144th Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society

August 17 - 21, 2014

Humankind’s growing needs have increased pressure on our natural resources, resulting in new challenges for responsibly managing ecosystems. New stresses on aquatic systems include global climate change, alternative energy extraction (e.g., offshore wind, waves, and river, ocean and tidal currents), and offshore aquaculture for food production, among others. Managers must rely on research to inform responsible decisions regarding current developments.  However, regions of increasing interest (e.g., strongly tidal, open ocean, or polar areas) are typically under-studied, physically extreme, and highly variable, making research difficult. Highly dynamic systems complicate study design and data collection, processing, and interpretation. For example, physical data collection may be hampered by equipment limitations or unsafe working conditions, and interpretations can be subject to the timing of sampling these extremely variable environments.   To provide the information necessary for good management decisions, researchers must overcome the challenges presented by these environments.  The goal of this symposium is to bring together those working in difficult aquatic settings (e.g., strongly tidal areas, open ocean, arctic or sub-arctic environments) to study fish or components of their ecosystems.  This symposium will allow researchers and professionals from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to share experiences with study design (e.g., spatial and temporal considerations), novel equipment applications, and data analysis techniques (e.g., dealing with incomplete or irregular datasets). If researchers are able to overcome the obstacles presented by challenging work environments, we will be better equipped to responsibly manage human-induced changes to aquatic ecosystems.