Impacts of climate change on the dynamics of high-latitude fish and fisheries will be the focus of the 31st Lowell Wakefield Fisheries Symposium, coming to the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage May 9-12, 2017.
Climate researcher and biologist Hans-Otto Portner, a professor at the Alfred Wegener Institute, in Bremerhaven, Germany, will deliver the keynote address.
Participants in the symposium will examine impact of the environment, especially climate change and variability, on the dynamics of Arctic and subarctic species of commercial, subsistence, and ecological importance.
The focus will be on effects of warming, loss of sea ice, ocean acidification and oceanographic variability on the distribution, phenology, life history, population dynamics and interactions of these species, and how a better understanding of these effects can aid in management of fish and invertebrate populations in a changing ocean, to benefit affected communities.
The Alaska Sea Grant College Program has coordinated and sponsored the symposium since 1982, in partnership with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, National Marine Fisheries Service, and North Pacific Fishery Management Council. The gathering serves as a forum to exchange information on biology, management, economics, and processing of various fish species and complexes, as well as an opportunity for scientists from northern nations to meet informally and discuss their work.
For more contact Sue Keller at
sue.keller@alaska.edu or log on to www.seagrant.uaf.edu/conferences/2017/wakefield-fish-dynamics/
