What is Fisheries Science?

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What is Fisheries Science?

• Eric Hallerman, Head,
• Dept. of Fisheries Wildlife Sciences

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What is Fisheries Science?

• The study of fish, their habitat, humans
  exploiting them, and all their interactions

Goal to sustain fisheries resources for future
generations
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Freshwater fisheries management

• Coldwater fisheries management
• Focus on maintaining native brook trout

Evaluation of the effects of stream crossings
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Freshwater fisheries management

• River fisheries management
• Focus on maintaining native fishes, game and
  non-game
• Shenandoah River Habitat modeling to inform
  water use decisions in Shenandoah Basin
• New River Marker-assisted restoration of the
  native walleye stock
• Smith River New operating regimes for Philpott
  Dam recommended based on 5 years of population
  and habitat analyses

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Freshwater fisheries management

• Reservoir fisheries management
• Focus on sport fisheries
• Reproductive failure of bass in Virginias trophy
  lakes
• Assessing and modeling individual growth and
  condition
• Protected spawning areas
• Management of striped bass in Smith Mountain Lake

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Freshwater fisheries management
Lakes and rivers fisheries management
(international)
Mexico invasive species (aquatic
vegetation) Cuba tourism development
(largemouth bass) Nicaragua invasive species
(tilapia)

China hydropower impacts on fisheries,
overfishing problems (poverty)
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Management of non-game species

• Landscape-scale models of fish distribution and
  abundance
• Habitat associations and causes of rarity in
  fishes
• Use of fish communities to assess water quality
• Development of risk-assessment tools for
  conservation planning

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Management of non-game species

• 300 freshwater mussel species in North America
• 35 sp. considered extinct
• 70 listed as threatened or endangered
• Tennessee River system a biodiversity hotspot
• What can we do to conserve freshwater mussels?
• Habitat protection, incl. host fishes, population
  transfer and augmentation

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Watershed management

• Move towards ecosystem, as opposed to
  single-species management
• Fish in the Shenandoah River are dying in large
  numbers and we don't know why.April-July 2005
  80 of small-mouth bass and redbreast sunfish
  died in gt100 miles of South Fork Shenandoah
  River in Virginia.April-July 2006 reports of
  dead fish continue hundreds of two of the
  river's three sucker species are also dying.
• Multiple causes, under assessment

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Fish biology

• Disciplines Physiology, genetics, nutrition
  toxicology,
• Focus on aquatic population genetics
• Which of our brook trout populations are native?
• Restoration of native New River walleye
• What is the population structure of horseshoe
  crabs, and how should that affect management?
• Which freshwater mussel populations can be used
  to augment others?

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Marine fisheries management

• Population dynamics and stock assessment for
  fishery resources
• Fisheries management
• design of management programs
• Adaptive management
• Develop new models and new modeling approaches in
  fisheries
• Groupers, hammerhead sharks, horseshoe crabs
• Single-species management, move towards ecosystem
  management

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Human dimensions of fisheries management

• How best to involve the public in setting of
  management policy?
• Succession planning for the fisheries and
  wildlife profession
• Management effectiveness of state fish and
  wildlife agencies
• Evaluation of outreach efforts
• Continuing educationleadership development,
  public involvement

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Aquaculture

• Marine fisheries declining
• Aquaculture growing

What are the major species produced
globally? What are the major species produced in
the United States?
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Production of food fishes

• Classical production systems
• Channel catfish in ponds
• Rainbow trout in raceways

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Production of food fishes

• Recirculating aquaculture systems
• Physiology, nutrition, genetics
• Cobia, shrimp, flounder, tilapia

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Conservation aquaculture
Freshwater mussels for out-planting
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Is this the kind of work you would enjoy?
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What do students of fisheries science study?

• Principles of Fisheries and Wildlife Management
• Field Techniques
• Ichthyology
• Fish Ecology
• Aquaculture
• Fisheries Management
• Undergraduate Research or Internship Experience

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Where do our graduates go?

• Graduate school
• State fisheries management agencies, e.g., VDGIF
• Federal fisheries management agencies e.g.,
  USFWS, NMFS, FERC
• Consulting firms
• Aquaculture firms