series. More than 100 researchers and fishery managers are expected to attend the May event.
The 30th Wakefield Symposium's chairman is Terrance Quinn, professor of fish population dynamics at UAF's School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. Partners are the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, North Pacific Research Board, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Alaska Fisheries Science Center.
The fisheries symposia are named in honor of Lowell Wakefield and his many contributions to Alaska's fisheries. Wakefield, who founded the Alaska king crab industry, recognized that consumers need superb seafood products and resource management must be based on the best available scientific data. Several symposia have focused on crabs, but past events have also explored, among other topics, herring, genetics, ecosystem approaches, forage fish, sea lions and fishing people of the North.
ON THE WEB: For more information on the May symposium or to submit an abstract, please visit http://seagrant.uaf.edu/conferences/2015/wakefield-data-limited/. To find out more about the Lowell Wakefield Symposium Series, see http://seagrant.uaf.edu/conferences/wakefield/index.html.