American Fisheries Society
Alaska Chapter
The Alaska Chapter of the American Fisheries Society is a professional organization of individuals interested in maintaining high standards for the fisheries profession and ensuring conservation of Alaska's fisheries. This web site is a source of current information regarding the Alaska Chapter and its activities.

Aquatic Education - Arctic Fish Symposium - Continuing Education - Habitat Restoration - Awards - Continuing Education - Cultural Diversity - Electronic Communications - Environmental Concerns - Fish Key - Fisheries Information Network - Habitat Restoration - International Relations - Membership - Newsletter Editor - Past Presidents - Resolutions and Bylaws - Stocks at Risk - Student Union - Wally Noerenberg Award

Aquatic Education Committee
Pat Holmes
November 7, 1996

This year the Fisheries and Aquatic Education committee completed a reformatting of our Directory of Fisheries and Aquatic Educators and place it on the Chapter’s home page on the Internet. This will help us with our major objective: facilitating networking for our members. I received help on this project from Jeff Adams (USF&WS) and our esteemed president and resident computer net specialist Dana Schmidt. Our second project for the year "Alaskanizing" the British Columbia "Salmon in the Classroom" Intermediate Curriculum. This project is being lead by Fritz Kraus (ADF&G). Fritz has been utilizing AFS and ADF&G staff to work on redrafting this exciting fisheries education curriculum. He projects that it will be completed next year. We will be hosting our annual meeting at 7 p.m., on Tuesday Nov. 19th. We will have one or two speakers and a relaxed discussion about what’s new in fisheries and Aquatis being lead by Fritz Kraus (ADF&G). Fritz has been utilizing AFS and ADF&G staff to work on redrafting this exciting fisheries education curriculum. He projects that it will be completed next year.c education in Alaska. Everyone is welcome.

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Arctic Fish Symposium Committee
Steering Committee for the Symposium on Fish Ecology in Arctic North America
November 5, 1996

The Symposium on Fish Ecology in Arctic North America was held in Fairbanks at the University of Alaska campus, May 19-21, 1992. The Alaska Chapter organized the meeting to summarize current knowledge on the ecology of freshwater, estuarine, and marine fishes in arctic Alaska and Canada.

Since the Symposium, the principle function of this committee has been to work towards publishing a peer-reviewed Proceedings of papers given at the meeting. Dr. Jim Reynolds is editor of the Proceedings; he has coordinated the peer-review of the manuscripts and has provided direct editorial review as well.

The Proceedings for the Symposium on Fish Ecology in Arctic North America will be published in late 1996 as Number 19 in the AFS Symposium series, thanks to the persistence of the editor and the patience and perseverance of the contributing authors. A total of 34 manuscripts consisting of 1028 manuscript pages have been accepted for publication to the Proceedings, and are in final editing at the AFS editorial office. Upon publication, the parent AFS will bill the Chapter for the $30,000 to subsidize final editing and publication costs. The AFS Publication Office will store, sell, and distribute copies of the book. Income from the book will go first to recover any additional publication costs. After costs are recovered, the income will be shared 50% to AFS, 50% to the Alaska Chapter.

This is the first formal published proceedings of a symposium organized and supported by the Alaska Chapter, and successfully completes the objectives of the Alaska Chapter for this committee.

STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Alex Wertheimer, Chair

National Marine Fisheries Service

Auke Bay Fisheries Laboratory

11305 Glacier Highway

Juneau, AK 99801 789-6040; FAX 789-6094

Will Barber

Institute of Marine Science

University of Alaska Fairbanks

Fairbanks, AK 99775 (907) 474-7177; FAX 474-6040

Craig George

NSB Dept. of Wildlife Management

PO Box 69

Barrow, AK 99723 852-0350; FAX 852-0351

Robert Meyer

Minerals Management Service

949 E 36th Ave Rm 110

Anchorage, AK 99508-4302 271-6625; FAX 271-6805

James Reynolds

Alaska Cooperative Fishery Research Unit

158 AHRB, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Fairbanks, AK 99775-0110 474-7661; FAX-474-6040

James Reist

Department of Fisheries and Oceans

Freshwater Institute

501 University Crescent

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Canada R3T 2N6 (204) 983-5032; FAX 984-2403

Lyman Thorsteinson

US Park Service

Anchorage, AK 257-2566; FAX 257-2503

William Wilson

LGL Alaska Research Associates

4175 Tudor Center Drive, Suite 101

Anchorage, AK 99508 276-3339; FAX 562-7223

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Continuing Education Committee
Pat Hansen
November 1996

Summary of Activities for 1996

Mike Millard left the State and Pat Hansen took over as cochair of the committee.

1. Two courses were held this year. The first, a Mark Recapture Workshop was held in Anchorage in February. The workshop was cosponsored by the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game. Dr. Dave Bernard and Pat Hansen were the instructors. Twenty-eight people attended.

2. The second, Applications of Recruitment Models to Fisheries Data was held in early October and was attended by 30 persons. The instructors were Drs James Geaghan and Barry Moser of Louisiana State University.

3. A Technical Writing and Editing Workshop was to be held in Fairbanks. This had to be canceled due to illness of the instructor. A second session of this for Feb. in Anchorage.

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Habitat Restoration Committee
K Koski
November 6, 1996

All but one of the papers for the Habitat Restoration Symposium held in Girdwood in Sept. 1994 were edited and formatted by Kitty Mecklenburg of Pt. Stephens Press this past summer and are basically ready to be sent to the Federal Government printing office in Seattle for printing by EPA. I have delayed sending the papers to the printer because I have not finished writing a short introduction for the Proceedings and because one paper still needs final editing. I expect to have the remaining items completed by the first week in December.

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Stocks at Risk Committee
Steering Committee
November 7, 1996

Report of the Steering Committee for "IDENTIFICATION OF PACIFIC SALMON STOCKS POTENTIALLY AT RISK OF EXTINCTION IN ALASKA;" A Project of Alaska Chapter - AFS

The loss of genetic diversity within and among populations of Pacific salmon is an issue of increasing concern for resource managers. In the March 1991 issue of Fisheries, Nehlsen et al. identified 214 stocks of salmon at risk of extinction and 106 major stocks believed to be extinct in the western United States, excluding Alaska. The Endangered Species Act has now been usedto list particular populations of Pacific salmon as threatened or endangered, and specific policies have been developed by the National Marine Fisheries Service for application of the act to Pacific salmon. Major factors identified with population declines are habitat loss and damage, overfishing, and negative interactions with other fishes, including nonnative hatchery salmon and steelhead.

The Nehlsen et al. (1991) report was an important benchmark in establishing the extent of the risk of extinction to salmon populations in the northwestern United States. No such survey exists detailing whether or to what extent such risks occur for Pacific salmon in Alaska and British Columbia. The Alaska Chapter and the North Pacific International Chapter of AFS submitted proposals for surveys of salmon and steelhead in these regions. The proposals were coordinated through the parent AFS organization. In 1993, The Pew Charitable Trusts provided a $222,000 grant to implement these proposals; $106,300 came to the Alaska Chapter for the work in Alaska. The Pew Charitable Trusts, a national and international philanthropy, support a wide variety of nonprofit activities in the areas of conservation and the environment, culture, education, health and human services, public policy, and religion.

The objectives of both the Alaska and the British Columbia surveys went beyond the tabulation of stocks at risks. The surveys also provide a contextual background by including healthy stocks. This is an enormous undertaking in Alaska because of the immense size of the resource. Perhaps more overwhelming than the amount of information that is available is the recognition that data exist for only a small percentage of the populations of salmon in the state.

The Chapter formed an ad hoc Steering Committee to implement this project. The Committee is composed of fisheries professionals with broad experience with the salmon resources of Alaska. Their varied perspectives on the general status and nature of threats to the productivity and diversity of the resource are reflective of their expertise: commercial fisheries management, enhancement, sports fisheries management, habitat, and genetics.

The Committee decided that the best vehicle for acquiring the data was to contract the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Most of the quantitative information available resides in scattered locations throughout the Department. A project manager, Tim Baker, biometrician with the Commercial Fisheries Management and Development Division, was selected by the Committee to carry out the data acquisition and the initial ratings of stock status. This was not simply a pass through project to the Department, however; the Chapter, represented by the Committee, retained responsibility for designing the database structure, for the final status ratings, and for co-authorship of the final report with the Project Manager.

The final report for the project to AFS and Pew Charitable Trusts was delayed from its original completion date in 1994 to 1995. This delay was requested by both the Alaska Chapter and the North Pacific International Chapter, to ensure sufficient time for detailed reviews and revisions of the databases and the report. To help maintain the Program Manager on the job past the original grant period, National Marine Fisheries Service contributed an additional $11,000 to the project, and ADFG provided additional in-kind support of at least $35,000.

The scope of the final report was reduced from the entire State to Southeast Alaska. The resources of the contract were inadequate to complete the project for the entire State, even with the time extension and additional fiscal support. The State's position was that it underestimated the size and complexity of the project. Reasons given included: the magnitude of the resource (SE Alaska alone is larger than B.C.); the need to interactively review data and incorporate comments on database content and quality and analytical approach; and the scattered condition of escapement data in the rest of the State requiring more time to complete a comprehensive analysis.

The Committee certainly shared the State's concern that we produce a quality, credible project based on the best available data. We decided the State was making a good faith effort to complete the project, and was committed to finding resources beyond the current contract to extend the template being developed for SE Alaska to the rest of the State. The Committee must also share the responsibility for underestimating the actual personnel costs and time needed to complete this type of data base for the entire State. We speculated that to fully accomplish the survey for the rest of the State, including adequate data review, would require another 15-18 months. The Committee felt that application of the escapement analysis at the watershed level for SE Alaska will be a major accomplishment, and will provide the contiguous geographic extension of this type of survey that was the intent of the grant funding. While the scope of the survey is more limited than we had originally hoped and proposed, we think that the reality of time and funding mandated that we revise the scope in order to have a high quality, scientifically credible project.

In October of 1996, the manuscript "Evaluation of Escapements of Pacific Salmon and Steelhead in Southeast Alaska" by T. T. Baker et al. was published in the AFS journal Fisheries. Reprints of this article are available from the Committee members, and a summary of the article was published in the Fall issue of Oncorhynchus. The article accompanied the report from the North Pacific International Chapter "Status of Anadromous Salmon and Trout in British Columbia and Yukon", as well as two essays on salmon management from the Canadian and Alaskan perspectives.

Publication of the final report accomplishes the major objective of this Committee. However, the Committee should remain intact for another year for two reasons. One is to respond to public and media enquiries regarding the publication. The second is to continue to work on finalizing a data report that fully documents the data sources used for the summary article.

VOTING COMMITTEE MEMBERS......................... Phone/FAX

Alex Wertheimer - NMFS (ABL), Chair . . . 789-6040/6094

Ellen Fritts - ADF&G (HABITAT) . . . 465-4105/4759

Rocky Holmes - ADF&G (SPORT FISH) . . . 465-6187/2772

Doug Eggers - ADF&G (Comm Fish/Develop) . . . 465-4210/2604

Bob Burkett - ADF&G (Comm Fish/Develop) . . . 465-6158/4168

Tony Gharrett - UAF (CFOS) . . . 465-6445/6447

Ron Dunlap - USFS . . . 586-8772/7860

Dick Wilmot - NMFS (ABL)/ [USFWS] . . . 789-6079/6094

Project Manager

Tim Baker - ADF&G (CommFish/Develop) 267-2240/344-9238

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Environmental Concerns Committee
Annual Report for November 1995 to October 1996

The Environmental Concerns Committee (ECC), co-chaired by Bill Bechtol and Rod Simmons, provides a means for the Alaska Chapter to coordinate technical and policy analysis and provide input on environmental issues that affect aquatic resources. To guide and maintain the Alaska Chapter as a credible organization of fisheries professionals, we adopted a set of advocacy procedures. ECC activities from November 1995 through April 1996 have largely involved monitoring federal legislative action.

The Environmental Concerns Committee actively monitored the reauthorization of the Magnuson Fisheries Conservation and Management Act (MFCMA). While marking a significant step forward in the conservation of marine resources off the coast of Alaska, MCFMA domesticated many of the problems that previously characterized the foreign fleets. A major shortcoming was MFCMA’s emphasis on maximizing economic yield. This resulted in concerns over bycatch, overcapitalization, habitat protection, and long-term, biological yield. When MCFMA reauthorization was initiated in 1995, the Chapter sent letters to Alaska’s congressional delegation urging greater consideration of bycatch issues in the fisheries management. H.R. 39, passed by the house in October 1995, established definitions of bycatch, economic discards, and regulatory discards. These definitions were also implemented into senate drafts of S 39. H.R. 39 had also defined efficiency based on maximum economic value with minimum bycatch. In March 1996, the Chapter sent another letter to the Alaska delegation generally supporting the draft definitions in S 39 but stressing that biological issues should be the primary concern in fisheries management with an emphasis on long-term, sustainable yield. The Chapter supported the concept of harvest preferences, or other incentives, for low bycatch gears or for specific vessels within gear groups. It was obvious that many offshore fisheries were largely overcapitalized. Largely due to allocation issues, MFCMA reauthorization was delayed until September 1996 when passed unanimously by the senate. Much of the credit for the reauthorization of this important legislation is due to the efforts of Senators Ted Stevens (AK) and John Kerry (MA).

The ECC helped draft an issues statement for consideration by Alaska Lt. Governor Fran Ulmer in her presentation to a Sustainable Fisheries Meeting. This meeting addressed some of the inter- jurisdictional salmon issues. The Chapter stressed considerations for the entire life history of salmon, particularly the importance of spawning and juvenile habitat to total population production.

The ECC continued to monitor reauthorizations of the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. Both reauthorizations were stalled in subcommittees, largely as a result of political battles over the rights of private property owners.

The ECC monitored developments in timber legislation. Rapid legislative and agency changes made changes in both state and federal timber harvest programs difficult to follow. Recently, the ECC has worked to address the extensive existing and proposed logging of the Kenai Peninsula and other areas in Alaska in response to spruce bark beetle infestations. Although bark beetle infestations are severe in some areas, the impacts of widescale logging are often more devastating to aquatic production than allowing the forest to cycle and regenerate. In addition, the spruce mortality associated with infestations is often far less than occurs through clearcut timber practices. The Alaska Chapter is not opposed to logging but does support forest practices which do not compromise the health of our aquatic resources.

With the electronic communication age upon us, the ECC continues to research conservation information on the Internet. The ECC also continues to solicit committee members to track environmental issues of interest. Interested Chapter members should contact Bill Bechtol (ph:235-8191; email:billb%fishgame@state.ak.us).

Current ECC Membership and Primary Areas of Interest:

Bill Bechtol - Marine groundfish

Eric Knudsen - SE interceptive fisheries

Cal Casipit - SE logging

Rod Simmons - ESA & CWA

Brenda Wright - SE logging

Christopher Estes - Water Quantity

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International Relations Committee
Mark Stopha
November 1996

A letter was sent to the Volunteer in Overseas Cooperative Assistance (VOCA), Washington, DC, to inform the organization of the Alaska AFS chapter’s pool of expertise for overseas fisheries assistance.

During 1996, information was publicized through the Oncorhynchus newsletter and the chapter internet homepage for overseas volunteer work through VOCA and applications were made available. Seven responses were received, with applications sent to each. Dan Rosenberg, a retired ADFG fish culturist most recently at Snettisham hatchery, worked for 3 weeks in Belarus in November of 1995 assessing fish farming and tourist recreational fishing potential. He is currently considering a stint in Egypt to provide advice and instruction on setting up an aquaculture water quality laboratory. Communication with VOCA needs improvement, as word of the Egypt position was received through the chairman’s colleague in Delaware, not through the parent organization.

Current activities include a follow-up letter to VOCA reiterating our chapter’s available expertise and the member interest in working overseas. The chairman is also working with the national International Fisheries Section in coordinating world-wide e-mail communication.

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Resolutions and Bylaws Committee
November 1996

No resolutions were submitted to the Resolutions/Bylaws Committee during this past year.

A proposal has been made to the committee, through the Chapter President that the Chapter Secretary/Treasurer position needs to be expanded because of an accumulation of duties and responsibilities beyond the capabilities of one person.

There are a couple of options which have merit.

1. A second elected position could be added to work with the Secretary/Treasurer, both serving staggered two year terms.
2. The existing position could be split resulting in elected positions for a seceratary and a Treasurer.
3. An ad hoc committee of one or two could be appointed by the President to serve under and assist the Secretary/Treasurer.

The first two options would require a modification of the Chapter Bylaws approved by a two thirds majority of the membership.. These options would also require the Bylaws to be modified again if the duties declined and the extra elected position was no longer needed.

The third option requires no administrative adjustments.

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Past Presidents Committee
Charles P. Meacham
November 1996

The Past Presidents Committee met for the third time during the Chapter's 22nd annual meeting in Wasilla, November 16, 1995. The committee's procedures manual, completed through the efforts of Bill Wilson with the assistance of a number of other past presidents, was received. New business discussions centered around the growing complexity of the Chapter's activities and how the Past Presidents Committee could be most useful to the chapter. Comments were offered regarding (1) the need for a more formal audit process since the chapter's financial transactions had grown significantly, (2) the value to the chapter of an editorial committee (3) the need for a "future projects" group with the possibility that planning of this nature could be accomplished by the Past Presidents Committee, (4) the value of a strong "continuing education" presence by the chapter, (5) offering the services of the Past Presidents Committee to the Alaska Chapter to address fishery requests from the Governor's Office and the Legislature.

The chapter was asked by the Lieutenant Governor to suggest names of non-residents with fishery expertise for nomination to the board of directors of the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation.

The committee assisted the EXCOM with this task and hand delivered the names of five possible candidates to Lieutenant Governor Fran Ulmer. Visits were made to the Senate and House Resources Committee chairmen and to the Governor's office on behalf of Chapter President Dana Schmidt offering chapter help on fisheries related technical and/or conservation issues. No requests were forthcoming.

Program planning assistance was provided to president-elect Peggy Merritt, including names of possible banquet speakers. The committee mailing list was updated and agenda sent to past presidents for our meeting in Fairbanks on November 20, 1996.

As of the end of the 1996 annual Chapter meeting, our members are:

Ralph Pirtle

Louis Carufel

Joe Webb

Jim Reynolds

Gary Sanders

Ted Merrell

Bill Wilson

Chuck Meacham

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Cultural Diversity Committee
November 1996

During the past year the Committee continued to concentrate its efforts on fund raising for its travel awards. Brenda Wright, Alaska Chapter Secretary-Treasurer, has established a CD to maintain the funds until the first award is bestowed.

The Western Division reviewed the Committee’s request for financial assistance. They approved funding in the amount of $1000.00. The Chapter Ex-Comm has approved matching funds for a total contribution of $2000.00.

In addition, the Committee has taken the initiative and is organizing the Chapter’s 1996 Annual Meeting Raffle. All proceeds from the raffle, after the cost of the raffle prizes is deducted, will be added to the funds for the travel awards.

Currently, the Committee is looking for a new chair. This person’s responsibilities will include a report to the Western Division itemizing the use of the grant prior to June 19th.

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Electronic Communications Committee
Norma Jean Sands
November 15, 1996

This is a new committee established by our President at the last chapter annual meeting in Wasilla. The main purpose of this committee is to maintain and keep current the Alaska Chapter web site on the internet. During this past year the pages of the web site have been standardized to achieve cohesion and identity between pages, links have been established between relevant topics among the pages, each newsletter that has been put out this year has been made available on our web site, and information about training courses and meetings have been posted.

Soon to be done are adding the by-laws and the directory of Fisheries and Aquatic Educators completed by the Education Committee and reformatting the Procedures Manual to a more user friendly electronic style. This committee is also interested in hearing what members would like to see on our web site. The web site address is http:\\www.alaska.net\~fishak\ (currently mirrored on our future site at: http://www.fisheries.org/afs-ak/) and the e-mail address for sending comment about and contributions to the web site is fishak@alaska.net.

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Fish Key Committee
Bill Wilson
November 1996

The Alaska Chapter's Fish Key Committee continued to administer and give oversight to our contractors, Point Stephens Research Associates, in making progress toward completing the Annotated Keys to the Fishes of Alaska. Catherine and Tony Mecklenburg have made great progress on this project during 1996, and the following summarizes their efforts. Funds spent since November 1995 are $46,200. The project is on schedule.

New Species Descriptions

Point Stephens Research Associates (PSRA) prepared drafts of two large groups of fishes which complete the treatment in this book of the Order Scorpaeniformes. The sculpin draft includes descriptions of 100 species distributed among four families (Rhamphocottidae, Cottidae, Hemitripteridae, Psychrolutidae). The lumpfish and snailfish draft includes 72 species in two families (Cyclopteridae and Liparidae). The most recent tally of the number of species likely to be in the book gives 596 species. Completion of the two groups so far this year makes a total of 403 species drafted so far, or 68% of the anticipated total.

These groups were particularly difficult because much of their taxonomy is controversial among ichthyologists, and Rae Baxter's manuscript for these groups was rougher and more incomplete than for most other groups.

PSRA is part way through preparation of a draft for the last group of fishes of the Order Perciformes, which is the eelpouts, family Zoarcidae. That draft is due for completion in December 1996.

PSRA has obtained and reviewed the relevant literature on each species; reviewed Rae Baxter's manuscript and data and incorporated the best of his materials; obtained and referred to databases from the University of Washington and University of British Columbia fish collections; and conferred with ichthyologists and marine biologists at the Royal British Columbia Museum at Victoria, B.C., Auke Bay Laboratory, University of Alaska, and other institutions. They have researched and wrote short range and habitat descriptions and portrayed the ranges on individual maps, located and decided on appropriate illustrations, obtained the publications in which they originally appeared if they were from earlier literature, scanned and touched them up on a computer, and output them at 2400 dpi for use in the various drafts. Some of the illustrations have not previously been published, but are original illustrations based on Alaskan specimens and donated by Dr. Norman Wilimovsky. Dr. Alex E. Peden has offered the use of several other illustrations. For each species, PSRA has included a section called Notes & Sources, which includes one or more references to the best descriptions available in the literature, selected synonyms, sources of the illustrations and data on the specimens illustrated, a summary of the sources for range with brief discussion of uncertainties, and sources for maximum reported sizes. Departures from previous literature are summarized in the individual Notes & Sources for each species, and discussed in the introductions to the families.

Previously Drafted Species Descriptions

PSRA has been revising the groups of fishes previously drafted, in response to newly available literature and reviews and discussions with ichthyologists and marine biologists, and to incorporate the kinds of information that were not included in those earlier drafts. For example, the references to best literature descriptions are added, as well as synonymies and sources of maximum length. Maps and range descriptions are being redrafted to incorporate additional information. Many illustrations are being replaced with those made available by Drs. Wilimovsky and Peden, or newly found illustrations from the literature. Even the order in which the higher taxa are presented has been changed, to reflect recent taxonomic opinion.

It will not be possible to fully revise any one group before PSRA is finished with the first draft of the whole Alaskan ichthyofauna, so they are working on them all simultaneously. After producing individual drafts for all eight review groups, PSRA will revise all groups and produce a single, comprehensive draft.

Classification and List of the Fishes of Alaska

PSRA moved ahead in the schedule and completed the first draft of the classification and list of Alaskan fish species. All the native fishes of Alaska are listed, as are species from adjacent waters most likely to eventually be found here, and introduced species, under the higher taxa recognized by Nelson (1994) in his recent revision of fish classification. The order of presentation of the higher taxa in the present work will follow Nelson's sequence; that is, it reflects current thought on postulated phylogeny. The listing of the Alaskan fish species provides an inventory or checklist within the framework of the classification. Tallies from this list are: native Alaskan species, 474; occurrence in Alaska doubtful or unverified, 54; artificially introduced (not necessarily successful), 3; and could be expected to occur here or are included for comparison, 65 (total = 596). These numbers are very preliminary and subject to change.

Bibliography

PSRA produced revised drafts of the Bibliography to accompany each review group of fishes. In the most recent draft, they have added many items, but removed others. All manuscripts are now deleted, as they are now cited in the text as personal communications. Redundant items, such as reports that were later published in peer-reviewed literature, have been removed. The Bibliography now comprises 46 pages of small type, and must be the most complete bibliography of ichthyological materials available on the Alaskan ichthyofauna.

Monthly Reports

Our contractors have provided the Fish Key Committee and the Chapter Executive Committee more detailed descriptions of work in monthly reports. Each month, the Fish Key Committee reviews the monthly reports, and payment of the monthly invoice is approved. Anomalies or problems are discussed and resolved between the Fish Key Committee and the contractors.

For more information, contact: Bill Wilson, LGL Alaska Research Associates, Inc., 4175 Tudor Centre Drive, Suite 202, Anchorage, AK 99508 (907-562-3339) or Lyman Thorsteinson, National Biological Service, Western Regional Office, 909 First Ave., Suite 800, Seattle, WA 98104 (206-220-4614).

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Wally Noerenburg Award Committee
William D. Arvey
November 13, 1996

Committe Chair: Bill Arvey

Committee Members: Alex Wertheimer, Joe Webb, Norm Howse

Committee Activity during reporting period:

Nominations were solicited during the November 1995 Annual meeting in Wasilla, and via published announcement in the Chapter newsletter, Oncorhynchus. Deadline for receiving nominations was July 31, 1996. No nominations were received, and therefore no candidates were put forth for consideration by the committee in 1996.

Chapter president Dana Schmidt ordered the plague for the 1995 award recipient, Ken Roberson, and the plaque was delivered to Glenallen sometime in late September of 1996. Since Ken Roberson had been away from town for some time, the plaque has not been formally delivered as of November 13, 1996.

There were no further Committee activities to report for the period.

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Awards Committee

No Report

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Fisheries Action/Information Network Committee
Lisa Seeb, FIN Coordinator, Alaska Chapter
November 1996

The Fisheries Information Network (FAN) of AFS has gone through a year of transition with a change of name and loss of a national coordinator due to funding shortfalls. FAN has now been renamed to the Fisheries Information Network (FIN) to reflect an emphasis on dissemination of fisheries conservation information to the public and to reduce the perception of advocacy. Unfortunately, Pam McClelland, the former FAN coordinator, is no longer with the national office. Further, the Fisheries Action News has now been replaced with "Hooked In" an insert in Fisheries that is published biannually.

Stocks at risk continued to be a major emphasis of FIN during the last year. Of particular interest to the Alaska Chapter, the results of the stocks at risk studies for Alaska and British Columbia, a FAN project, were published in the October issue of Fisheries. FIN also assisted with the Western Division symposium held this year entitled "Toward Sustainable Fisheries".

FIN encourages local chapters and sections to communicate scientific information to the public. To aid is this effort, they have a computer database program available to the units to compile rosters of member expertise in fisheries and aquatic resource management. This program is available to the Alaska Chapter, and a survey and resulting database could be developed should sufficient interest exist.

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Student Unit Committee
Klaaus G. Wuttig
January 31, 1997

Activities of the student unit since the last Alaska Chapter AFS have consisted of four meetings and our fund raising projects. The first meeting was attending the 1995 Alaska Chapter AFS meeting in Wasilla. In April of 1996, the spring social and officer elections were held. At the time of the meeting the student unit consisted of three active members and each was assigned to a position. Klaus Wuttig was elected president, Mike Daigneault vice president, and Ted Lambert treasurer. During the fall of 1996 we have held two meetings and plan on attending the Alaska Chapter meeting in Fairbanks. In October, the annual fall potluck and social was held featuring a video of "hook and line sampling for sheefish on the Kobuk River". From this meeting the student unit recruited five new members raising our total to seven members. In November, the student unit presented a guest speaker, Dr. Brian Himmelbloom from the Fishery Industrial Technology Center in Kodiak, Alaska.

The unit fundraising activities consisted of the selling of T-shirts, cookbooks, and videotapes of presentations given at last years Alaska Chapter meeting. The unit received approximately 15 requests for videotapes. The student unit does plan on continuing the production and selling of videotapes. The videotape sales makes a small contribution to the club funds, and we feel it provides a service to AFS by documenting the conference and provides the opportunity for continuing education. A special thanks goes out to Ray Hander for the numerous hour he spent editing and preparing the master copies of the videotapes from last years meeting.

Plans for the up coming year consist of continuing the socials and the presentation of guest speakers. One of our primary goals for the upcoming year is the recruitment of undergraduate students and encouraging a more active role by the undergraduate members. Historically, the student unit has been comprised of a handful of graduate students and we the officers wish to reverse this trend.

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Membership Committee

No Report

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Program Committee

The Program Committee for the upcoming annual meeting has no report; however, if you have ideas and would like to contribute them, send comments to Mason "Buck" Bryant at mbryant@ptialaska.net.

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Newsletter Editor

He is too busy putting together the newsletters to write a report! If you would like to contribute to the newsletter, sent items to Mike Murphy at mmurphy@noaa.gov.

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This page last updated December 15, 1996.

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Interested in participating in one of our committees? Contact: fishak@alaska.net

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