American Fisheries Society
Alaska Chapter - STUDENT UNIT
The Student Unit was organized as a sub unit of the Alaska Chapter of the American Fisheries Society in 1987 to promote the involvement of students at Alaskan colleges and universities in the affairs of the American Fisheries Society and in the understanding and wise use of Alaska fish and fisheries.  The student unit provides a forum for students and others to interact with practicing fisheries scientists through guest lectures, meetings, and activities.

UAF American Fisheries Society Student Unit
Annual Report – April 2006

Aaron Martin, President

The Fairbanks Student AFS officers for the 2005-2006 academic year were Aaron Martin, President; Dave Gregovich, Vice-President; Sam Decker, Secretary; and Jeremy Carlson, Treasurer.

Due to the Annual, National AFS meeting in Anchorage this past September and most of our members presenting posters or talks at the meeting the UAF subunit didn’t start our monthly meetings and activities until mid-fall.  Fortunately, with the great effort by the board members and many volunteers we were able to plan and accomplish many great meetings and activities.

One of our first tasks was to setup our monthly meetings for the school year.  We were able to have meetings every first Thursday of the month.   At our meetings we encourage anyone to attend, generally getting about 20-30 students, professors and local agency biologists.  At each gathering we auctioned off donated items as a fund raiser for the sub-unit.  For each occasion the sub-unit invited a fisheries professional to come in and discuss/present a fisheries related topic for ~45 minutes.  This years’ talks included the following:

November 2005 - James Saveriede, ADFG:   What are Bayesian Statistics?

November 2005 - Raymond RaLonde, Aquaculture Specialist, University of Alaska: Fisheries Enhancement, Habitat to Hatcheries

December 2005 - Fred DeCicco, ADF&G Char Biologist:  Diversity of Char in Alaska and eastern Russia

February 2006 - Nicola Hillgruber, UAF-JSFOS: Estuarine ecology of juvenile chum in Kuskokwim Bay, Alaska Delta

March 2006 - Carl Pfisterer, ADFG: Using sonar to count salmon in the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim Region

April 2006 - Jim Reynolds, UAF-SFOS: Bananas vs. Pineapples; Meta-Analysis for Lessons Learned in Locally-Managed Marine Areas, South Pacific

Another activity that several of our members were involved in was the educational ADFG Egg Take Day for Fairbanks school district kids, in early October 2005.  A number of UAF-AFS members volunteered to manage educational booths teaching kids about aquatic insects and various lessons in fish biology.  Students and AFS members also assisted in taking eggs from gravid female coho and fertilizing the eggs for classrooms to rear juvenile coho throughout the school year.

We also participated in the Alaska Statewide High School Science Symposium (ASHSSS) again. We helped to gather volunteers to judge the science symposium, March 4, 2006 and presented an award for Best Aquatics Research Project. This was the second year that we attended ASHSSS and we are committed to making this an annual affair. We hope that our participation will generate more interest in aquatic sciences. The student award winner, Lily Walton, received a $200 cash award and a one-year student membership to the American Fisheries Society. The Alaska Chapter of AFS assisted the Fairbanks Student Chapter in sponsoring this award. They generously agreed to match the $100 that the Fairbanks Student AFS could award, and also added the one-year student membership.

An additional task we set for the year was to design and purchase t-shirts with our chosen AFS logo printed on them.  We had t-shirts, long-sleeved shirts and sweatshirts made and have been selling these at our monthly meetings with great success.  We are intending to use the money raised to buy snacks and beverages for the monthly meetings, for the potluck/bbq mentioned below and travel funds for future meetings.

Lastly, we will be co-hosting an end of the year potluck/bbq social with the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences (SFOS) April 28.  The SFOS has very generously offered to pay the rental fee for the Musher’s Hall in Fairbanks and the AFS student group will be purchasing food and other supplies.  We cordially invite all students, professors and agency personnel to come to the event.