144th Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society

August 17 - 21, 2014

This is the first symposium jointly organized by the American Fisheries Society (AFS) and the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH). The two societies share common interests in conserving and managing fish biodiversity and in applying these results to educate the public, stakeholders, and the next generation of aquatic scientist. A closer relationship between the two societies, to include joint efforts, will broaden and extend their global outreach particularly relating to future impacts of climate change, water development projects and its associated impacts on aquatic food webs and sustainable global fisheries. Concomitant with this evolving collaboration is a recognition that the era of “big data science” has now arrived, with massive data production a result of technological advances, analytical approaches, hardware development, and how these cross-pollinate as tech sectors. Because it is so new, academia is scrambling to define and develop a representative curriculum that will cut across statistical, analytical, computer IT and mathematical disciplines. Its impacts are immense, so much so that big data is literally transforming biodiversity conservation and management by generating more information than can be easily and efficiently analyzed. Thus, the intent of this symposium is not only to bookmark our current location within this data stream (i.e., questions that can be profitably addressed) but also to generate an horizon scan of expected objectives/ limitations and how we should prepare the next generation of aquatic biologist. Symposium participants will examine data science from different vantage points, to include molecular ‘omics, IT-landscapes, and Tree of Life endeavors. Speakers will offer a mix of case studies where such approaches are used as well as a perspective on how the field will be transformed within the next 10 years.