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Marine life of Kealakekua Bay 17425 - credit HTA - Heather Goodman

154th Annual Meeting

Honolulu, Hawai'i | September 15-19, 2024
Register now
HVCB 2021

154th Annual Meeting

Honolulu, Hawai'i | September 15-19, 2024
Register now
Afternoon shadows on Leahi aka Diamond Head - Vincent Lim

154th Annual Meeting

Honolulu, Hawai'i | September 15-19, 2024
Register now

Conserving Fishes and
Fishing Traditions through
Knowledge Co-Production

fishhook transparent

The American Fisheries Society (AFS), President Cecil Jennings, the AFS Western Division, and AFS Pacific Islands Chapter are excited to host the 154th AFS Annual Meeting, September 15-19, 2024 in Honolulu, Hawai’i. The theme “Conserving Fishes and Fishing Traditions through Knowledge Co-Production” will stimulate a wide range of sessions focusing on the past, present, and future of fisheries conservation and management as we bring together professionals from across North America, the Pacific Islands, and countries throughout the world. The Honolulu Program Committee invites proposals for symposia, workshop/continuing education courses, and innovative sessions that support the theme and look to advance the fisheries profession.

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Register by July 19 to save with early rates!

Conference Timeline

Session Submission Opens
Session Submission Closes
Abstract Submission Opens
Registration Opens
Abstract Submission Closes
Early Registration Deadline
Conference Begins
December 2023
February 23, 2024
March 25, 2024
April 2024
May 3, 2024
July 19, 2024
September 15, 2024

Welcome to Hawaiʻi:
A Guide to Being a Respectful Visitor

Aloha! As attendees of the American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting, we must honor and respect the rich culture of Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) and the natural beauty of these islands. One aspect of our mission as the Respectful Meetings Working Group is to guide AFS meeting attendees to be respectful visitors, ensuring that our presence contributes positively to the local community and environment.

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Indigenous Networking Event

We are excited host a special event on Tuesday evening for Indigenous attendees to build community outside of the conference venue. This networking event will be hosted at an offsite location with limited capacity; therefore, we’re requesting that if you’re interested in attending that you RSVP through this form. 

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Explore Nearby Lodging Options

Whether you prioritize proximity to the convention center, beachfront access, great restaurants, or just a relaxed vibe, we have the perfect hotel for you at a great rate.

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Continuing Education Courses

Come to Hawai’i a little early and take your fisheries career to the next level by gaining in-demand skills right in Honolulu! Sign up when you register for the meeting, or you can add-on classes later.

Browse courses
Data viz and storytelling (1)
plain simple concise writing
antenna data
genetics
decision making
Copy of Introductory GIS for Fisheries Biologists
bayesian jags
Copy of bayesian jags
Copy of R
science communication
side scan sonar
leading at all levels
reproductive histology

Maui Nui Strong

We at AFS are deeply saddened and concerned about the recent devastating wildfires on the island of Maui. If you would like to help, please see Maui Nui Strong for more information about how to contribute to Maui Wildfire Relief.

Sessions

Knowledge Co-production and Management Strategy Evaluation

The knowledge co-production broadens the net cast when establishing what is valued and ultimately how fisheries are managed. Purposeful engagement with fishing communities allows for a critical evaluation of the effectiveness of a management process as well as establishing how a resource should be valued when exploring management options. The
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Fish as Ecological Indicators of Restoration Success

Anthropogenic changes to estuarine habitats have given rise to restoration projects all over the world. Whether the changes in an estuary are negative due to habitat degradation or positive due to successful restoration efforts, they inevitably affect inhabiting fish communities. These communities are the focal point for many stakeholders, and
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Connecting Knowledges to Assess and Monitor Aquatic Biodiversity and Ecosystem Change

On a rapidly warming planet, ecosystems are changing and aquatic species are responding by shifting ranges, phenology, and biological processes. These changes impact the people who depend on these resources to support their families, cultures, and lifeways. Considering all knowledges is essential to effectively assess and monitor these changes, and
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The Fishery Knowledge Project: Raising Communication Standards for Fisheries Management

Knowledge co-production aims to gather and integrate different types of knowledge to address, or better understand, a problem. This is critical for meeting the management demands of fishery social-ecological systems; it also raises the standard for communication and interpretation of complex information. This session invites fisheries professionals in science, management,
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Understanding How Multiple Stressors Interact and Impact Species for Place-based Management

Climate change is exacerbating existing environmental stressors through changes to the fundamental drivers of ecosystems. These changes in temperature, precipitation, seasonal cycles, biogeochemistry impact processes such as deoxygenation, nutrient and carbon cycling, respiration rates, stratification, ocean circulation, upwelling, and mixing. This leads to implications for the prevalence, severity, and duration
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Data-Driven, Community-Guided: The Future of Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management

Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) considers interacting physical, biological, economic, and social processes within an ecosystem and aims to manage an integrated system that optimizes sustainable yields. EBFM is a more holistic management approach than single species management and may be particularly important in the face of climate change. Some
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Co-production of Integrated Ecosystem-based Science for Management Decisions

There is a nationwide push for more holistic, ecosystem approaches to managing natural resources under changing conditions. For example, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Integrated Ecosystem Assessments (IEA) provide an approach that integrates multiple components of an ecosystem, including human dimensions, directly into the decision-making process of resource
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Lateral Line Depigmentation and Chronic Ulcerative Dermatopathy in Salmonids

Lateral line depigmentation (LLD) has been described using a variety of terms, including hole in the head disease and head and lateral line erosion, and has been documented in many species of marine fishes, particularly ornamental fish in captivity. Few instances of LLD have been reported in freshwater fishes, however
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Balancing Modern Science and Traditional Use to Rebuild Columbia River Salmon, Sturgeon, and Lamprey

Salmon are one of the most important aspects of the cultures of the Indigenous peoples of the Columbia River Basin.  They are rightly called Wy-Kan-Ush-Pum (Salmon People) for how completely the sacred fish shaped religion, culture, diets, and societies, and continue to do so today.  First Foods of water, fish,
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Investing in Communities, Science, and Restoration – NOAA BIL and IRA Funding

NOAA Fisheries is working with scientists, tribal nations and other community members to restore habitats and fish species via Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) investments. At this session, tribal and community partners will share how their traditional knowledge and practices—together with the NOAA investments—help achieve their
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Electronic Tagging and Telemetry: Analyses, Field Methods, and Applications to Management

The goal of this symposium is to showcase recent advancements in electronic tagging technology and its practice – from data collection and field methods to analysis and integration into conservation and management decisions, as well as novel applications that bridge disciplines. Talks showcasing the use of electronic tagging in fisheries-adjacent
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ECR Membership Feedback Cohort

We are recruiting 20 late-stage Ph.D. students, postdoctoral researchers, and early career professionals to participate in a study about membership retention with AFS. See details below.
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Collaborative Science through Fisher-Researcher Partnerships

Fishers have a wealth of knowledge and experience from the time spent on and under the water. Fisheries science is often enhanced by including the fishing community in data collection and research. It is important to continue to empower and equip fishers with tools and opportunities to participate in the
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Enhancing Fisheries Management and Conservation through Spatial Data and Data Accessibility

Fisheries management and conservation decision making is inherently spatial in nature, however use of spatial data in decision making is often hampered by a lack of data accessibility, visualization, and compatibility both within and among state and federal agencies, academia, and conservation organizations. Improving data availability, visibility, and compatibility with
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Interweaving Traditional Ecological Knowledge with Genetic/Genomic Approaches for Fisheries Conservation and Management

Effective fisheries management in the Anthropocene requires contributions from multiple knowledge sources, ways of knowing and perspectives. This session will showcase the transformative potential of interweaving Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and genomic data for fisheries management. TEK encompasses a collection of insights from diverse sources and perspectives, built on long
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Putting Fisheries Science to Work: Innovative Ways to Bridge the Knowledge-Action Gap

A “knowledge-action gap” exists in natural resources management due to social, institutional, and cultural factors. Barriers on both the knowledge-generation and knowledge-action sides of the equation present challenges for fishery researchers to generate relevant and actionable information, and for managers to integrate the best-available knowledge into their decision-making. This symposium
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Offshore Wind, Fish, and Fisheries – Emerging Knowledge and Applications

U.S. offshore wind development is expected to create 30 gigawatts of generation capacity by 2030, requiring more than 2,000 turbines. Commercial-scale offshore wind activity in U.S. waters includes 29 lease areas in the Atlantic, five in the Pacific, and one in the Gulf of Mexico, with four projects already connected
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Recent Developments and Applications of Spatio-temporal Modelling for Fisheries Management Advice

Spatio-temporal models  are widely and increasingly used, and provide important insights in ecology and fisheries management.  They extend the tradition of state-space models in fisheries science by accounting for spatial and temporal autocorrelation, and can include mechanistic processes including movement, species interactions, size/age structure, and ecological teleconnections.  They can account
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Husbandry, Health and Happy Fish:  Advances and Innovations in Aquaculture

Global aquaculture production continues to increase and is valued at nearly $7 billion in 2019 and grew by 2.7% in 2020 (FAO 2020).  Aquaculture has a highly important role in supplying a sustainable seafood source, thus taking the pressure from wild stocks, and is an important stock enhancement tool.  As
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Resilient by Design: Measuring Effectiveness of Freshwater Restoration

This symposium is dedicated to exploring diverse strategies in freshwater restoration, emphasizing the critical role of restoration in enhancing ecological resilience – the capacity of an ecosystem to resist disturbance and recover quickly. Interventions such as dam removals, control of aquatic invasive species, and community and ecosystem-level restoration initiatives, including
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Growing Fisheries Research and Management Through Angler Engagement

Anglers play an important role in providing scientists and managers with valuable data about the state of our fisheries. As new methods of angler engagement become commonplace, such as the use of mobile apps to assist in reporting, anglers are becoming ever more important to fisheries research. This symposium will
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The Art of Cross-Cultural Science Communication

The art of science is its ability to translate across cultural barriers. Science literacy has stayed stable over the past 20 years despite increased modes to provide access to science. Incorporating and elevating voices from communities and cultures outside of the traditional presentation of western science allows understanding of the
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“MacGyvering”: Innovative Problem Solving in Fisheries Science

The MacGyvers are back by popular demand! Fisheries scientists are often successful in “MacGyvering” innovative solutions to a question or problem. They do this by inventing, building, or repurposing technology or analytical tools, especially when resources or tools are limited or absent. Over time, these innovative solutions created important breakthroughs
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Pollution, Toxicity, and the Need for More Species-specific Data

Water pollution may result in toxicant exposures to fish species and habitat. These exposures have the potential to cause direct mortality, reduced growth, altered behavior, reduced fecundity, adverse modification of habitat, and reduction in prey. More data is needed to better understand the spatial extent of pollution transport, mechanisms and
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Understanding Fisheries as Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS) to Improve Management

Inland and marine fisheries are coupled human and natural systems (CHANS) in which humans and nature are linked via reciprocal interactions that operate at local, regional, and global scales.  Fisheries are central to food security, nutrition, and livelihoods globally, yet fisheries are also highly vulnerable to threats including over-exploitation, impacts
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Highlighting the Cutting Edge: Graduate and Early Career Research in Genomics

Conservation Genomics is a burgeoning field due to the rapid evolution and recent advancements of ‘omics’ technologies. The use of high-throughput and long-read sequencing methods is changing both what we can ask and how we ask it. This symposium highlights the cutting edge of genomics research in fisheries and aquatic
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Fire Effects on Surface Waters

Fires—both natural and anthropogenic—have long been features of Earth’s terrestrial landscapes. Increasing fire sizes, frequencies, and intensities are predictable components of the climate crisis. Although such fires have obvious effects on terrestrial landscapes, including human settlements, their short- and long-term effects on aquatic ecosystems are generally less evident. Therefore, the
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Getting It Right: Conservation Aquaculture for Recovery, Restoration and Supplementation

The AFS Fish Culture Section is proud to sponsor the session “Getting it Right: Conservation Aquaculture for Recovery, Restoration and Supplementation” at the upcoming 154th Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society in Honolulu, HI. The session aims to build bridges between fisheries management and captive propagation communities of practice
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Valuing Fish Populations, Habitat, and Water Quality within Social-Ecological Systems

Managers must balance the economic costs and ecological benefits of water quality and habitat improvements to maintain conditions suitable for both aquatic life and human uses. Reliable estimates of costs and benefits can aid allocating resources and communicating the rationale for restoration planning. Tools and approaches are needed that link
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Co-creating and Sharing International and Traditional Knowledge about Fish Passage and Hydropower

We aim to organise an innovative session where using online tools such as Mentimeter, we will create an engaging environment to co-create and share international and traditional knowledge about fish passage. Fish passages are century-old engineering tools used to mitigate the impacts of dams on fish migration and movement in
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To Citizen Science or Not: Building a CitSci Project for Resource Management

Many governments and organizations are encouraging the use of citizen science projects in fisheries. This session will help participants determine if and how to create a citizen science project with the potential to contribute to resource management. Questions that will be explored in this session include, is this project right
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Intergenerational Knowledge Exchange For Indigenous Marine Stewardship and Cultivation

Sustainable traditions of marine stewardship and cultivation have existed for millenia, providing deeply rooted, place-based food relations across the Pacific. Some of these resilient, sustainable and equitable food systems include Indigenous fisheries and aquaculture systems such as clam gardens, fishponds, beng, and community-based fisheries. Indigenous marine stewardship practices nourish communities
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Partnering for Innovation and Fish Protection in the Clean Energy Transition

Renewable energy is considered a necessity to reduce our world’s dependence on fossil fuels to mitigate climate change, however energy installations (both energy production facilities as well as distribution systems) come with unique challenges that impact aquatic ecosystems.  Partnerships between various sectors of the community are essential to advancing goals
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Reshaping Research and Centering Indigenous Communities in Fisheries Management

As we continue to grapple with environmental, aquatic, and social challenges, we invite scholars to join us in a session that seeks to identify solutions and strategies to improve the health of our fisheries and fisheries dependent communities for future generations. We invite speakers to share their experiences and methodologies
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Surveying 2.0 – Novel Methods for Data Collection in Recreational Fisheries

Globally, recreational fishing is a socially and economically important activity but also affects fish stocks and aquatic environments. Therefore, robust recreational fisheries data are required to support sustainable management of fish stocks and aquatic ecosystems. Technological progress and digitization have led to the development of novel data collection methods such
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Incorporating Movement and Space into Analyses of Fish, Fisheries, and Ecosystem Data

Multiple analytical tools are now available to incorporate spatially explicit habitat, movement, and mortality into models to understand the drivers of species distributions and test the effects of different management actions and/or climate change on fish distributions and population abundances. Furthermore, the amount of spatially explicit fisheries data and associated
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Moving Together with Small-scale Fisheries for Conservation

Conservation and stewardship are integral to the practice of many small-scale fisheries, especially those with long-term connection and cultural tie to the fisheries. They often have deep and insightful knowledge about the ecosystem, and in many instances, have their own conservation measures through customary law and norms. Much can be
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Resource Surveys in a Changing Landscape

Resource surveys collect a wealth of information critical for use in stock assessment and fishery management.  Conducting surveys in the face of changing environmental and climate conditions as well as coastline and structural impediments can be challenging. Collection of environmental data can also be a challenge in terms of assessing
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Advances in Quantitative Fisheries Science

Understanding the life processes of aquatic organisms and their responses to changes in their environment presents numerous challenges to fisheries science and the management of fish populations. Advances in quantitative methods are needed to transmute information from data into knowledge and infer the biological, ecological, environmental, and anthropogenic processes that
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Setting Boundaries: Integrating Biocomplexity into Assessment-Management Paradigms

Ineffective fisheries management can result when the spatial scales of assessment and management are inconsistent, or do not reflect the spatial complexity of fish biology or fishery operations. Therefore, it is important to periodically revisit the spatial assumptions of assessment and management to ensure that the scales remain appropriate and
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The Future of Pacific Salmon

Total commercial catches of Pacific salmon by all countries are at historic high levels yet there are ominous signs of a declining abundance. Total Pacific salmon catches by Canada in the past five years are annually less than 10% of the catches from 1970 to 2000. Total commercial catches of
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Animal Movement Models on Aquatic Landscapes: Climate Challenges and Solutions

Recently, there have been numerous publications of animal movement and migration models which span the gamut of cognitive behavior models to statistical approaches dealing with either a single species, or the entire trophic web, layered on underlying physical models ranging from high-resolution computational fluid dynamics models of small domains to
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Understanding the Adaptive Capacity of Fish: Resiliency in a Changing Climate

Climate change represents a significant challenge to aquatic ecosystems. Understanding how species may be affected will help determine feasible adaptation solutions. Adaptive capacity (AC – the ability of a species, ecosystem, or human system to cope with or adjust to climate change) has been applied through climate change vulnerability assessments,
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Building Fisheries Science Partnerships between Fisheries Commissions and the U.S. Geological Survey

Presentations in this symposium highlight ways fisheries commissions, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and their partners are working together on fisheries priorities in the Great Lakes and on U.S. Coasts, foster inter-regional learning, and explore whether inter-regional approaches to common challenges are feasible. Regionally based fisheries commissions play a unique
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Modern Advances in Age Estimation and Age Validation

Age is fundamental to population ecology and fisheries science. Age-structured stock assessments rely on accurate and precise estimates of age to estimate stock status and sustainable exploitation rates. Historically, age has been estimated by microscopic examination of growth zones in hard parts (e.g. – otoliths, scales, vertebrae) with the assumption
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Fishery-independent Surveys: Maximizing Capabilities and Adapting to a Changing World

Indices derived from fishery-independent survey data are crucial inputs to stock assessments that are used to provide fishery management advice. Demands on fishery-independent surveys have increased as the climate changes, industries evolve, assessments increasingly incorporate ecosystem data, and competing ocean uses introduce operational challenges. Resources for conducting surveys have frequently
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Celebrating Indigenous Fisheries Stewardship

Globally, Indigenous communities, including Kanaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiians), have practiced sustainable stewardship in their territories, exemplified by successful, high-yield fisheries predating European contact. Employing culturally informed stewardship practices, Indigenous Peoples developed deep, place-based ecological knowledge that is crucial for flourishing aquatic ecosystems. Despite the effectiveness of this stewardship, assimilative and
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Natural Land Cover: Quantifying Levels Necessary to Protect Freshwater Habitats and Conserve Species

Aquatic ecosystems evolved under watershed process regimes in connected drainage networks. Land cover type in catchments has long been recognized as being an important influence on these regimes. Aspects of aquatic habitat crucial to the persistence of native species have been shown to respond to natural vegetative land cover, including
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Emerging Threats to Northern Fish, Fishers, and Ecosystems

The Arctic and subarctic are warming at a rate up to four times the global average. This rapid environmental change has untold consequences for freshwater and marine ecosystems, the fish, and the fishers relying upon them. Examples of emerging threats include increased water temperatures (e.g., heat stress), declines in prey
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Preventing Harm from Abandoned, Lost or Derelict Fishing Gear from Capture Fisheries: Management, Policy, and Prevention

This session will explore successful management approaches to prevent and remediate harm from abandoned, lost, and discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) from capture fisheries throughout the world’s fisheries. Adverse effects of ALDFG can include entanglement of and ingestion by animals, damage to sensitive marine and nearshore habitats, release of microplastics and
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