September 1997 Sept 1997 Volume 18, Number 2 Newsletter of the AFS
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September 1997 Newsletter of the AFS Early Life History Section Volume 18, Number 2 Sept 1997 Inside this Issue PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE m President’s message he 21st Annual Larval Fish Con- choice among several excellent m News from the re- ference was held in Seattle, papers, with votes ending in a tie gions Washington from 26 June - 2 between two deserving students. m Northeast July, 1997. More than 200 par- The 1997 Richardson Award m Northcentral ticipants were treated to a di- winners are: Jennifer Caselle, verse scientific program, includ- from the University of Califor- m Western ing symposia on "Juvenile Fish nia, Santa Barbara for a paper m Southern Studies: Contributions to Early titled ‘Density-dependent early m International Life History and Recruitment post-settlement mortality in m ELH’ers in the news Processes" and "Ontogeny of coral reef fish and its effect on m Meeting reviews North Pacific Scorpaeniform local populations’ and Ule Rein- m Upcoming meetings Fishes" as well as workshops on hardt from the University of "Larval Fish Identification," British Columbia for a paper "Preservation and Curation of titled ‘Size-dependent foraging Early Life History Stages of behaviour and use of cover in Fishes, Amphibians, and Rep- juvenile coho salmon under pre- Abstract Deadlines: tiles," and "Image Analysis". dation risk’. Honorable Men- The ELHS wishes to thank the tions go to Jason Rogers, from AFS, - Jan 23 local organizing committee, es- the University of North Car- to be held Aug 23-27, pecially Art Kendall and Ann olina, Wilmington for a paper 1998 at the Hartford Civic Matarese, for a job well done!!! titled ‘Age and growth of larval Center, Hartford, CT An award for the best and pelagic juvenile Monacan- student paper presented at the thus hispidus’ and Jay Rooker, Larval Fish Conference is given from the University of Texas, by the ELHS each year in honor Austin for a paper titled ‘Small- ASI H of the late Sally Richardson. scale variation in recruitment : March 13 This year in Seattle, the judges densities of newly settled red to be held July 13-16, were faced with a difficult drum Scieanops ocellatus: influ- 1998 on the campus of the University of Guelph, 22nd Annual Larval Fish Conference Guelph, Ont Ann Arbor, MI July 9 - July 13, 1998 2 Masthead (Continued from page 1) ence of food and predator mediated processes’. Congratulations one President: and all!!! Jim Cowan In addition to the Richardson Award, the ELHS plans to Dept. of Marine Science provide limited Travel Awards (probably $200-$300 each) for two University of South Alabama students each year to attend the Larval Fish Conference. Criteria for Mobile, AL 23388 making the awards is currently under consideration by the EXCOM (205) 861-7535 and will be announced in Stages prior to the Ann Arbor meeting. I'm [email protected] sure that a good time will be had by all. Jim Cowan President-Elect: John Govoni NOAA/NMFS NEWS FROM THE REGIONS SE Fisheries Science Center Beaufort, NC 28516 ortheast Region - Ben Letcher, Popu- (919) 728-3595 [email protected] lation Ecology Section Leader, Na- tional Biological Service, S. O. Conte Secretary: Anadromous Fish Research Center, David Bengtson N One Migratory Way, P. O. Box 796, Turner Department of Zoology, URI Kingston, RI 02881 Falls, MA 01376. (Phone: (413) 863-8995 ext. (401) 792-2372 34, E-mail: [email protected]). [email protected] Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center, Turners Secretary-Elect: Falls, MA Dave Secor Chesapeake Biological Lab Research in Dr. Ben Letcher's laboratory focuses on anadromous UMCES fish population ecology, with special emphasis on Atlantic salmon Solomons, MD 20688 and American shad juveniles. The ecology laboratory is one of five (410) 326-7229 sections at the Conte facility, which currently is a field station in [email protected] the Biological Resources Division of the US Geological Survey. Previous affiliations include the National Biological Service and Treasurer: the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The facility was constructed six Kathy Lang years ago in response to information needs specifically on anadro- NOAA/NMFS mous fishes. The goal of the research in the ecology section is to 166 Water Street determine patterns in population numbers and to attempt to identify Woods Hole, MA 02543 mechanisms responsible for the patterns. Dr. Letcher and the (508) 495-2237 graduate students he advises through the University of Mas- [email protected] sachusetts at Amherst conduct a combination of field, laboratory, and modeling studies with both salmon and shad. Editor: Currently, Dr. Letcher is involved in four research projects Tom Miller with Atlantic salmon: C.B.L, UMCES 1) genetic stock structure of the highly-managed Connecticut Solomons, MD 20688 River population, (410) 326-7276 (Continued on page 4) [email protected] September 1997 ELHS ARRIVES ON THE WEB As a part of an exploratory project, Darrel Snyder has developed a prototype home page for ELHS. You can visit the site at: www.cnr.colostate.edu/~desnyder/elhshome.htm Currently, the site contains information on the ELHS of AFS in the following categories: Description History Objectives Governance Membership and Dues Joining as a Voting Member Joining as an Affiliate Member Related Web Links Early Life History Section American Fisheries Society Embryonic, Larval, and Early Juvenile Fish Collections Other Early Life History Related Sites What's New? Look for changes in the near future. We anticipate the page will come under new management soon as Darrel hands over the reins to someone else. Already slated for an appearance on the re- vised web is a searchable membership database. The present web page contains a complete mem- bership listing, but it is not searchable. The revised database will allow us to update information quickly and efficiently and should lead to the production of a membership directory soon. Also look for back issues of STAGES. If you have comments or ideas for the section’s web site, please See You in Ann Arbor!! The 22nd Annual Larval Fish Conference, ELHS’s official meeting will be held in Ann Arbor on the campus of the University of Michigan from July 9 - July 13. Information for submission of abstracts will be in the next edition of Stages. Several symposia have already been lined up, including ones on otolith microchemistry, freshwater ichthyoplankton studies, use of juvenile indices in recruitment research, and simulation modeling of recruitment. If you are interested in sponsoring a session, please contact Ed Rutherford at ed- [email protected] 4 (Continued from page 2) to mark fish in restoration programs like the Con- 2) a study of individual growth and movement necticut River Atlantic salmon restoration effort. rates in the field, We are currently running a pilot study in a large 3) fry tagging studies and tributary of the Connecticut River (Farmington 4) field studies designed to evaluate the effects of River) into which we will stock almost 500,000 fry developmental stage at stocking and broodstock from known families into 10 tributaries. source on growth and survival. With support from the US Forest Service, Dr. Letcher and technician Gabe Gries are con- With Dr. Tim King from the Aquatic ducting an extensive study of the individual Ecology Laboratory, USGS/BRD in Leetown growth and movement of juvenile salmon. Be- WV, Dr. Letcher has been studying the genetic cause little is known about individual growth and structure of individuals within the Connecticut movement rates of Atlantic salmon in the field, we River population and among populations. Results are attempting to PIT tag virtually all of the from the 1996 sea-run returns indicate that het- juvenile salmon in a one-km stretch of stream. erozygosities at most loci are about 10% lower After sampling (kick-seine at night) every three than those from donor populations and from popu- weeks this spring and summer, we have about 500 lations in Canada and Scotland, suggesting that age-1 fish tagged and now capture very few un- hatchery practices may have reduced genetic vari- tagged fish. The fish grew rapidly in spring but ability somewhat, but not to a large degree. Ge- have stopped growing and most have lost weight netic distances among individual fish within the during the summer. Ninety-five percent of the fish population were fairly widely spread, also indicat- have been found in the same 20-m sample section ing that the population may have not been severely and a few have moved more than one km. We will bottlenecked by hatchery breeding protocols. tag age-0 fish this fall and will attempt to sample A major need in the Connecticut River the fish until they leave the river as two-year-old Atlantic salmon restoration program is the ability smolts. By following individual growth trajecto- to determine in which tributaries smolts leaving ries and identifying habitat use, we hope to learn the river (mainly age 2) and adults returning to the about some of the mechanisms controlling growth, river (mainly age 5) were stocked. This requires precocious maturation and migration timing. some sort of tag. Unfortunately, the stocked fry In addition to genetic marking for use on a are too small (25 mm) for physical tags and the large spatial scale, Dr. Letcher and technician Tim population size is too small to allow a tag that Terrick have also been working with thermal requires lethal sampling (e.g. otolith thermal or marking of salmon otoliths for smaller-scale stud- chemical marks). But, because there is limited ies. Techniques for generating thermal banding natural reproduction and small numbers of returns patterns are well-established for pacific salmonids, (200-500/yr), it is possible to use a family-level but have not been optimized for Atlantic salmon.