GIVEN the obvious importanceof parasites and disease infish, it may seem rather

surprising that, although the FSBI hasbeen holding themed internationalsymposia since 1977 none havepreviously focused on this criticalaspect of fish biology. This year’smeeting, held at Cardiff University,was an attempt to examine theimportance of parasites at all levels ofbiological organisation in fishes andhighlight the astonishing diversity ofresearch currently underway in fishparasitology. The meeting attractedover 80 delegates from 18 countries,and effectively conveyed the messagethat there is no aspect of fish biologyuntouched by the effects of parasites.

The first day opened in superbstyle with the Jack Jones lecture,delivered by Kevin Lafferty of theUniversity of California at SantaBarbara and the US GeologicalSurvey. Lafferty investigates the roleplayed by parasites in ecosystems,and his lecture effectively set theagenda for the rest of the meeting. Heshowed that, despite being generally‘hidden’ inside their hosts and hencerarely considered at the ecosystemlevel, fish parasites contribute sub-stantial biomass to ecosystems. Buteven more importantly, he providedcompelling evidence that parasitescontribute disproportionately to thedynamics of aquatic ecosystems,through their effects on hostbehaviour and ecology. In effect,parasites often determine ‘who livesand who dies’ in predator-preyinteractions, and thus they have majorimplications for food web dynamics. It

is clear that, in the future, food websshould include parasites as routinelyas they include predators. Lafferty’swide-ranging talk also showed howprojects on tropical reef ecosystemsare starting to show conclusively howparasite biodiversity can be negativelyimpacted by commercial fishingpressure, and how environmentaldegradation affects host-parasiteinteractions. In short, a thoroughlyentertaining and thought-provokingstart to the week.

After the Jack Jones lecture had soeloquently demonstrated the ultimatepower of parasites to influenceecosystem-level processes, we startedon a journey examining how sucheffects are achieved, beginning with asession on genes and evolution. First,a set of talks highlighted the roleplayed by immune genes indetermining which individuals becomeinfected, how this genetic diversity ismaintained through natural andsexual selection and how populationlevel differences in immune geneshave arisen. Mathias Wegner (ETH-Zurich, Switzerland) expertly sum-marised a large body of influentialexperimental and field work that has

demonstrated the value of stickle-backs as a model species for exam-ining interactions between genes ofthe major histocompatibility complex(MHC) and parasite infections. JoernScharsack (Max Planck Institute,Plön, Germany) provided a detailedexamination of how the divergence ofstickleback ecotypes has hadconsequences for their capacity toresist infections with novel infections,whereas Sofia Consuegra (Abery-stwyth, UK) demonstrated that thepreferences female Atlantic salmonshow for male MHC make-up affectsthe parasite load of their offspring.

One fascinating aspect of host-parasite interactions is the potentialfor rapid co-evolution of hosts andparasites, and Martin Reichardprovided a wonderfully illustratedexample of this in a talk examiningco-evolution between bitterling fishesand freshwater mussels. Incredibly,bitterling fish serve as both parasitesand hosts of mussels; female bitterlingdeposit their eggs inside mussels (andhave a negative impact on musselventilation in so doing) but theglochidia larvae of mussels are, in

CONTENTS: EDITORIAL . . . 3 ABRIDGED MINUTES OF THE 41ST ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING . . . 4-5 MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL . . . 7 TRAVEL GRANT REPORTS . . . 7 NOTICES . . . 8

Continued on page 2

The Fisheries Society of the British IslesNEWSLETTER Autumn 2008

Parasites as Agents of Selection inFish: from Genes to EcosystemsFSBI meeting Cardiff 21st-25th July 2008

Assembled delegates at the meeting

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turn, ectoparasites of fish. After such adiverse and stimulating day, mostdelegates hit the town to sample someof Cardiff’s renowned nightlife.

On Day 2, after revisiting genes andco-evolutionary processes briefly, wemoved up an organisational level toexamine the impacts of parasites onthe physiology and behaviour ofindividual fish. Steve Feist (Cefas,UK) gave a detailed account of howhistological analyses can be used toidentify infections and understand thepathology they cause, gaining insightinto the likely effects on host physi-ology and organ function. In a visuallyimpressive presentation, ChelseaMatisz (Lethbridge, Canada) showedhow high quality microscopy can beused to track the migration of brain-encysting parasites and hence gaininformation on the likely causes of sitespecificity. We briefly visited theconcept of reproductive parasitism infish – akin to brood parasitism in birds– with talks examining how ‘sneaky’male gobies and bitterling parasitisethe reproductive effort of conspecifics.Ola Svensson (Göteborg, Sweden)kicked off the session by describing aplethora of studies on parasiticspawning behaviours in gobies. CarlSmith (Leicester, UK) adopted amuch-admired ‘minimalist’ retort toconventional PowerPoint use in hisreview of bitterling mating tactics, andshowed how females potentiallybenefit from, and even solicit, interestfrom sneaky males. The final sessionof the day examined the relationshipsbetween parasite infections and hostbehaviour, focusing particularly on thequestion of whether parasite-alteredbehaviours are adaptations or sideeffects. Brian Wisenden (Minnesota,USA) presented intriguing novel datasuggesting that parasite infectionsmay hold the key to a long-standingpuzzle in fish evolutionary ecology,namely why fish of so many speciesinvest in producing an ‘alarmsubstance’ that is used as a signal byother fish only when the skin isdamaged.

Day 2 ended with a pub quiz at aWelsh-speaking inn – Y Mochyn Du(‘The Black Pig’) – where we alsoenjoyed a barbeque. The generalknowledge of teams was tested with

rounds that included ‘Around theworld’, ‘Languages’, a special pictureround to test parasite taxonomic skillsand – intriguingly – ‘Fish or fowl?’ Thesun shone and the local brew flowedto provide a memorable night. Non-Europeans especially enjoyed theappearance of a hedgehog in thebeer garden as the sun went down!

On Thursday morning, we began toexamine how individual effects ofparasites can lead to populationconsequences of infection, andfeatured talks from scientists workingat the Environment Agency and Cefas.Chris Williams (EA Fish DiseasesUnit, UK) examined the pathologyassociated with three differentintroduced parasitic copepods, whichat first glance are extremely similar inappearance and biology, and showedthat subtle differences in attachmentand feeding behaviour can havesubstantial consequences for hostpathology, and ultimately forpopulation level processes. MattLongshaw and Nick Taylor (bothCefas, UK) then showed how long-term datasets on parasite infectionand year class strength in riverinecyprinid populations in the North ofEngland are being used to investigatethe relationships between infectionlevels, recruitment and populationstability. It is great to know thatdynamic young scientists working inthese government labs – which are ina unique position to be able to collectand analyze long-term fisheries data–– are seizing the opportunity totackle such important and pressingquestions.

As well as influencing populationsof individual species, parasites canalso have surprising effects on fishcommunities and interspecific inter-actions. Lexa Grutter (Brisbane,Australia) gave a comprehensive talksummarising her work on the ecologyof cleaner fish-client interactions onthe Great Barrier Reef. Thesefascinating heterospecific behaviouralinteractions, which only exist becausefish harbour ectoparasites, providefurther evidence of the power ofparasites to influence behaviour andecology at a community level. Notsurprisingly, in regions wherediurnally active cleaner fish exist, fish

ectoparasites show nocturnal activitypatterns. Nico Smit (Johannesburg,South Africa) showed convincinglythat, in regions such as the southernAfrican coast, which lack diurnallyactive cleaner fish, ectoparasiticgnathiid isopods show switchedperiodicity, strongly suggesting thatthe nocturnal behaviour of tropicalgnathiids has evolved as a result ofpressure from cleaners.

A short impromptu ‘poster talk’session on Thursday afternoon –arranged when a speaker was forcedto withdraw from the meeting at latenotice – proved a real success, withposter presenters summarising theirprojects in rapid-fire talks. Althoughunplanned, we recommend this tofuture conference organisers, as itboosted interest in posters and gavepresenters a higher profile at themeeting. After this, focus switched tothe applied aspects of fish para-sitology, with a diverse range of talkson topics from the use of fishparasites as biomarkers to examinethe connectivity of host populationsand the dispersal of invasive fishspecies, to developing optimalstrategies of release to avoid parasiteoutbreaks in conservation supple-mentation programmes.

The symposium banquet onThursday evening was held in thesplendour of Cardiff Castle, aremarkable fortress developed on anancient site over several centuries. In ashort ceremony, Paul Hart waspresented with the Beverton medal forhis wide-ranging contributions to fishbiology (see Summer newsletter).Several courses of tasty traditionalWelsh fare were then interspersed withhigh quality musical entertainment,including harp playing, opera,traditional Welsh pieces and ‘songsfrom the shows’, all performed by thesupremely talented waiting staff, all ofwhom study at the Royal WelshCollege of Music and Drama. Thisentertainment was supplemented byequally enthusiastic and memorable –if not quite so polished – contributionsfrom selected delegates, encouraged(bullied?) by Nia, our formidablecompère for the evening. Younger(and young at heart) delegatesfinished off the evening by sampling

FSBI NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2008 2

Parasites as Agents of Selection in Fish – Continued

Continued on page 6

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3 FSBI NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2008

EDITORIALFor some years now the respectivePresidents of the FSBI and theAmerican Fisheries Society (AFS)have attended each other’s annualconferences. This year, as men-tioned by The President in herreport to the AGM we welcomedMary Fabrizio to the meeting inCardiff. As the picture shows, theone thing that Mary really enjoyedwas the pub quiz. I think that thiswas a new experience for her andshe went away full of enthusiasmfor the genre.

The two societies have similaraims but are very different inrealisation. Size is the maincharacteristic that differs more thanany other, with the AFS havingabout ten times more members

than does the FSBI. This differenceis reflected in the numbersattending the main annual meeting,and anyone who has been to anAFS summer conference will knowthat it can have well over 1,000delegates. With so many morepeople, the AFS meeting has a verydifferent flavour to the small-scaleevent that the Society puts on eachyear. There are benefits to be hadfrom both types of meeting, and Ithink that the respective Presidentswhen attending the symposium ofthe partner Society always findnew ideas that can be adapted tolocal conditions. We were parti-cularly fortunate this year in thatthe meeting in Cardiff was granteda week of almost good weather and

the papers were excellent as ablysummarized by Iain Barber.

As it happens, our currentPresident, Felicity Huntingford, didnot attend the August meeting ofthe AFS in Ottawa and ourTreasurer represented the Societyinstead. There are only so manymeetings that one can go to andFelicity will be representing thesociety at the World FisheriesCongress in Yokohama, Japan inOctober. Having been to the lastthree of the World congresses, I canassure you of their size and,sometimes of their worth. Onegood feature is that they are run bythe World Council of FisheriesSocieties, of which the FSBI is afounding member. The WCFS is abit like the International OlympicCommittee and exists mainly tochoose the place for the location tothe next World Congress andbetween times to maintain commu-nication between the major fishbiology and fisheries societies ofthe world. The AFS has taken thelead through the years to keep theWCFS afloat and have acted as asecretariat for it. At the WFC inJapan, the FSBI will be bidding torun the next congress in 2012,possibly in Edinburgh. If we winthe bid, then members will be verywelcome as volunteers to help runthe meeting. There will be nodemands for choreographers todesign the opening ceremony –bagpipes to the fore!

Felicity Huntingford (left) and Mary Fabrizio (right) chat at the pub quiz with Alan Pikeand friend joining in.

Parasites as Agents of Selection in Fish captions for pictures on page 6Sofia Consuegra (Aberystwyth University, UK) and CarlSmith (University of Leicester, UK) at the wine reception.

Andrew MacColl (Nottingham, UK) and MathiasWegner (ETH-Zurich, Switzerland) at the wine reception.

Nico Smit (University of Johannesburg, SA) and MariaSala-Bozano (University College Dublin, Ireland) discussthe morning’s talks over coffee.

Chris Williams and Amy Reading (both EnvironmentAgency, UK) in jovial mood at the poster session.

Felicity Huntingford at the castle.

Daniella Harrer (University of Constanz, Germany)discussing her poster with Job de Roi (NottinghamUniversity, UK).

Paul Hart at the castle.

Steve Feist (Cefas, UK) and Jouni Taskinen (University ofJoensuu, Finland) deep in discussion at the winereception.

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FSBI NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2008 4

Abridged minutes of the 41sUniversity of Card

Present Felicity Huntingford (President), Brian Eddy (Secretary),Gordon Copp (Treasurer), Council members, Iain Barber,Paul Hart (Newsletter), John Craig (Journal of FishBiology) and 15 members of the Society.

President’s reportThe President welcomed Mary Fabrizio, President of theAmerican Fisheries Society (AFS) who represented the AFSat the conference. The Honorary Treasurer, Gordon Coppwill represent the FSBI at the AFS’s Annual Congress inOttawa in August.

The President thanked the sponsors of the present(highly successful) FSBI conference (Cardiff University, theEnvironment Agency and Wiley-Blackwells) for theirsupport and Tricia Ellis-Evans (PACE projects) for herefficient organisation. The papers presented at themeeting will be published as a special issue of the Journalof Fish Biology and thanks were extended to Alan Price,the Guest Editor, John Craig (the Editor) and his team andto Wiley-Blackwells for their work to ensure the efficientproduction of the supplement. Particular thanks weregiven to Iain Barber, Joanne Cable, the main organisers,to Carl Smith and Andrew McColl for their work on theconference programme and to Gabrielle Archard forlooking after the electronic projection superbly well.

The President reported on some of the work done bycouncil on behalf of the FSBI that would not come up inlater reports, including publication of a very successfulposition paper on the effects of climate change on the fishon the British Isles, “Climate Change and the Fishes ofBritain and Ireland”, prepared by Chris Harrod, ConorGraham and Jennie Mallela. Another position paper on non-native freshwater fish is nearly ready forpublication.

In 2009 FSBI Annual Symposium will be held inLeicester on the subject of Ecology and Evolution insticklebacks and the 2010 meeting will be in Belfast, onthe subject of climate change and fish. This will beorganised in collaboration with the AFS and othermembers of the world fisheries congress (WFC). On thesubject of links with the WFC the FSBI is hosting aworkshop on welfare and fishers at the 5th WFC congressin Japan in October 2008. In addition, the society will besubmitting a bid to host the 6th WFC in 2012 usingEdinburgh as a venue.

Finally the President reminded the meeting of the hugeamount of work done by FSBI Council in general and theoffice bearers and committee members in particular andthanked all those involved.

Honorary Secretary’s report This report covers the period from August 2007 to July2008.

MembershipAdministration of membership is now with Wiley-

Blackwells and the Society thanked David Cole of GrantaInformation Services for efficient and friendly service up tohis retirement earlier in the year. In May 2007 there were519 paid up members a significant decrease compared to721 members in 2006. There are currently 391 Fullmembers, 125 Associate members, 3 Honorary membersand 5 student members of the American Fisheries Society.Transfer of the membership administration from theGranta list to Wiley-Blackwells list is in progress and whencomplete a significant recovery of members is expected.Approximately 75% of members reside in the UnitedKingdom and Europe but there are also significantnumbers in North and South America, Australasia and theFar East.

Studentship CommitteeChaired by Iain Barber, the committee received 13applications, and seven candidates were interviewed. Astudentship was awarded to Anna Lewis (Southamptonand CEFAS Weymouth) studying “Otolith microchemistryin relation to migrations in plaice” supervised by CliveTrueman and Ewan Hunter. The second studentship wasawarded to Mathew Edenbrow (Exeter), “Behaviouralsyndromes in a clonal killifish”, supervised by DarrenCroft. The Society currently supports six students.

Research Grants Committee and Travel Grant CommitteeDr Victoria Braithwaite has charied the Research Grantscommittee which awarded approximately £36,000 to 9 projects. The Wyn Wheeler Research Grant is still up for grabs. Pavel Jurajda chaired the Travel GrantCommittee which funded twenty six applications costing£22,987.

MedalsThe 2008 Beverton Medal was awarded to Professor PaulHart (University of Leicester) and the FSBI medal wasawarded to Dr Stephen Cooke (Carlton University,Canada).

Treasurer’s Report The financial state of the Society at the end of 2007 isshown in the attached Accounts (given out at the AGM butare not included here). Total incoming resources were£277,619 representing a decrease of 4% over thecorresponding figure for 2006. As in previous years, thisincome was dominated by the three streams ofsubscriptions, profits from the Journal of Fish Biology(78%) and investments (16%), which together accountedfor over 94% of total income. The Society’s bank interestincome was £10,915 – a decrease of 30% over the 2006level. Subscription income increased by 3% from that of2006, but this may be due to variations in the exacttiming of payments by members rather than to aconsiderable change in membership. Profits (£217,643)from the Journal of Fish Biology represent an increase of

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5 FSBI NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2008

1st Annual General Meetingrdiff, 23 July 2008

5% over those of 2006. As the market investment climategradually improved, total investment income increased by20% over that of 2006. However, in the last half of 2007,with the Society’s investments under the management ofCitigroup Quilter (formerly Morgan Stanley Quilter), thedownturn in global share values has resulted in a fall invalue of investments.

Resource expenditure, as planned and effected, can bedivided into Direct Charitable Expenditure (£261,089,90% of total spend) and Management and Administration(£28,388, 10% of total spend). Direct CharitableExpenditure was 4% less than in 2006. The Society’ssubsidy of members’ copies of the Journal of Fish Biology(£41,947) decreased by 26% in 2007 relative to that(£56,853) in 2006. Expenditure on Management andAdministration increased by 40% compared to the 2006level, and this was due to the increased costs in legal feesand an increase of 60% in Councillors’ travel andsubsistence costs. Total resource expenditure in 2007 was£289,477, which is a decrease of 1% form the 2006figure of £292,922.

The overall value of the investments held by the societyon 31st December 2007 was £1,240,044 and thisrepresents a decrease of 19% over the 2006 value of£1,250,944. The Society’s total assets (minus currentliabilities) on 31st December 2007 were £1,581,950,which represents an increase of about £13k over thesame time in 2006. In conclusion, the balance sheetshows that at the end of 2007, the Society was in anextremely sound financial state.

ConstitutionUpdating the Constitution in line with the recommen-dations of the Charities Commission has been guided bythe Treasurer with advice from a specialist charitiessolicitor, Stephen Claus. The main points were outlined bythe Treasurer. The review process is now almost completeand the revised constitution will be circulated to themembership as soon as possible.

Journal of Fish Biology: Editor’s Report Submissions to the Journal of Fish Biology totalled 896during 2007 (821 in 2006). This total was comprised of825 regular papers and brief communications, 31 papersoffered for publication in the Supplement to Volume 71(Exeter Symposium), 22 Review Papers and 18 papersoffered for the June 2008 Special Issue.

In 2007, 306 papers (37%) were accepted forpublication and 514 (63%) were rejected (this includesredirected or withdrawn by the authors). The number ofnew manuscripts submitted per month averaged 69 andranged between 50 and 88.

The distribution of submissions to JFB (regular papersand brief communications only) by area of origin andclassification by subject. Figures for 2006 are inparentheses.

Country 2007 (2006*) Subject 2007 (2006)U.K. 49 (42) Physiology 103 (82)Rest of Europe 249 (271) Behaviour 113 (110)Eurasia 15 (21) Ecology 279 (246)Asia 164 (133) Genetics 94 (82)Africa 35 (20) Reproduction 47 (61)N. America 144 (159) Parasitology/Disease 21 (27)C. & S. America 94 (86) Morphology/Histology 46 (56)Australasia 73 (51) Taxonomy 30 (27)Oceanic 2 (2) Methodology 7 (19)

Aquaculture 17 (13)Distribution 34 (33)Other 34 (29)

*N.B. Regions comprising countries of origin have been reorganised thisyear. Regional totals for 2006 have been adjusted accordingly.

Volumes 70 and 71 of the Journal for 2007 contain tworeviews, 222 regular papers, 69 brief communications,10 book reviews and one obituary. The six issues of theMolecular Supplement contain three review papers, 45regular papers, and 19 brief communications. Non-nativeFishes: Integrated Biology of Establishment Success andDispersal is the proceedings of the Exeter Symposium andconsists of 17 regular papers and one brief commu-nication. The Guest Editors for the Supplement wereGordon Copp (Cefas-Lowestoft; FSBI Treasurer) andVladimír Kovác (Comenius University).

The Journal (together with the Symposium Supplement)consists of 4264 pages in 2007. The six issues of theMolecular Sciences Supplement consist of 952 pages. Thetotal number of pages published in JFB this year is 5216which is the page budget (4896 in 2006).

The Journal’s impact factor in 2007 (2005 and 2006volumes) was 1.404 (1.393 in 2006). Note that the factorrelates to the volumes published two years previously.

I thank all the Editorial Team, Wiley-Blackwell’s staffand our Editorial Manager advisers for their considerableefforts and excellent help and support.

John F Craig. Dunscore, 16 July 2008

Election of Officers and Council membersThe President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer areFelicity Huntingford, Michel Kaiser, F.B. Eddy and G.Copp respectively. Councillors taking office at the 40thAGM were Ingrid Ahnesjö, Joanna Grabowska, VladimirKovác and Ian McCarthy. Retiring from Council are AnneBrown, Victoria Braithwaite and Pavel Jurajda.

In the absence of other nominations these nomineeswere elected, proposed by Gordon Copp, seconded byPaul Hart.

Vacancies for Council will occur next year and FullMembers of the FSBI may nominate other Full Membersas candidates. Such nominations must be received by thePresident or Secretary at least seven days in advance ofthe meeting and be supported by at least six other FullMembers.

F.B. Eddy, Honorary Secretary, August 2008

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FSBI NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2008 6

Parasites as Agents of Selection in Fish – Continuedstill more of Cardiff’s famous nightlife.On Friday morning, a fascinatingseries of talks examined the importanttopic of how fish-parasite interactionsare altered in polluted and otherwisedegraded environments. BerndSures (Duisburg-Essen, Germany)provided a highly informative andclear theoretical introduction to thefield and used his own studies to showhow – perhaps counterintuitively –parasites may sometimes protect hostsfrom certain types of pollutants suchas heavy metals, by selectivelyabsorbing them from host tissues.Such results make it clear that highquality empirical data is requiredbefore we can predict accurately howglobal change is likely to impactinteractions between fish and theirparasites. Other talks focused theimpact of temperature on disease andon how zinc pollution affects both ahost and its ectoparasite fauna.

Parasites may, in the worst cases,contribute to human health problemsand have socioeconomic impact. IanCowx (Hull, UK) ended the conferenceby examining how a small bodied fishthat has become massively importantas a subsistence food in humanpopulations around Lake Victoria,following major anthropogenic pertur-bation of the lake, is now threatened

by the parasite Ligula intestinalis. Inthe opening lecture, Kevin Laffertyeloquently convincingly demonstratedthe ability of parasites to impact foodchains, and here we saw how this mayhave even human consequences.

The conference organisers wouldlike to thank all who attended for theirenthusiastic participation in allacademic and social aspects of themeeting. This certainly left us withmuch “food for thought” and a host ofideas for future research projects. Wewould also like to thank Tricia EllisEvans (Pace Projects) for assistancewith organisational matters, andGabrielle Archard for her exem-plary multimedia and projection skills.Wiley-Blackwell, the Royal Society, theEnvironment Agency and CardiffUniversity all provided sponsorship,and we are extremely grateful to themfor funding. The quality of pre-sentations throughout the conferencewas consistently superb. An indepen-dent committee awarded the RoyalSociety Proceedings B Prize for beststudent talk to Tracy King (Cardiff,UK) and the Royal Society BiologyLetters Prize to Tony Stumbo(Minnesota, USA, but all of the manystudents that presented at the meetingdeserve great credit for presentingtalks and posters of the highest

quality. Demitra Andreou CEH,Oxford, and Loys Richard Hobbs,(Cardiff) were both highly com-mended for their excellent talks.

Iain Barber (Leicester, UK)Jo Cable (Cardiff, UK)Symposium conveners

See page 3 for captions to pics.

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7 FSBI NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2008

From the 14th-16th of April, Tom Worthington a PhDstudent from the School of Civil Engineering and theEnvironment at the University of Southampton attendedthe First International Wildlife Reintroduction Conferenceat Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.

Research being undertaken at Southampton isexamining the feasibility of reintroducing the nationallyextinct burbot (Lota lota) to UK rivers. The conferenceafforded Tom the opportunity to see presentations anddiscuss new techniques with academics and reintro-duction practitioners from across the globe. It alsoprovided him the opportunity to present part of his workon the use of historical literature to quantify a species’decline to extinction.

Although a lot of the overriding techniques can beutilised across different species, one area of concern wasthe small number of projects that were connected withfish reintroduction. Tom hopes his work and the work ofothers such as Peter Beeck (the reintroduction of the allisshad (Alosa alosa) to the River Rhine) will increase theprofile of fish and lead to greater conservation efforts.

Tom would like to thank the FSBI for their generoussupport, which allowed him to attend such an interestingand worthwhile conference.

Abigail Franklin, a graduate student at the Universityof Massachusetts, Amherst in the United States ofAmerica attended the “Advances in Fish Tagging andMarking Technology International Symposium” at the

University of Auckland in New Zealand during February24th-28th, 2008. The conference was sponsored by theAustralian Society of Fish Biology, American FisheriesSociety, and New Zealand Marine Sciences Society.

The travel scholarship allowed me to give an oralpresentation at the conference titled “Use of passiveintegrated transponder telemetry for evaluation ofnature-like fishways in coastal New England, U.S.A.” Thetalk focused on work I am doing for my Masters thesis onquantifying movements of alewife, Alosa pseudo-harengus through a relatively new fishway design.

The keynote speakers encouraged participants to stepoutside of the tagging and marking technologies theyare familiar with and learn from the experiences offellow researchers. Presentations covered a variety oftopics such as range studies for conservation andmanagement projects, fish passage, evaluation ofrestoration efforts, and stock discrimination.

I was able to network with researchers and studentsfrom Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, and from thePacific Northwest and Great Lakes region of the UnitedStates. After observing many students present in alanguage other than their native tongue I am nowinspired to present a paper at an international confer-ence that is not conducted in English.

During the trip I had the opportunity to assist with anongoing study on the migration of long finned eels,Anguilla dieffenbachia in Lake Manapouri and to visitand learn about passage issues at power schemes atLake Waikaremoana and the Waikato River.

Travel Grant Report

THE COUNCIL AS AT THE AGM, JULY 2008OfficersName Function AffiliationFelicity Huntingford President University of GlasgowMichel Kaiser Vice-President University of Wales – BangorBrian Eddy Honorary Secretary University of Dundee, Gordon Copp Honorary Treasurer Rowton Heath, Norwich,

Elected Members of CouncilIain Barber Studentship University of LeicesterJ. Robert Britton Studentship Bournemouth University, Ian McCarthy Studentship University of Wales Bangor, Rodolphe E Gozlan Grants Bournemouth UniversityKatherine Sloman Grants University of Plymouth,Vladimir Kováã Grants Comenius University, SlovakiaJoanna Grabowska, Grants University of Lodz, PolandDeclan Quigley Travel Wicklow Town, IrelandProfessor Maria Joao Collares-Pereira Travel University of Lisbon, PortugalIngrid Ahnesjö Travel Uppsala University, Sweden

Guest membersJohn Craig Journal Editor DunscoreNorman Mclean Journal Supplement Editor University of Southampton Paul Hart News Letter University of LeicesterToby Carter Web Site Anglia Ruskin UniversityChris Harrod Symposium 2010 convener Queen’s University Belfast

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FSBI NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2008 8

All enquiries about FSBI membership, fees,travel grants and research grants

should be made to:David Cole, GIS,

82a, High Street, Sawston,Cambridge CB2 4HJ

Tel: 01223 830665 Fax: 01223 839804 E mail: Membership@fsbi.org.uk

Secretary:Professor Brian Eddy

Faculty of Life Sciences, Biological Science Institute,

University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 4HN, UK

Tel: +44 (0)1382 344292 Fax: +44 (0)1382 344275

E-mail: Secretary@fsbi.org.uk

www.fsbi.org.uk

I N F O R M A T I O N D E S K

NOTICESCorrection

FSBI Annual Symposium 2009 and 6th InternationalConference on Stickleback Behaviour and Evolution

Leicester, 13-17th July 2009Note that in the Summer Newsletter the stickleback meeting was billed

as the 7th in the series. It is in fact the 6th.The flyer enclosed with this newsletter provides fuller details of the meeting.

Institute of BiologySpecial membership offer!

The Institute of Biology is offering all FSBI members the chance to join their membership schemeat a special rate, whereby you will get your first two years’ membership for the price of one. As a member, you will be able to use the distinguished letters after your name – AMIBiol, MIBiolor FIBiol, depending on grade. More and more bio-scientists are applying to join, as theyrecognise that it is important to keep up with their peers in terms of career progression. Beinga member is also the only way you can apply to become a ‘Chartered Biologist’.Other benefits include their prestigious quarterly Journal, Biologist, keeping members up-to-dateon all the major bioscience news, plus further discounts on publications, events and courses. Inaddition, they will soon be introducing an enhanced members’ area of the website, which willallow members to get in touch with each other to share experiences and take part in debate.This is your chance to be part of a membership that includes some of the best-known bio-scientists in the UK and overseas.To find out more, go to the link below to choose your appropriate membership grade, and thencomplete the application form.

http://www.iob.org/general.asp?section=joinus&article=membership_grades.xmlTo take advantage of this special offer, quote ‘FSBI’ on your form. If you have any questions,

call the IoB’s membership team on 020 7936 5942, or email membership@iob.org.

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