FisheriesScience Workshop

April 2 – 4, 2013, St. Petersburg, Florida

Day 1:

  • Introductions and Welcome; 1 hour. Roundtable, then brief overview of the program, purpose, and what to expect. Travel to FWC’s FWRI.
  • Sampling and Surveys Process Overview; 2.5 hours. An introduction and overview ofdata collection and uses in stock assessments. Information on recreational data collection process via MRIP surveys. Survey vessel random sampling methodology, and fish sampling processes. Fisheries dependent data vs. fisheries independent data.Overview is complimented with visit to the FWC FWRI research vessel. Speakers: Luiz Barbieri (FWC), Gordon Colvin (MRIP).
  • Population Biology; 3.5 hours. Fundamental concepts in fish population dynamics, age & growth with otoliths and gonads, including hands on stations and individualized exposure to the lab environment and sample processing at the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commissions’s Fisheries Research Facility in St. Petersburg.Speakers: John Carmichael (SEDAR), and FWC’s FWRI staff.

Day 2:

  • Stock Assessments and Modeling; 3.5 hours. Insights into strengths and weaknesses of different types of stock models, how data are incorporated, and where improvements reduce uncertainty. Includes an explanation of biological reference points used in management. Speakers: Clay Porch/Brian Linton (SEFSC), John Carmichael.
  • Conservation engineering; 3.0 hours. Gear design discussions in small group rotations, with focused hands-on topics in barotrauma, discard mortality and bycatch avoidance strategies, as well as trap rope marking, trap design, TED’s, long line issues, and ESA interactions.Speakers: John Mitchell (SEFSC Mississipi), Steve Thebarge (SEFSC Panam City).
  • Collaborative Research; 1 hour. Informal group discussion to examine how fishermen work with scientists to improveinformation for fishery management. An opportunity for fishermen-attendees to talk about science in which they have participated, and share stories of the process in which they took part. Speaker: Frank Helies (GSFRF).

Day 3:

  • Physical oceanography/Climate drivers; 3 hours. Introduction to climate drivers, and how these drivers are affecting change in the climate. Focus on Gulf current, riverine inputs, sedimentation, eddy current, loop currents. Examine the effect of cold water intrusions. Florida key re-armament impact. Recruitment processes in the Caribbean.Speaker: ?
  • Ecosystem-based management of fisheries; 2 hours. Descriptive with examples of analyses. Environmental parameters in the stock assessment vs. MPAs, data gaps, multi species fisheries, reef protection, water quality, land based inputs. Speaker: Steve Murawski
  • Program Wrap-up and Evaluation; 1 hour. Parting thoughts, questions, comments in roundtable format. Fill out eval forms, networking, coffee and cookies for the road, say good byes.

Discussion Moderator: Bob Gill