• President Pierre Magnan called the meeting to order at 1740 hrs Friday January 5, 2001 and welcomed attendees, remarking that the scientific program was excellent, the organisation particularly smooth and efficient, and the location for the meeting particularly pleasant.

• President Magnan thanked the long list of those who had contributed to the success of this year's meeting:

• Don Jackson and Nick Collins for the excellent local arrangements, along with the numerous student volunteers who were helping with audiovisual, registration and other parts of the program. Thanks to their efforts organisation of the meeting had run very smoothly.

• Michael Fox, Program Chair, and his program committee for an excellent technical program. In addition the editors of the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, Moira Ferguson and John Roff, had contributed to the program by arranging for the guest speakers.

• The guest speakers, David Schindler and Carl Walters, for their excellent presentations in celebration of the 100^th anniversary of  the journal.

• Bruce Dancik of the National Research Council for his remarks in opening the meeting, and Arthur Carty, President of NRC, for his address to be given at the banquet this evening.

• Sponsors of the meeting, National Research Council and Department of Fisheries and Oceans, for their generous financial contributions to the meeting.

• Contributors to the Clemens Rigler Travel Fund, including a number of new contributors this year :

Beak International Incorporated;

Great Lakes Fishery Commission;

Lotek Engineeering Incorporated;

Ontario Commercial Fisheries Association;

Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters;

Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources;

North Central Division of the American Fisheries Society;

• and contributors who have supported the CRTF in previous years :

Canadian Aquatic Resources Section of American Fisheries Society;

Department of Fisheries and Oceans;

Halltech Environmental Ltd.;

Hoskin Scientific Ltd.;

North-East Division of American Fisheries Society;

and of course CCFFR and SCL.

• The people and organisations who manage the Clemens Rigler Travel Fund :

Antoine Morin and his selection committee who once again did a very good job at selecting recipients for travel awards;

• The Canadian Aquatic Resources Section of AFS for managing the money and ensuring that students get their grants, in particular President Bruce Ward and Treasurer Dave Conley; President Magnan also recognised Past Presidents of CARS present at the meeting, John Casselman, Dave Evans, Terry Marshall and Howard Powles, and expressed CCFFR’s appreciation for CARS’ continued efforts to build financial support for the CRTF.

• Again great thanks to Chris Taggart for maintaining the CCFFR web site and electronic mailing list. This makes meeting organisation very efficient and saves a great deal of money for photocopying. It was noted that Chris was in Australia on sabbatical this year and continued to keep up the site from far away.

• Thanks to Society of Canadian Limnologists for continuing to meet in parallel with CCFFR and for their contribution to the Clemens Rigler Fund.

• To the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for continuing to support the CCFFR Secretariat, and particularly to Mary Ajersch, Mary Allan, John Moores and Howard Powles for their work during the year.

• Minutes of the 53rd annual CCFFR business meeting (Fredericton, January 7, 2000) and the Treasurer's Report for the period April 1, 1999 - March 31, 2000 were distributed to all participants. The minutes were adopted unanimously on a motion by John Loch, seconded by Nick Collins.

• John Moores described the financial report, which showed that CCFFR bank balance had increased by over $2000 during the year up to March 31, 2000, thanks to significant sponsorship of the 2000 meeting. The report was adopted unanimously on a motion by Jim Tait, seconded by Joe Brown.

• Howard Powles noted that there were over 300 participants to this year’s CCFFR meeting and over 100 to SCL making this by far the biggest meeting ever (previous record was 330 for the two meetings combined). John Moores indicated that receipts for the current meeting were high and there should be no financial issues with this meeting.

• The report on operations of the CRTF in 1999/2000 was distributed. The total available for the 2000 meeting was an unprecedented $????, thanks to increased donations. Of this ??? was allocated to grants and ??? was claimed, leaving a carryover of ??? to the 2001 meeting.

• Nick Collins moved acceptance of the report, David Noakes seconded, and the report was unanimously approved.

• President: Eric Taylor, University of British Columbia

• Program Chair: Jim Reist, Fresh Water Institute, Winnipeg

• Local Arrangements: Scott Hinch, University of British Columbia

• Nominations: Allen Curry, University of New Brunswick (reports in 2001)
• Jim Reist, Program Chair, reported that he had verified past program themes on the web site and was proposing some preliminary themes based on areas underrepresented in past programs and current issues before management agencies :

-northern Canadian fish, including widespread species which occur in the north;

-invertebrate fisheries;

-climate change impacts on fish and fisheries.

• Reist also suggested that a venue-specific theme could be considered, eg salmonid fishes for the BC venue.

• Mark Ridgeway supported the idea of a northern fish theme, and suggested that productive capacity of fish habitat could be a possible theme.

• Reist indicated that he would work with colleagues to finalise a set of themes in the next 6 weeks.

• Scott Hinch indicated that next year’s meeting would be in a downtown hotel, and several had been contacted. He would be pursuing this over the next several weeks and should have preliminary arrangements made soon. Dates for the 2002 meeting will be January 3-5, 2002 (Thursday to Saturday).

• John Moores reported for Allen Curry, Nominations Chair (who unfortunately was required to be in Cuba at this time) that the following had agreed to serve :

David Noakes, Guelph University, President

John Gunn, Lakehead University, ???? check Program Chair

John Lark, Local Arrangements

• The slate of candidates was approved by acclamation.

• Dates for this meeting will be January 3-5, 2003 (Friday to Sunday).

CCFFR tradition would put the 2004 meeting in the east, and President Magnan was pleased to report that Joe Brown had agreed to consider organising the 2004 meeting in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Joe Brown indicated that he had discussed this with colleagues at Memorial University of Newfoundland, including Bob Gregory and George Rose, and that they would be willing to do the organising. The meeting applauded this.

Nick Collins suggested that CCFFR introduce an item to its annual business meeting on a report from the editors of CFJAS and an opportunity for dialogue with participants in the meeting. Although Daniel Boisclair had followed up with CFJAS following last year’s meeting regarding a linkage which would permit lower rates on CJFAS subscriptions, the Journal will shortly be free through the internet so such a linkage is perhaps less necessary. SCL on the other hand is pursuing a formal linkage so as to get subscriptions at reduced rates. Discussion ensued on the content of such a report (a report on the vision for the Journal, special issues, numbers of MS’s submitted etc) and format (a presentation by the editors followed by questions).

• John Lark moved that CCFFR add to agenda of future business meetings an item to allow CFJAS editors an opportunity to make a presentation and engage in discussion with participants. Don Jackson seconded, and this motion was passed.

• Linkages with SCL

• Peter Leavitt, Vice President of SCL, raised several points on links between the two groups which were discussed :

• Meeting organisation. SCL would like to have a member on the local organising committee. CCFFR welcomed this. SCL and CCFFR will work together toward this end. Leavitt noted that SCL had felt surprised by the increase in registration rates for this meeting and would have appreciated more advance notice.

• CRTF Selection Committee. Antoine Morin intends to step down as Chair of the Selection Committee for the CRTF, and a replacement will have to be found. This was not further discussed in the meeting but there was general agreement that this will have to be dealt with.

• Coordinating Programs. SCL for the first time ran 15 minute paper presentations this year, as the committee did not want to bump good presentations down to posters. The general feedback to this was positive. However this did make coordination with the CCFFR program difficult. Michael Fox indicated that the CCFFR program committee had considered this, but decided to stick with 20 minutes; some papers submitted for full presentation had been transformed to posters and an effort was made to upgrade poster presentations by providing lots of time (cutting one technical paper session short to allow for poster discussions) and a good venue for posters. Participants at the meeting generally agreed that this was preferable.

• Media at meetings. SCL feels that more efforts should be made to raise the profile of aquatic sciences through the SCL-CCFFR meetings, and had distributed a press release (through University of Guelph) highlighting some of the more newsworthy talks. Leavitt had cleared this with Fox before the meeting and the release noted that it was a joint SCL-CCFFR meeting. The Ottawa Citizen and CBC Radio had picked up and highlighted the meeting, and CPAC had filmed David Schindler’s presentation at the opening session. Some participants in the CCFFR meeting agreed that publicising the meetings via press release would be a good initiative, among other things because NSERC considers relevance in allocating funding to academic fields - this approach has been used at other scientific meetings. Others expressed scepticism about relations with media in general and about taking up advocacy activities under the CCFFR banner, and noted that media attention can be uncomfortable for some individuals. The suggestion was made that media briefings should stick clearly to scientific information and should involve individuals who are comfortable and effective at communicating with media. Responsibility for organising this was considered - Presidents of the two groups could take the lead, or Program Chairs. It was noted that Local Arrangements people should be involved because of regional differences in media-science relations (eg in Newfoundland scientists are used to dealing with media on aquatic science issues).

• John Lark moved, and Michael Fox seconded, that the Program Chairs of CCFFR and SCL, along with the two Presidents, make appropriate efforts to make media aware of the annual meetings, using their discretion as to ways and means. This was approved.

• John Lark moved, and Jim Tait seconded, that Local Arrangements Committees, in consultation with Presidents of CCFFR and SCL, be free to adjust the cost structure of registration as necessary to cover meeting costs, depending on local conditions. Lark explained that this was to regularise the situation -- this had in fact been done for the present meeting despite discussions at previous business meetings setting rates. The meeting approved this motion.

• The meeting adjourned at 1845 hrs on a motion by Nick Collins, seconded by Jim Tait.

• CCFFR and SCL returned to the traditional banquet format at this meeting, and a very toothsome banquet meal was laid on by the Royal York Hotel in the Imperial Room, still showing every sign of its former glory as a night club of the 1950’s. Don Jackson welcomed participants to the meeting, acknowledged those who had supported this year’s meetings (see above at beginning of Business Meeting minutes), and introduced the speaker, Dr. Arthur Carty, President of the National Research Council. Dr. Carty complimented participants on maintaining a high level of excellence in Canadian aquatic sciences, and thanked all those who contributed to the scientific endeavor by contributing to editing journals and reviewing manuscripts. Dr. Carty also announced that from January 2001 NRC journals would be free on-line to anyone with a Canadian internet locator. Nick Collins drew a series of door prizes.

H. Powles

Secretary Treasurer