ONCORHYNCHUS
Vol. XVI No. 3 Summer 1996
In this issue:
1996 Annual Meeting
Peggy Merritt, President-Elect
The 1996 annual meeting of the Alaska Chapter will be at the Princess Hotel,
Fairbanks, November 19-21. Call (800) 426-0500 for reservations at the
Fairbanks Princess Hotel and be sure to say you are with the American
Fisheries Society to get a rate of $69 per night single or double occupancy.
The meeting theme is "Inter-relating Biology, Socioeconomics, and Politics
to Manage Alaska's Fisheries."
I am pleased to report that all session chairs are in place and that two sessions
(Yukon River and Fishery Values) are just about filled. In addition to the sessions,
workgroups will have an opportunity to meet in rooms adjoining the main conference area.
Workgroups will be more loosely structured than the sessions to allow interactive discussion
and hands-on demonstration. Please contact me if you are interested in organizing an additional
workgroup or working luncheon. Session chairs and workgroup hosts can be contacted directly
if you are interested in presenting a paper or poster, or you are welcome to contact me.
I look forward to hearing from you. Peggy Merritt, ADFG Sport Fish Division, 1300 College
Rd., Fairbanks 99701; 459-7296; fax 456-2259;
pmerritt@fishgame.state.ak.us .
- Optimization Methods for Multiple Objectives Milo Adkison, Chair, 786-3576;
- Papers: Results
and conclusions from the National Research Council OSB study on marine fish stock assessment
models, T. Quinn; Balancing conservation, economic, and political concerns in multi-stock
fisheries management of Pacific salmon: a model simulation, N. Sands.
- Yukon River, Tom Kron and Burt Hunt, Co-Chairs;
- Papers: Consequences of alternative management
actions on a stochastic sequential fishery: the Yukon River salmon fishery, K. Criddle;
Analysis of basin wide relationships between Yukon River chum salmon production and possible
environmental drivers, E. Knudsen; Upper Yukon-Porcupine River fall chum salmon radio telemetry
and mark-recapture program, Lubinsky and Eiler; Alaskan and Canadian Yukon management processes,
Kron and Johnston; Canadian non-governmental advisory processes, G. Coutere; Salmon
Subcommittee, G. Zealand; Genetic and scale pattern analysis stock identification, Seeb and
Schniederhan; Subsistence salmon fisheries, Borva and Hammner; Y.R.D.F.A., D. Albrecht; Habitat
and Enhancement Bureau, Y.T., G. Faulkner.
- North Pacific International Fisheries, Bryan Hebden, Chair (604) 371-6927;
- Papers: Groundfish
fisheries and biodiversity in northern oceans, A. Tyler.
- Watershed Management Relating to Fisheries, Jackie LaPerriere, Chair; 474-6043;
- Papers: Dolly Varden response to a lead-zinc mine, P. Weber-Scannell; Watershed management
relating to fisheries in the Delta Clearwater River, F. Parker; Seasonal distribution of
habitats used by juvenile steelhead in southeast Alaska: management implications, B. Wright.
- Freshwater Fisheries--Multi-Agency Issues and Solutions, John Burr, Chair, 459-7220;
- Papers:
An overview of the cooperative Dall River research project, Burr and James.
Fishery Values, Mike Mills, Chair; Papers: Tanana Valley major stocked-water angler survey:
use and valuation estimates, J. Duffield.
- Contributed Papers, Judy Gordon, Chair, 456-0511.
- Posters, David Wiswar, Chair, 456-0453.
- Workgroups:
- Sheefish research and management, Tevis Underwood, Host, 456-0512;
- Age-structured assessment models, Fritz Funk, Host, 465-6113;
- Chum Salmon, Eric Knudsen, Host, 786-3512.
K Koski, Chair
Since the Chapter sponsored the Habitat Restoration Symposium in September 1994, restoration
activities in Alaska have gathered more momentum. A good example of a successful restoration
project is the ongoing community-based effort to restore Duck Creek in Juneau. Duck Creek was
once high-quality habitat for anadromous fish but now is one of 30 streams listed by ADEC as
impaired by urban runoff. Since the 1960s, Duck Creek was managed mainly for urban drainage
and shows the cumulative effects of pollution, water diversion, channelization, and loss of
wetland and estuarine functions. Restoration is being directed by a coalition of more than
20 community groups and agencies, called the Duck Creek Advisory Group (DCAG). The DCAG found
that many public land managers and private land owners are either unaware of common best
management practices (BMPs) for urban watersheds or are skeptical of BMPs that are untested
in Alaska. Consequently, the DCAG is working with land managers and owners in the Duck Creek
basin to demonstrate and test urban watershed management, pollution abatement, and restoration
strategies that can be applied throughout Alaska. For more information about the Duck Creek
restoration project or about the restoration symposium proceedings due out later this summer,
contact K Koski at 789-6024 or
kkoski@abl.afsc.noaa.gov.
To coordinate and foster habitat restoration activities statewide, the ADF&G Habitat and
Restoration Division, with funding from the NOAA Office of Coastal Resource Management, is
organizing a statewide working group on aquatic habitat restoration, including regional working
groups to focus on restoration issues of local concern and subcommittees to evaluate technical
issues. For more information about the working group, contact Mac McLean at 459-7281 or
mmclean%fishgame@state.ak.us.
Mark Stopha, Chair
As chair of the International Relations Committee, I would like to introduce the Volunteers in
Overseas Cooperative Assistance (VOCA), a private service organization based in Washington, D.C.,
with regional offices across the country. This organization recruits professionals in many
fields to work overseas providing technical assistance in developing countries. Length of
service is usually a few weeks to 3 months. There is no salary, but all expenses are paid from
when you leave your home until you return. It is sort of a mini Peace Corps, but requires of
volunteers a higher level of experience and training. I am associated with the organization
through a Peace Corps colleague, Sean Carmody, who is now VOCA's country representative in
Moldova, Eastern Europe. Dan Rosenberg, ADFG-Snettisham Hatchery, recently served a short
stint in Belarus where he evaluated the feasibility of commercial rainbow trout culture on the
Sula River for a small company and also consulted with a carp farm on starting a tourist-oriented
sportfishing recreation center. Other peers of mine have served in Uruguay, Papau New Guinea,
Gabon, and Egypt.
From my experience, VOCA strives to work around the volunteer's schedule, and not the other way
around. For instance, if they need a volunteer for a month and you have only 2 or 3 weeks,
they will try to accommodate you. VOCA is in need of specialized fishery professionals, and
they may find our membership especially useful in many of the newly autonomous nations in
Eastern Europe. Applicants are contacted by VOCA as potential assignments become available.
You can contact me for applications or with any other ideas concerning the International
Relations Committee at ADFG-CFMDD, PO Box 240020, Douglas 99824 or email
markes@fishgame.state.ak.us.
Brenda Wright, Secretary-Treasurer
The Chapter will sponsor a technical writing workshop taught by Dr. Jud Monroe next October
7-11 in Fairbanks and again on February 24-28, 1997, in Anchorage. Jud Monroe has been a
technical writer for over 20 years and has taught writing workshops throughout the United
States, with clients including numerous state and federal agencies. The workshop will focus
on project reports and technical papers, emphasizing writing for a scientific and management
audience. Rather than teach a single writing style, the workshop will help writers develop
skills and techniques for writing a variety of scientific and management reports. The workshop
will cover writing techniques for writing and polishing a draft into a document that readers
will want to read and can understand. Topics will include organizing, formatting, data
presentation, sentence building, editing, and peer reviewing. This is a hands-on workship.
Bring data from the latest field season and get started on a report or paper in class.
Attendance is limited to 25-30 people, so early registration is encouraged. The cost of the
workshop will be $200 for AFS members and $230 for non-members. Please remit payment to Alaska
Chapter AFS, c/o Brenda Wright at address in Chapter Officers box. You may register or obtain
further information by calling Brenda at 586-8811 ext. 244.
The Western Division Annual Meeting will be in Eugene, July 14-18, 1996. The theme is
"Regional Status and Trends in Fish Biodiversity." Plenary session topics include effects
of climate and oceanic patterns on salmonids, biological and socioeconomic effects of
groundfish harvest, and statistics and precautionary biodiversity management. A workshop
on watershed restoration will be held July 18. If you have questions on the program, contact
Bob Hughes (503-754-4516 or hughes@mail.cor.epa.gov).
Nominations are still open for the Alaska Chapter Wally Noerenberg Award for lifetime
contributions to fishery excellence and for the Meritorious Service Award. Deadline is
July 31. A nomination form was included in the last Oncorhynchus.
Dana Schmidt, President
I am sorry to announce the departure from the Alaska area of one of our outstanding members and
my closest personal friend, Carl Burger. Carl has been Past President of both the Alaska
Chapter and Western Division. He recently was selected to be new Center Director of the USFWS
Abernathy Salmon Technology Center, Longview, Washington, about 1 hour from Portland.
The facility was established in the 1960s to compensate for anadromous fish losses from
Columbia River dams. Carl will supervise applied research on hatchery/wild salmon interactions,
genetics, fish disease projects, and others. We all have enjoyed working with Carl, as his
numerous projects have involved many of us in state, federal, and private organizations
throughout Alaska the past 21 years. Carl informed me that he will miss the professional
involvement he's had with many of you over the years. However, he looks forward to taking
the lessons from working with you and with the wild stocks of Alaska to the new challenges in
restoration of salmonids in the southern part of their range (where I understand they really
need some help!).
Carl reports for duty in Washington on August 4. His new address will be: Carl Burger,
Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Abernathy Salmon Culture Technology Center, 1440
Abernathy Road, Longview, WA 98632; (360)425-6072. He'll be looking forward to hearing from
you and any help he can get in meeting these new challenges. We'll miss you Carl, but we'll
look forward to you providing some optimism into the future of Columbia River fisheries and
perhaps a new bird hunting hot spot!
Oncorhynchus welcomes brief letters on topics of interest to Chapter members, reserving the
right to edit letters for length and clarity.
Allen Bingham
The American Statistical Association Council of Chapters recently established a Chapter Service
Recognition Award to acknowledge special efforts of Statistical Association members across the
county. This year, the Association's Alaska Chapter nominated Hal Geiger for the award.
Hal Geiger has served the Statistical Association enthusiastically for many years. He joined
the executive board in 1984, and served in that capacity several times. He was president in
1986 and 1993, and Vice-President in 1992.
Terry Quinn
A two-semester course FISH 621-622 (Advanced Fish Population Dynamics I and II) will be offered
starting August 26 as a graduate-level course which surveys contemporary methods used in stock
assessment and models of fish population dynamics. The course is suitable to quantitatively
skilled, upper undergraduate and graduate students with at least 1 year of calculus and applied
statistics and proficient in word processors, spreadsheets, and programming principles.
This course is offered via the University's TeleVideo equipment in Juneau, Anchorage, and
Fairbanks providing two-way visual and audio feedback. At least five students must be registered
by August 15 for a site to be included. Class times are Tuesday 1-3:30 pm and Thursday 1-2:30
pm. The computer lab in Juneau is on Friday 12-3 pm and is yet to be arranged at other sites.
For details, contact Terry Quinn, School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, Juneau 99801-8677;
465-5389; fax 465-6320; JFTJQ@acad1.alaska.edu.
The Alaska Chapter of the American Statistical Association recently updated its Internet links.
Check it out at
http://zorba.uafadm.alaska.edu/Math/asa/index.html.
Dana Schmidt, President
With great regret, I must announce the resignation of our Continuing Education Co-Chair Mike
Millard. Mike is being transferred to somewhere not nearly as nice as Alaska, but many
challenges await him at his new post. I want to thank him on behalf of the Alaska Chapter
for the outstanding effort on the Continuing Education Committee. In typical fashion, Mike
departed by recruiting an able replacement, Pat Hansen. Pat recently helped teach a
continuing education class in Anchorage, and we look forward to further classes that she
and her co-chair Jill Follett will organize in the future for our membership. Thanks Mike,
Pat, and Jill.
Dana Schmidt, President
Dana Schmidt, President
Three of your EXCOM attended the Sustainable Fisheries Conference in Victoria, B.C., with
President-Elect Peggy Merritt the Chapter's representative. Many other members were also
present, and Alaska's fisheries professionals contributed significantly to the symposium.
Carl Burger has provided a summary of the conference for the Western Division EXCOM. As I
believe his comments capture the essence of this important event, I have provided the
following edited version of his comments about this important meeting.
Summary of the Sustainable Fisheries Conference at Victoria, B.C. [Edited from a report
to Western Division EXCOM by Carl Burger, Immediate Past-President, Western Division ]
The Sustainable Fisheries Conference was held in Victoria, B.C., from April 25 to May 1.
This conference was a resounding success, and I would say that it was one of the most
productive and best meetings I have ever attended. The symposium was extremely well organized
in leading participants from the past and present status of our anadromous resources to where
we need to go, and must go, from here if we are ever to realize sustainability. At the
conference was an extraordinary breadth of speakers from U.S. and Canadian federal agencies,
from the B.C. Provincial government, and from Pacific Northwest states. Perhaps most
important, representative tribal leaders, fishers, processors, and leaders of various
environmental and conservation coalitions were also present, many of whom addressed the
nearly 500 participants who attended.
Two days of concurrent technical sessions featured top-notch scientists, such as Carl Walters,
Ray Hilborn, Willa Nehlsen, Dick Beamish, Brian Riddell, and Gordon Reeves. Within the 19
technical sessions, those and other well-known speakers addressed topics such as status of
stocks and their management, artificial production, habitat restoration, management models,
and opportunities and constraints in achieving sustainability. A session was also devoted
to student papers, all of whom were recognized at a luncheon where a Best Student Paper Award
was presented. Forums were held for First Nation Peoples and for agency directors. Bill
Ruckelshaus (former EPA Chief and Member of the President's Council for Sustainable Development)
provided valuable insights for strategy development during and after the conference.
Although some of the invited policy makers chose to leave the symposium after their
presentations, others remained to interact with the group. For example, Jerry Conley
(Idaho Fish Chief), Rudy Rosen and Jim Martin (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife),
Fran Ulmer (AK Lt. Governor), and Frank Rue (AK Fish and Game Commissioner) were quite
visible throughout the meeting. Alaska's policy of using public advisory groups in de-
politicizing salmon allocations was embraced by numerous attendees from both the U.S. and
Canada, as a way of involving more stakeholders in resource decisionmaking. This concept
was highlighted in each of the conference's workgroup sessions that followed.
After the plenary and concurrent technical sessions, each registrant was assigned to one
of five workgroups based on a priority that each had chosen at registration. The objectives
for each workgroup were to develop visions, identify constraints, and identify short-, medium-,
and long-term goals in support of sustainable fisheries. The workgroups met for nearly 2 days,
and each had a well-known facilitator to guide the group toward their goals. The five
workgroups were charged with identifying common goals for supporting sustainable fisheries
in five topic areas: 1) developing harvest management strategies in the Pacific Northwest;
2) developing strategies for protecting and restoring marine, freshwater, and estuarine
habitats; 3) developing strategies for integrating communities into sustainable fisheries
management; 4) restoring production of salmon and steelhead; and 5) developing institutional
and regulatory structures to support sustainable fisheries.
At the conclusion of the conference, each of the five facilitators presented their reports
to the conference attendees for further comment and review. These reports are now being
synthesized by the organizers (Don MacDonald and Cleve Steward) into a sustainable fisheries
strategy that any of us can provide input to (via e-mail forum), as it is being produced.
The final strategy and the technical papers will be peer-reviewed and published in the AFS
Symposium Series.
Once the strategy has been finalized and published, a Coastwide Implementation Plan will be
developed from regional implementation strategies, additional workshops, and further
stakeholder input. Although no one can guarantee the level of success of implementing the
actual strategy being developed, we were all brought to a common table and we left with a
common product developed by diverse stakeholders of the resource. I predict that this effort
will become a milestone in fisheries conservation that will not be easily ignored by
transboundary politicians and policy makers. The strategy and approach used by MacDonald and
Steward provide a template for additional efforts for fisheries sustainability in areas other
than the Pacific Northwest.
Overall, I was impressed by the diversity of the participants who seemed to share a tremendous
level of consensus building throughout the conference and its workshops. There seemed to be a
conscious effort to put politics aside and instead, to work on a common goal with fish as the
priority. Two years ago, I would not have believed this to be possible and I seriously doubted
the need for another "ho-hum conference." But despite that earlier skepticism and the
unorthodox start that so many of us wrestled with in this Division, I think that MacDonald and
Steward deserve our deepest thanks and our sincerest congratulations. They did what they said
they would do. Any remuneration they receive for the mountain of debt they must have incurred
in organizing this phenomenal process is also well deserved. This was not the routine
conference that many of us thought it might be.
go to top of newsletter
Dana Schmidt, President
The Alaska Chapter and the Western Division
Since my last column, I have received many favorable comments concerning the need for change
in our Chapter's involvement with the AFS Western Division. However, comments from one member
who is active in the Western Division really struck home when we discussed the difficulties of
establishing a new Division. Even with 4,000 members, the Western Division has difficulty
recruiting enough participants for all standing committees and getting qualified individuals
to run for office. Decreasing government budgets, particularly for travel, will mean greater
competition for meeting attendance and even fewer people who will be supported in professional
meeting participation. The solution seems to demand consolidation, rather than creating a new
Division.
With these difficulties in mind, three members of the Alaska Chapter EXCOM organized a luncheon
for all EXCOM members of the North Pacific International Chapter (NPIC), along with Western
Division past-president Carl Burger and current president Peter Bisson, AFS president Jack
Wingate, and several current chairs of the Canadian Aquatic Resources Section. Brian Hebdon
(NPIC President), Bob Bilby (NPIC Past President), and several other chapter officers of NPIC
were represented. The purpose of the luncheon was to seek ways for greater participation in
Western Division AFS annual meetings by Alaska Chapter members and to investigate future
partnership opportunities between the Alaska and NPIC chapters.
In discussing the plight of the Alaska Chapter, the primary problem became apparent--it was
the traditional mid-summer timing of the meeting. We agreed to offer a resolution to the
Western Division EXCOM to provide for a preference for meeting proposals outside of the May-June
field season, at least once every 4 years. This will provide an incentive for Alaskans to host
and participate in future Western Division activities, rather than participating mainly when we
are the meeting's host. With the assumption that this will be supported by the other Western
Division chapters, the Alaska and North Pacific International chapters will submit a proposal
to co-host the Western Division Annual Meeting in either Vancouver, B.C., Juneau, or Anchorage
in 1998. The proposal would provide for a spring date, preferably before the field season, and
would allow these two chapters to forego their normal annual meetings. If this proposal for a
co-hosted Division meeting is rejected, the Alaska and NPIC chapters will proceed (at the
Chapter level) for a joint, co-hosted annual meeting between these two subunits in either
Alaska, B.C., or the Lower 48 during a spring date.
At the Society's meeting in Monterey or possibly this summer in Portland, the Alaska Chapter
intends to submit a resolution encouraging the Western Division to strongly consider proposals
for Division meetings outside of the May-August field season at least once every 4 years.
The purpose would be to encourage broader participation by Alaska members and others in the
Division who find the current mid-summer timing of the meeting generally prohibits their
attendance. As you may recall, a motion by the Alaska Chapter at last year's Western Division
meeting to move the meeting time permanently to early spring was rejected by the Western
Division EXCOM. From comments received from other chapter presidents at that meeting, this
type of compromise seems more likely to have broader support.
The Alaska and NPIC chapters will continue to work cooperatively with the Sustainable Fisheries
Foundation and look for further opportunities to promote joint objectives that ensure sustainable fisheries. Current president of the NPIC Brian Hebdon will attend the Alaska Chapter Annual Meeting this fall in Fairbanks, as we continue to foster a productive and growing relationship between the two chapters. I would appreciate further comments concerning the future planned actions of your EXCOM and the future direction for the Alaska Chapter's involvement with the Western Division.