143rd Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society

September 08 - 14, 2013

The Mississippi and Yangtze (Changjiang) Basins, the largest basins of North America and Asia, serve as principal navigational waterways and water sources, and play important economic, social, cultural, and ecological roles in the two continents. Maintaining healthy and productive fisheries and integrity of aquatic ecosystems are extremely important for achieving sustainability in each basin. Both basins share many taxa, humans exploit some similar groups, and have experienced some similar environmental challenges to their fisheries which, to date, have not been comparatively analyzed. This symposium will analyze them by describing challenges, evaluating their impacts on fisheries, and presenting management approaches that have succeeded and failed.  Specifically, it will address following common issues: 1) an overall comparative analysis (e.g., geology, land use, hydrology) of the two basins; 2) fisheries (commercial, recreational, and subsistence) and shellfisheries (mollusks and crustaceans); 3) endangered and invasive species (e.g., paddlefish, sturgeon, carps); 4) climate/land use change, hydraulic/hydrologic modification impacts on aquatic ecosystems; 5) floodplains; and 6) river/watershed restorations. Paired presentations and discussions will focus on how these stressors impact fish habitat, populations, communities, and ecosystem health, and will foster international partnerships for research and solution development for conserving and restoring sustainable and economically viable aquatic ecosystems and fishery resources. These presentations will be the collective work of a team consisting of at least one expert from the upper, middle, and lower sub-basins of each river. A final group synthesis will discuss commonalities and disparities between the two basins. Symposium attendees will be provided with the opportunity to evaluate approaches and techniques for transferability within and between the two basins. This symposium will also serve as a launch point for a long-term plan of international scientific program consisting of collaborative studies, visiting scholars, and information exchange between the United States and China.