American Fisheries Society

INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES SECTION

 2023 – 2024 Work Plan

Luiz G. M. Silva, President

 

Expand Membership, with a focus on women from Low- and Middle-Income countries

• Explore partnerships and build relationships with other International Societies and organisations.
• Increase the IFS membership with a focus on women from Low- and Middle-Income countries and Indigenous women
• Support discussions for the development of the AFS Latin American session (potentially linked to AFS)
• Maintain partnership with ACARE and African Women in Science – AWIS
• Organize and establish the IFS Webinar Series – provide a platform to give voice to IFS membership

Support Global Conferences and Initiatives

• Support World Fisheries Congress 2024 (Seattle, Washington)

• Serve International Program Sub-Committee

• Support Fundraising and coordinating of International Travel Awards

• • • Collaborate to International Travel Awards adjudication committee

• Collaborate to potential bid to host World Fisheries Congress 2028 in Brazil

Build on Communication Strategy

• Update the listserv including OLAF and AWIS fellows 
• Maintain communication with membership – Prepare quarterly email blasts to members
• Improve and update the IFS website (Cole Macleod)
• Maintain Social Media presence and recruit people for the IFS social media team (thanks to So-Jung Youn and Lisa Kelly for their services)
  • Create LinkedIn profile
  • Refresh Facebook profile
• Promote the IFS Editorial Assistance Program (Robert Mussgnug, Julie Claussen)
  • Investigate possibility to promote Editorial Assistance in AFS journals.

Manage Directives

• Coordinate OLAF International Membership Awards (Paul Simonin, Thiago Ribeiro)
• Maintain fiscal responsibility of section funds (Paul Simonin)
• Grant International Travel Awards (ITAs) from the Sullivan Family Endowment Fund – World Fisheries Congress 2024 and AFS Annual Meeting 2024
• Ensure fair and equitable adjudication of ITA (establish transparent selection criteria)
• Coordinate FSBI-AFS Fellows Program (Spencer Weinstein)
• Grant Bern Megrey World Fisheries Congress Travel Awards (Bob Hughes)

Contribute to AFS

• Host international symposium at AFS 2024 (Honolulu, Hawaii)
• Represent international members to AFS 

Vision for IFS

The international expertise I developed through my career allowed me to understand the need for global partnerships to strengthen our responses and contributions to the restoration and conservation of fish and fisheries globally. Although the threats to freshwater fisheries are similar, the needs and demands are very different across the globe, and international collaborative engagement can contribute to shortening pathways to achieve management or conservation objectives in different countries. This is the vision I would like to bring to the IFS. I believe IFS plays an essential role as a venue to facilitate such collaborations. Initiatives from current and past presidents have contributed towards this aim. As IFS president, I would like to capitalise on previous efforts and develop others to provide IFS members with an opportunity to make a difference and contribute to bridging research gaps and needs globally. Particularly, I envisage the need to give voice to researchers from developing countries with pressing needs and challenges to promote fisheries management and conservation under an economic development scenario. This vision can ensue in the form of a webinar series encouraging talks from research leaders from all continents, online training (e.g. IFS sponsored short courses), expansion of capacity-building programs (e.g. IFS partnership with other fisheries societies), and continued support to attending and promoting scientific events worldwide. The latter will require a substantial contribution of IFS to both the 2024 World Fisheries Congress (Seattle, USA) and the American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting (Honolulu, Hawaii) which I am very much willing to support.