Program

Program of Oral Presentations

Poster Presentations

 

Themes:

The role of releases of cultured animals in fisheries management: integrative evaluation.

• This theme will include integrated, interdisciplinary evaluation of releases, the approaches to these types of studies and case studies. It will consider how releases fit within the framework of measures for fisheries management and conservation.

Modelling and assessing the effectiveness of releases for fisheries management and conservation.

• This Theme will include the use of models to assess the feasibility, scope the potential scale, understand uncertainty and evaluate the effectiveness of releases. It covers a variety of modelling approaches including those traditionally applied in fisheries, and ecosystem and energetic models.

Governance and the socio-economics of release programs.

• Identifying the stakeholders of releases, the beneficiaries of releases, who should pay for releases, who should plan and govern releases, and defining specific objectives of releases has become increasingly important with reduced government funding for release programs and an increasing focus on ?user-pays?. Developing mechanisms to resolve these issues and understand how release programs influence the lives of people will be covered here.

Developing optimal release strategies.

• Covers research to investigate how survival, growth and effects of released animals can be controlled (or influenced) to improve the effectiveness of releases. This Theme includes studies of the effects that release habitat and microhabitat, size-at-release, acclimation, timing and density of releases have on the outcome of releases, and studies of how to assess and account for the carrying capacity of release areas. It may also include modifications to enhance habitat in release areas, such as introducing artificial habitat and using spatial closures to increase the potential effectiveness of releases.

Interactions among wild and released animals and the ecological and genetic implications.

• Includes studies of whether and how releases affect wild populations, which remains a major issue for researchers and managers. Are wild stock displaced and what are the consequences of releases on the survival, genetic structure and the disease status of wild populations? This Theme also includes results of comprehensive risk assessments, an important component of evaluating releases, particularly those on a large scale, and weighing the risks of releases against the gains of releases.

Enhanced knowledge on populations and ecosystems from releases of cultured animals.

• This theme includes studies that plan and use releases to improve our understanding of life history and ecological processes, and to improve and evaluate the effectiveness of other fishery management and conservation measures (e.g. marine protected areas, artificial reefs, habitat restoration, catch-and-release methods). Planning releases to gain a better understanding of the influence of environmental variation and habitat change on survival and carrying capacity are also considered here.

Adapting to change: climate, habitat and socio-economics.

• Increased awareness of the possible effects of changing climate, changes in public opinion on the environmental footprint associated with fisheries and aquaculture, and changes in local and global economies that will need to be taken into account in designing and implementing release programs. This Theme is intended to assemble presentations and case studies that provoke thought the way that release programs will need to be adapted in the future to meet responsible fisheries objectives in the face of such changes.