This   past  year  has   been  a period  of  transition and  adjustment   for   the section.    In spite   of  th is,   I  am  pleased  to    say   that  we  had a   productive year  in  2008.   Our joint  annual  luncheon  meeting in  Ottawa   with the  Fishery   History   Section   was  quite  a  success   with  outstanding     presentations    delivered  both    by    Dr.   Ambrose  Jearld,   director   of  academic    programs  at   the   Northeast Science  Center  in  Woods Hole, Massachusetts and Dr. Christine Moffit, Professor at the University of Idaho and AFS past-president.  Professor Moffit took the audience back in time to underscore the history of women and minorities in fisheries science, while Dr. Ambrose engaged the audience on the issue of inclusion and how to bridge the gaps for next generation fisheries scientists. These talks were not only impressive but stimulated a great depth of discussion among the audience members.

In addition to our annual luncheon meeting, we successfully resurrected our mentor award program “Mentoring for Professional Diversity in Fisheries” to recognize outstanding mentors who contribute to the effort of increasing diversity in fisheries professions.  Dr. Patrick Kocovsky from the USGS Lake Erie Biological Station was our 2008 recipient.  His selfless dedication to his students exemplifies extraordinary mentorship, and we congratulate him for his efforts on a job well done.  The EOS believes that mentorship is a selfless and honorable act and therefore, I encourage all students and professionals to take the opportunity to show how much they appreciate their mentors as we will be soliciting applications as soon as January 2009.  For more information, you can visit the EOS website at http://www.fisheries.org/units/eos.

Our eight 2008 travel award recipients and two of the three J. Francis Allen Scholarship honorees were also in attendance for the luncheon and presentations.  Since 2001, EOS has been able to provide $25,000 in travel assistance to 48 students from 34 institutions in 6 countries!  Testaments from this year’s travel award recipients are located later in the newsletter.  We thank all of our generous contributors (Education Section, Fisheries Management Section, North Central Division, Southern Division, Alaska Chapter, Ontario Chapter, Fish Health Section, Michigan Chapter, Estuaries Section, Arizona-New Mexico Chapter and Indiana Chapter) and appreciate your continued support in the future.  For additional information about the travel award program next year, please visit the section’s website.

As we are always trying to find ways to improve communication with our members and interested professionals, I would like to announce that EOS is officially on Facebook.  The site is open-membership to individuals with a Facebook account.  It is a fantastic way to keep up to date with events or to communicate with others in the section.  If you have yet to join the site, I urge you to join as soon as you can and actively participate in any of the discussions.  We hope this new way of staying in touch will greatly facilitate how we get information to you and continue to help us gain exposure to public about who we are and our missions.   Since this is a fairly new effort for us, we appreciate any comments or suggestions you have about the site.  HAPPY POSTING!!!!

Bob Wartendorff  who has done an outstanding job supporting the section's website, is handing over the reigns to our new webmaster, Justin Chiotti. We cannot thank Bob enough for his commitment and dedication to the section’s website and we certainly look forward to his future involvements with the section.  To his credit and generosity, Justin has offered to redesign the section’s website, so stay tuned for Spring 2009 as we continue to improve how we deliver information to all our members and interested parties.  In the meantime, please help me welcome Justin to the team.  We are very appreciative of his initiative to contribute to the section’s operations and look forward to working with him. Speaking of operations, I will like to take this opportunity to encourage section members to renew their memberships.  Our ability to financially operate is partly due to your diligence to keep-up with your annual dues ($5.00).  To renew your dues, simply visit the AFS website at http://www.fisheries.org/afs/index.html#membership.

Next year, the EOS and University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s Living Marine Resource Cooperative Science Center (LMRCSC) are jointly collaborating on a symposium to address the issue of diversity in the fisheries profession at the annual meeting in Nashville, Tennessee.   The goal of this symposium is to highlight what progress has been made in the fisheries science profession in terms of expanding opportunities to underrepresented groups, and also to examine some of the barriers that exists both in the educational and occupational sectors in maintaining long-term recruitment and career sustainability.  We ask you to look out for the announcements in the early part of the spring.  We are also welcoming more participants to join the planning team for the symposium.  There are a lot of great ideas on the table and we are always looking for more and bigger ideas.  If you are interested, do not hesitate to contact any of our officers.  We look forward to what will be an enlightening event and I hope that the syposium will encourage the scientific community by adopting a more active culture of inlusion and to engage unexploited talents when dealing with issues related to our natural resources.

In closing, I would like to thank our members and officers for their unwavering commitment and intensity in supporting the efforts of the section.  I am fortunate to be a part of this team as I am only the gem polisher but the true diamonds and emeralds are those individuals devoted to running the activities of the section.   I look forward to what will be another productive and exciting year and I encourage everyone to actively participate and bring your great ideas to the table. If you have suggestions on how we might improve on the services we deliver, please do not hesitate to contact any of the officers.  We are committed to continuous growth, excellence, and to the creation of a welcoming and supportive environment for all ideas and people to come together to share those ideas.

 
Larry A. Alade, EOS President