The 56th Canadian Conference for Fisheries Research (CCFFR)

Westin Hotel

Ottawa, Ontario

January 3, 2003

 

Introduction

President David Noakes welcomed the participants to the 2003 business meeting.  He saluted several of the attendees who have been long and distinguished members of the Canadian fisheries research community, “the good old boys” W.B. Scott, E.J. Crossman and D. McPhail, and the not quite as old J. Nelson and R. Beamish – several comments and jokes about age followed.  He also noted that this years meeting would be have a special session to honour the 30th anniversary of Scott and Crossman’s Freshwater Fishes of Canada. 

 

Acknowledgements

President Noakes gratefully acknowledge the efforts of this year’s organizing committee in producing another successful joint meeting of the Canadian Conference for Fisheries Research and the Society of Canadian Limnologists, with 408 registered participants.  As usual the success of these meeting relied upon on the hard work of these individuals:

 

·        John Lark and John Curran as the local arrangements committee and who once again rose to the challenge to provide an excellent 2004 venue in the heart of and yet kept the registration fees at 1980’s levels. 

·        John Gunn as this year’s program chair and Seija Mallory who took the lead in program production. 

·        Chris Taggart who continues to manage the website for CCFFR, which has served as the backbone for communicating information for this annual meeting. 

·        Julie Meloche and J. AndrewCooper for registration. 

·        Mike Mallette, Genevieve Carr, Christine Brereton, Seija Mallory, and local volunteers for organizing and provided excellent on-site audio-visual support. 

·        Peter Leavitt for media support.

·        Rob MacKereth who continues as the Chair for the Clemens-Rigler Travel Fund. 

·        George Morgan, Ed Snucins, Shelley Arnott, Nick Mandrak, Warren Dunlop, John Gunn, Hugh MacIsaac, Kim Hyatt, Mark Johannes, Jenny Winter, Antonella Cattaneo and Frances Pick as special session chairs for this combined CCFFR/SCL annual meeting. 

 

Donations toward this year’s Clemens-Rigler Travel fund came from:

·        Canadian Conference for Fisheries Research

·        Fisheries and Oceans, Canada

·        Halltech Environmental Limited

·        Lotek Engineering Incorporated

·        Smith-Root Canada

·        Society of Canadian Limnologists

·        The University of Northern British Columbia

 

There has also been a change to the CCFFR establishment.  Howard Powles, Director of the Biodiversity Science Branch in the Department of Fisheries and Oceans who has held the position of CCFFR Secretary-Treasurer for over a decade has passed these responsibilities to J. Andrew Cooper who works in Fisheries Research Branch of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. 

 

Minutes of last meeting

The minutes of the 2002 meeting were approved (J. Lark/A Ali). 

 

Treasurer’s Report

The treasurer’s report for the year ending March 31, 2002 was tabled (attached).  The treasurer highlighted that a successful fund-raising campaign driven by the previous year’s organizing committee coupled by the relatively low cost for last year’s venue allowed for a surplus of over 26K.  This surplus will be used to support 2003 and 2004 meeting expenses and the Clemens-Rigler travel fund.  The treasurer reported that fund raising was not as successful for the 2003 meeting and that the current surplus would be substantially diminished in the coming years unless an annual fund raising campaign was adopted for the coming years.  Treasurer’s report was approve (J. Lark/A. Ali). 

 

Clemens-Rigler Travel Fund

R. Mackereth provided a summary of last years Clemens Rigler fund.  Travel for 53 students (CCFFR 39 SCL 14) was supported for last year’s meeting with a total commitment of $18,781.00.  Only 51 students claimed travel reward for at total expenditure of $17,631.00.  The funding formula was based on cap at 500 for new applicants, with less provided to repeat applicants and local travel (i.e. from Kingston and Montreal).  CCFFR will use a portion of the carry over in its budget to support the Clemens-Rigler travel fund due to the decline in corporate sponsors this year.  A formal approach to seek sponsorship needs to be addressed as a possible solution.  Travel awards for next year will likely be increased to cover the extra expense of travel to St. John’s.  J. Lark commented that any new cap to St. John’s could be based on current air fair, barring blackout periods imposed by the airline.  Based on estimates obtained in November airfare will be about $800. 

 

J. Lark moved that the cap be raised to $750.  There were further discussions on a geographic cap and comment made that there has never been a formalized cap but awards have ranged as high as $600.  H. Powles suggested that the selection committee make a judgement on funding caps.  Other members would prefer that no formal cap be applied.  The motion for a cap was withdrawn. 

 

Officers and Arrangements - 2004 (St. John’s, NL)

The CCFFR executive for 2004 in St. John’s, NL is:

·        President:                      Moira Ferguson, University of Guelph

·        Program Chair:              Dave Scruton, Fisheries and Oceans, St. John’s

·        Local Arrangement:     Joe Brown, Bob Gregory, George Rose

·        Nominations Chair:      Bill Tonn

On behalf of the 2004 organizing committee Joe Brown invited the CCFFR and the SCL to come to St. John’s Newfoundland and Labrador.  He presented an exciting outline for the 2004 program along with an open invitation for additional suggestions regarding program development and fund raising.  Major themes that they expect to cover include: Evidence and Impacts of Aquatic Regime Shifts, Rebuilding Fisheries  Anthropogenic Effects on Fish, Aquaculture and the Environment, Environmental vs Genetic Variation in Life History, Adaptive Responses of Fisheries to Climate Variation and Change, and Marine Biodiversity

 

Officers and Arrangements - 2005 (Windsor, Ontario)

A motion to propose CCFFR executive for 2005 in Windsor, Ontario nominated: 

·        President:                      Brian Shuter, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources

·        Program Chair:                              Joe Rasmusen, McGill University

·        Local Arrangements:   Dan Heath, University of Windsor

·        Nominations chair:       Marco Rodriguez, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières

 

The motion was carried unanimously. 

 

Venue - 2006

A motion was forwarded to host CCFFR at the University of Calgary in 2006.  Tom Post agreed to consider this and to get back to CCFFR with a decision. 

 

Tom post and the University of Calgary were unanimously conscripted to host CCFFR in 2006. 

 

Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences

Moira Ferguson announced that changes were coming to the journal.  These changes will allow for slightly larger manuscripts and relax rules concerning number of references.  The journal will also entertain papers from a variety of disciplines.  Perspective authors are encouraged to contact editors first for advice on submissions. 

 

There was further discussion regarding plans to reintroduce an opinion forum for the journal.  M. Ferguson informed the meeting that the journal would have a section representing critical “perspectives”.  This would consist of short opinion pieces.  There was further discussion on the review process for this opinions section.  Reference was made to examples that could be found on the CJFAS web site.  M. Ferguson advised authors to contact editors on issues you wish to present as a perspective. 

 

? Electronic review what proportion are electronic?

 

Other business

Fund Raising for the Clemens-Rigler Travel Fund - The issue of developing an annual fund raising campaign was forwarded by D. Noakes as new business.  Raising funds for the C-R has met with sporadic success from year to year.  Grad students have traditionally taken up fund raising but it would be good to formalize this process.  Occasionally meeting locations (i.e. Ottawa) do not have strong ties to Universities or grad students.  A committee should be tasked every year to ensure that corporate support for the C-R fund is found.  A motion was unanimously passed for a three-person committee to be made up of the current, past, and future presidents to head up and organize fund raising efforts (D. Noakes/A. Curry). 

 

H. Powles added that we should remember to coordinate the Clemens-Rigler and CCFFR fund raising and establish terms of reference that could guide the committee from year to year. 

 

Honorary life members – A motion was forwarded to nominate C. Lindsay, E. Crossman, W.B. Scott and D. McPhail as honorary life members of the CCFFR (A. Ali/J. Lark). 

 

Discussion ensued as to whether an honorary life membership would cover travel costs to CCFFR.  It was determined that such a membership could potentially cover registration but would not be able to cover travel costs because CCFFR is not an organization and has no budget.  The motion was held for further consideration. 

 

Stevenson lecture commemorative item –An issue for consideration was forwarded for Stevenson lecturers to receive a permanent commemorative item to accompany the present plaque since the plaque is only retained 1 year.  It was suggest that the three previous lecturers develop a small commemorative token for lecturers to keep. 

 

Adjournment

D. Noakes reminded participants of the special session for Scott and Crossman scheduled for the next day.  He thanked embers for the privilege of being president for this year’s meeting and moved that the meeting be adjourned at this time.  Meeting adjourned.