Southern
Division 2005 Spring Meeting Hosted by Virginia Chapter
The
Virginia Chapter hosted the Southern Division
AFS Spring Meeting February 10 – 13, 2005, at the Virginia Beach
Resort Hotel and Conference Center.
The meeting attracted 365 attendees to the shore of the
Chesapeake Bay and the same facility where the 1995 “Midyear”
meeting was held. Fully one-third of those attending were students.
State, federal, and private industry biologists, administrators,
and students from throughout the southeastern U.S. participated
in 131 scientific oral presentations, 4 workshops, a poster
session with 25 posters, and copious social events. Students continued to play an active role in
the meeting and provided 58 of the platform presentations and
16 posters. (Click here for
abstracts of presentations and posters.) Almost 60 students
were paired based on educational and employment interests with
fisheries professionals in the public and private sectors for
the fifth annual student-mentor lunch.
Gus
Rassam, AFS Executive Director, and Barbara Knuth,
AFS President, addressed the Southern Division Business Meeting
on Friday. John Ney,
professor of Fisheries at Virginia Tech, presented a meeting
keynote address It’s Your Turn Now:
Fisheries Management in the 21st Century during
the Plenary Session on Saturday morning. Bill Woodfin, Director of the Virginia
Department of Game and Inland Fisheries welcomed attendees to
Virginia.
The
technical program included 131 platform presentations in 6 concurrent
sessions and 25 poster presentations. Topics run the gamut of freshwater and marine
interests with an especially strong slate of marine papers provided
by the Tidewater Chapter.
Special symposia were held on Asian carp, marine issues,
striped bass and catch-and-release fishing.
Workshops
were also available to attendees with topics including: Otolith
Aging Techniques for Catfishes, Leadership Regardless of Position:
You Don’t Have to be a Chief to Have Influence, Achtheres
Striped Bass Parasites, and (for students) Employment After
Graduation: Perspectives on Jobs in Private, State and Federal
Positions.
Social
events occurred each night and were highlighted by the Virginia
Chapter-sponsored Student Social and Fish Fry Friday night
and a catered dinner at the Virginia Marine Science Museum Saturday
night. Friday featured over 300 pounds of catfish with
all the trimmings in true southern style while the Mike Proffitt
Band provided musical entertainment.
Saturday’s dinner was taken at leisure while viewing
the spectacular exhibits of the Marine Science Museum.
After dinner, attendees were treated to a fund-raising
raffle emceed by Dr. Don Orth (Virginia Tech) and the
Imax movie Into the Deep.
The Southern Division's Outstanding Chapter
Award and Outstanding Student Subunit went to North Carolina
State University. Best Student Paper Awards from the 2004
meeting in Oklahoma City included first place to Ben Lubinski
and second place awards to Liz Heitman and Nicholas
Utrup. The Best Poster was awarded to Caleb Huber.
The Reservoir Committee's Robert M. Jenkins Memorial Scholarship
went to Lori Davias and Mark Rogers. The Warmwater
Streams Committee's Jimmy Pigg Memorial Scholarship was presented
to Dan Dauwalter. The Best Presentation from the 2004
SEAFWA in Hilton Head, South Carolina was awarded to Hayden
Mattingly and honorable mentions were awarded to Jeffrey
Hill and John Jacobs.
Virginia
Chapter officers were installed and awards were distributed
at a brief Chapter meeting Saturday morning. Steve Reeser
(VDGIF) turned the presidency over to John Odenkirk
(VDGIF). John then recognized the other outgoing officers including
Secretary Shelly Miller (VDGIF) and Treasurer Mike
Odom (USFWS). Other new officers included President-elect
Dan Michaelson (VDGIF), Secretary Robert Humston
(VMI) and Treasurer George Devlin, (VDEQ). Chapter reward
recipients included Bud LaRoche (VDGIF) with the Eugene
Surber Professional Service Award, Judy Strang (Pedlar
River Institute) with the Conservationist of the Year Award,
Marcy Anderson (VA Tech) with the Ross Graduate Student
Award and Jeremy Shiflet (VA Tech) with the Jenkins Undergraduate
Student Award.
John
Odenkirk/Steve Reeser/Vic DiCenzo
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