The Wisconsin Chapter of the American Fisheries Society held
their 42nd annual meeting a couple of weeks ago in Rothschild. Each year, fisheries students and
professionals get together to share information about current fisheries
issues. The gathering involves oral
presentations, poster sessions, smaller meetings and socials. The smaller meetings typically focus on the
organizations internal affairs but this year there was a meeting of the WDNR
Lake Michigan Team. The bulk of the
meeting is individuals giving oral presentations about ongoing or recently
completed. The poster sessions allows
individuals to present their research in poster form.
Most of the
oral presentations were about studies on individual species. The most reported on species was muskellunge, but there were also presentations on brook trout, common carp, lake sturgeon,
lake whitefish, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, walleye and zebra
mussels. The most common topic, not
including individual species, was habitat studies, including a report on the
Ozaukee fish passage program. There were
also two presentations on climate change, one on angler behavior and one on the
effects of regulation. The poster
session, like the oral presentation, was dominated by studies on individual
species. There were also posters about
studies on habitat, mercury and angler behavior, including a report on the fish
consumption by older fishermen survey.
Summaries
of each presentation are available on the Wisconsin
chapter of the American Fisheries Society website.
