143rd Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society

September 08 - 14, 2013

Genetic principles are playing an increasingly important role in the research, management and conservation of fishery and aquatic resources.  This growing use of genetics is not surprising given the rapid advances in molecular technologies, affording the ability to evaluate genomic diversity and gene function at the individual, population and species levels.  As the variety of applications and the sophistication of the methodology has grown so has the need for geneticists to provide information to fishery and aquatic resource programs.  Today, many resource management agencies, NGO’s and tribal governments employ geneticists and often fund sophisticated genetics laboratories.  Universities play a critical role in training these professionals and in collaborating on studies.  In addressing the theme of the 143^rd meeting of the AFS, “Preparing for the challenges ahead”, this symposium highlights recent and future applications of genetic data in fishery management and the conservation of aquatic populations and species.  The focus will be broad and include aquaculture, fishery management, and conservation.