Washington–British Columbia Chapter of AFS

Mark Pedersen shows his interest in marine fish during a trip to Homer, Alaska

Over the summer, new chapter Vice President, Mark Pedersen, Chair Bill Mavros, and Tad Schwager put their heads together to develop a strategic plan to revitalize our chapter’s Marine Fisheries Committee (MFC). Their draft plan was tweaked by the WA/BC Executive Committee (ExComm) to come up with the following:

The mission of the Marine Fisheries Committee (MFC) of the Washington/ British Columbia Chapter is to develop awareness of current issues in marine fisheries; knowledge of the latest research on marine fishes, the fisheries for those species, and marine habitats; and new tools for investigation and habitat impact mitigation, that can be disseminated to members of the Chapter, the parent Society Marine Fish Section, and the public.

While the primary emphasis of the objectives for the MFC in 2008-2009 will be on Puget Sound, the Georgia Straits, and implementation of the Puget Sound Partnership goals, the scope will be expanded to include coastal commercial and recreational fisheries, and tidal energy development. Near-term tasks will include:

• Organizing and implementing publication of a set of papers from the 2008 Annual General Meeting (AGM) in the new AFS Marine Fisheries Journal
• Sponsoring a symposium for the February 09 Puget Sound – Georgia Strait Conference to promote our 2009 AGM
• Supporting the 2009 NPIC AGM agenda, which contains a significant number of marine topics, by organizing and sponsoring at least one marine-oriented symposium and by participating on the AGM Program Committee
• Providing unbiased professional peer review and scientific advice to the Puget Sound Partnership and other marine interests, according to guidance from the ExComm
• Identifying other marine-oriented topics or issues for future NPIC involvement

Strategies:

• The MFC will communicate and collaborate with other marine-oriented professional institutions and agencies (e.g., NOAA Fisheries and UW). 
• The MFC members will keep up on current marine fisheries topics and forward appropriate items to the membership, via the ExComm for distribution.
• The MFC will use funds allocated by the ExComm to promote involvement in the MFC.

Action steps

• Committee meetings at the Pyramid Ale House (or other fun place) for after work social and round robin of timely topics.
• Develop a list of people that may be interested in serving on the MFC, and encourage chapter members to participate.
• The MFC will have regular communication with, and support the parent Society Marine Fish Section, and relay topics of interest to chapter members.

Contact Chair Bill Mavros, or Core Members: Cameron Fisher, Mark Pedersen, Tad Schwager, Jim Shannon, and Gary Sprague for more information and to indicate your interest in the group.

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