Dam Removal as a River Restoration Tool at the Water-Energy-Food Nexus

The dam removal movement has taken hold in the United States, Europe, and other developing countries, leading to thousands of dams being removed worldwide. A combination of improved scientific understanding, economic necessity, socio-political coalitions, and aging infrastructure built for bygone purposes has driven the dam removal trend. In the face of climate change, shifting alternative energy portfolios, and the global loss or decline of migratory fishes and the fisheries they support, what role will dam removal play globally at the water-energy-food nexus? This session will consist of technical talks synthesizing dam removal outcomes, case studies of dam removal projects, and visions for global engagement to expand the knowledge base supporting the practice of dam removal in the pursuit of river restoration.

Organizers:

Jeffrey Duda, U.S. Geological Survey
Shannon Boyle, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, [email protected]
Nathaniel Gillespie, US Forest Service
Lisa Hollingsworth-Segedy, American Rivers
Herman Wanningen, World Fish Migration Foundation
George Pess…

Current State of Plastic Pollution and Fisheries

Plastic debris, including microplastics, have the potential to impact fisheries globally. Plastic affects aquatic environments and organisms, including many key fish and fisheries species, as well as the ecosystems where they live but we still lack a clear understanding of impacts on organisms, fisheries and the seafood industry. This session will be a multifaceted discussion on the opportunities and threats that plastic pollution poses to the aquaculture and fishing industries including potential solutions. We welcome contributions on identification and contamination of plastic in seafood species, biological effects of plastic consumption, and potential management solutions for fisheries to lower plastic impacts. This session will provide a global and broad-spectrum occasion to gain insights on research trends on the current state of marine plastics in fisheries and its impacts on seafood. Sharing information on how affects of plastics on the seafood industry and seafood species fished will guide the urgency of future research and boost management and mitigation strategies that support the seafood sector.

Organizers:

Nina Wootton, The University of Adelaide, [email protected]
Bronwyn Gillanders, The University of Adelaide
Thava Palanisami, University of Newcastle

Crafting Usable Science to Inform Fisheries Decision-making in a Changing Climate – Lessons from the Science-Policy Interface

Climate-driven impacts on marine species are a complex problem. The myriad challenges climate change poses for managers, stakeholders, and scientists are cross-cutting, cross-disciplinary, and contentious. The ability to move beyond this complexity to manage fisheries in a changing ocean will require information that is tailored to the decision-making context and developed with the input of fisheries managers and stakeholders. This session will present an expert panel of researchers involved in efforts to better understand, predict, and advance solutions for climate change impacts on fisheries. We will focus particularly on methods and experiences around developing and conducting research hand-in-hand with the people who can use the results to position research outcomes for greatest impact.

Organizer:

Sarah Close, Lenfest Ocean Program, The Pew Charitable Trusts, [email protected]

Climate Change Impacts on Inland Fish and Fisheries

Freshwater and diadromous fishes are mired in an extinction crisis, and the irreversible loss of biodiversity has consequences for human food security and economic opportunity due to declining inland fisheries harvest. Climate change will exacerbate the myriad stresses upon inland fish and fisheries via a host of pathways. For example, rising mean water temperature directly impacts fish growth and survival rates and the timing of sexual maturation, wind speed and water temperature interact to structure mixing dynamics and nutrient availability in lentic systems with consequence to fish growth and fisheries yield, and more frequent and extreme episodic flood and drought events will impact fish recruitment dynamics and investment / operation of water regulation infrastructure. In this session, we will bring together climatologists, limnologists, and global finance experts with fish physiologists and ecologists and fisheries experts, to explore how climate change impacts to inland fish and fisheries will likely manifest.

Organizer:

Michael Cooperman, PlusFish Philanthropy, [email protected]

Bringing Salmon Back From The Brink

Salmon are central to the economic, cultural, and spiritual existence and identity of peoples who live, work, and play in the temperate regions of our planet. oday, salmon populations distributed in lower latitudes struggle to adapt to rapidly changing environmental conditions in freshwater, estuarine, and marine environments. Concurrently, populations in higher latitudes are shifting their range to compensate for loss of optimal habitat, resulting in reorganizations of trophic pathways and community interactions. The proposed program will feature talks related to salmon ecology, hatchery production, adaptive management, stock assessment, and indigenous knowledge addressing the challenges, opportunities, and case studies needed to ensure persistence of these populations for future generations. In this session, a diverse group of scientists, traditional knowledge keepers, and policy-makers will share their perspectives regarding the what, why, and how we can care for these remarkable species in an increasingly uncertain climate.

Organizer:

Gary Morishima, Quinault Management Center, [email protected]

Behavioral Ecology Informs the Conservation and Management of Fishes

Behavioral ecology is the study of how the environment and species interactions shape animal behavior to determine the success of individuals, populations, and species. It is a well-developed field with several key conceptual approaches. However, these approaches are still relatively novel tools as applications to fisheries biology and, especially, fish conservation. Talks in this session will cover the application of behavioral ecology as a management tool for fish and fisheries. Behaviors can include, but are not limited to: foraging, habitat use, movements, social, risk responses, etc. Analysis of these behaviors in their ecological context not only advances the field of behavioral ecology but can make meaningful contributions to fisheries biology.

Organizers:

Carlos Polivka, Pacific NW Research Station USDA Forest Service, [email protected]
Margaret Malone, Florida International University

Battling Ghost Fishing: Ecosystem Impacts, Policy and Search and Retrieval

Ghost fishing is the continued capture of fishes and invertebrates by lost fishing gear. In addition to being an animal welfare issue, ghost fishing harvests from local resources and the lost fishing gear is a pollution problem. This session focuses on the extent and effects of ghost fishing, the development of search and retrieval methods for lost gear, and policy making and participatory research.

Organizer:

Susanna Huneide Thorbjørnsen, Institute of Marine Research, [email protected]

Assessing the Status of Inland Fisheries for Policy

Global policy frameworks (e.g., the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, Ramsar Convention, and Sustainable Development Goals) provide opportunities to assess how well inland waters and their ecosystem services are being conserved and managed. The sustainable use of inland fisheries is a key component of these policies. This session will review the state of implementation of these global polices in the context of interactions with inland fisheries, and the effectiveness of monitoring and reporting at the national and sub-national scale. Using diverse examples of inland fisheries, we will assess where there are challenges presented by data gaps, how these can be addressed, and what new tools are required for monitoring inland fisheries. To create a productive debate, bringing diverse viewpoints, we will include experts from diverse sectors. Information and opinions derived from the session will be used to create an output ‘opinion piece’ statement, submitted to a journal for publication.

Organizers:

Ian Harrison, Conservation International, [email protected]
Sui Phang, The Nature Conservancy
Abigail Lynch, U.S. Geological Survey, National Climate Adaptation Science Center

Aquaculture-aided Fisheries Enhancement, Conservation, and Restoration: Towards Responsible Development and Effective Reform

Aquaculture-aided fisheries enhancement, conservation, and restoration initiatives have long been pursued worldwide and are receiving renewed attention in the context of adaptation to global environmental change. Experience with such initiatives shows that, while some make important contributions to fisheries management and conservation, others are ineffective, damaging, or have not been evaluated, yet continue regardless. Therefore, careful and responsible approaches to developing new and reforming existing initiatives are needed, balancing opportunity and need with appropriate caution, rigorous evaluation, and adaptive management. Rapid advances in scientific understanding and availability of powerful planning and assessment tools put such approaches within reach, but their practical implementation has proved extraordinarily challenging. This roundtable brings together a diverse international panel of aquaculture, fisheries management, conservation, and governance scientists and practitioners to grapple with the question: How can we work towards more effective implementation of responsible approaches to aquaculture-aided fisheries enhancement, conservation, and restoration?

Organizers:

Kai Lorenzen, University of Florida, [email protected]
Seth White, Oregon Hatchery Research Center/Oregon State University
Hannah Harrison, Dalhousie University
Neil Loneragan, Murdoch University