Non-Native Fishes:Integrated Biology of

Establishment Success & DispersalFSBI Symposium at Exeter University July 2007

We were fortunate that RichardCowan, the Deputy Director in theMarine and Fisheries Directorate ofthe UK Department for Environment,Food and Rural Affairs (defra) wasable to open the meeting. Hisrecognition of the needs for the basicinformation provided by researchersworking on non-native fishes inorder to guide management practiceswas a warm encouragement to us allto continue with our research.

As is the tradition at FSBISymposia, the Symposium startedwith the Annual 'Jack Jones Lecture'.Younger members of the FSBI mightneed clarification that Jack Jones wasone of the small group of people thatformed the forerunner to the FSBI,and the first president of the society.This year's Kurt Fausch from theDepartment of Fishery & WildlifeBiology of Colorado State Universityshared with us his insights into whatinfluences whether or not non-nativesalmonids, such as the rainbow troutand brook trout, establish andbecome invasive. His thought pro-voking lecture considered the risk ofrainbow trout invasion in the BritishIsles and we all took note of hisadvice of a need for a precautionaryapproach.

The rest of the meeting covered atleast 60 species of non-native fishes.By the end of the meeting we had

considered introduction pathways,propagule pressure, parasitology anddiseases, physiological tolerances,the role of pheromones, behaviour,genetics, development and life-history tactics, among many otherfactors that influence the invasionbiology of fishes.

Daily discussions spilled over intoeach evening’s entertainment. Weactually had fine (even sunny)weather almost throughout the week– despite disastrous weather andheavy rain with flooding in SouthernEngland in the week prior to the

meeting, which had me wonderingwhether people would actuallymanage to get through the floods toExeter.

On the first evening, the walkfrom Hope Hall into Exeter tosample real ales at some of city'smost well-known Inns, proved avery popular event, and was a greatopportunity to get to know people alittle better. The following evening,Hope Hall prepared a wonderfultasty barbecue. After the BBQ, Dave

The Fisheries Society of the British IslesNEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2007

Non-Native Fishes:Integrated Biology of

Establishment Success & DispersalFSBI Symposium at Exeter University July 2007

Kurt Fausch (left) who gave this year’s Jack Jones lecture, in deep discussion with Sandy Scott (centre) andPeter Sorensen (right).

CONTENTS: RICHAD MANN, BEVERTON MEDAL WINNER 2007 . . . 3 THE 40th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING . . . 4 & 5 ANNOUNCEMENTS . . . 6TRAVEL GRANTS . . . 7 DAVID SIMS, FSBI MEDAL WINNER 2007. . . 8

Continued on page 2

THE Annual FSBI Symposium at Exeter focused on non-native fish species and what mightinfluence their chances of establishment and dispersal. To those of you not working in thearea, the topic may sound fairly narrow, but the Journal of Fish Biology supplement arising

from the meeting will reveal the breadth of interacting factors that became clear over the 4 days ofthe meeting. The Symposium attracted participants from more than 20 different countries andprovided the opportunity to share expertise and ideas on the questions surrounding non-native fishesthroughout the world.

Non-Native Fishes: Integrated Biology of Establishment Success & Dispersal – Continued

Sims (from the Marine BiologicalAssociation Laboratory, Plymouth)was awarded the FSBI medal inrecognition of his research on sharkbehaviour. Conversation flowedeasily throughout the evening while

Jim Crawford sang and played theBlues on guitar. It was a shame thatwe had to break up the party toallow the staff to clear up!

The conference banquet onThursday evening was held atABode (Michael Caines) on theCathedral Green. Again, with a fineand warm evening, many walkeddown into Exeter. The ABode has aspectacular location, with thereception held in a room overlookingthe Cathedral. The reception wasfollowed by some fabulous food.

During the Conference Banquet,Richard Mann was awarded theBeverton medal, in recognition of hislifetime's work in fish biology. Welingered long over our food and theroom buzzed as we chatted on, butthe evening was still young for somewhen the party broke up. Severaltook off to seek out Exeter's nightlife!Despite this we still had a greatturnout for the final presentations thefollowing morning.

We ended the Symposium with an

open-ended discussion, boldlytimetabled for 40 min, despite mymany experiences of discussionsessions that have simply not gotgoing, or rapidly fizzled out aspeople rush off for trains. So,

discussion was opened with a shortpresentation drawing together themany components affecting esta-blishment and dispersal that hadbeen discussed at the meeting. Thediscussion rapidly took on a life of itsown and proved to be a very

valuable part of the meeting. Atseveral points during the weekspeakers had touched on manage-ment issues, for example targetingefforts to limit propagule pressureand contain high-risk populations ofintroduced species. Peter Sorensen'sState-of-the-Art lecture on lampreyinvasions in the Great Lakes hadraised the possibility of pest controlsystems for lamprey control, andsimilar approaches for other species.Then, towards the end of the meetingseveral papers dealt with riskassessment and decision making.The open-ended discussion allowedus to focus on the application of ourresearch, and the balancing of costagainst benefit. Many of us felt thatthere is a need to improve communi-cation with sectors of the public andthe various groups that can influenceintroductions, establishment anddispersal of non-native fishes. Im-portantly, this is something that willbe helped by a FSBI 'Briefing Paper'on non-native fishes that is currentlybeing prepared. Look out for this inthe near future.

Anne Brown (Convenor)University of Exeter

Non-Native Fishes: Integrated Biology of Establishment Success & Dispersal – Continued

FSBI NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2007 2

Gathering up for the Conference Banquet

Richard Mann, (left) was awarded this year’s FSBI Beverton medal. Here he’s relaxing in the bar at HopeHall, with Gordon Copp, Rodolphe Gozlan and Demetra Andreou

3 FSBI NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2007

EDITORIALthe origins of the annual symposium

The Society’s summer conferences area long-standing event in the calendarand provide a chance for membersand non-members with similar intereststo meet, exchange ideas andcommunicate new results. This year’smeeting in Exeter was the latest in asequence, which started in 1977 witha conference in Pitlochry on rhythms infish, organised by John Thorpe. At firstthe conferences did not occur eachyear and the next in the series was in1980 at UEA, Norwich, a meeting thatconsidered stress in fish. The annualnature of the symposium wasestablished in 1984 with a meeting onfish nutrition, held in Aberdeen. Sincethen the Society has met each yearcovering a wide range of topics fromfreshwater fish management toreproduction, to behaviour, to fishgenetics. Plymouth and Aberdeenprobably win as the cities most oftenvisited.

The next two meetings will be newdepartures for the series. Next year’smeeting in Cardiff on Consequences

of parasitism for the behaviour,ecology and evolution of fishes is thefirst meeting that explicitly deals withthe effects of parasites on fish. Thistopic is important as parasites prob-ably generate a considerable selectionpressure on fish species, yet theirinfluence is often ignored. The organi-sing group consists of Iain Barber andCarl Smith (Leicester), Jo Cable andSian Griffiths (Cardiff) and AndrewMacColl (Nottingham).

The 2009 meeting will be inLeicester again, having come here firstin 2001 when fish conservation wasthe topic. The meeting in two years willbe out of the ordinary in that it willalso be the 6th International Con-ference on Stickleback Behaviour andEvolution. At first this topic may seemnarrow but in fact the meeting willencompass the whole of fish biologyfrom palaeontology to physiology,behaviour, molecular genetics, evo-lution and conservation. 2009 is alsothe 150th anniversary of the pub-lication of Darwin’s On the origin of

species by means of natural selectionand the 200th anniversary of Darwin’sbirth. At the 2009 meeting we plan tohave several talks that will illustrate theway in which stickleback studies havecontributed to the research agendamapped out by Darwin’s epochaltheory of natural selection.

The 2010 meeting is to be on theinfluences of climate change on fish, atopic of pressing concern and thesubject of the society’s latest BriefingPaper. Beyond that the conferencetopics are not yet mapped out. This isnot a response to the notion thatclimate change will have renderedforward planning a waste of time, justthat no one yet has come forward withan idea. Any member that has asuggestion, and is prepared to act asthe organiser, should contact theSecretary.

Paul HartUniversity of LeicesterNext copy deadline: 1st November 2007

Each year the Society recognisesexcellence and distinction within theprofession by awarding two medals.The senior medal, called the BevertonMedal, in honour of our mostdistinguished former member, thelate Ray Beverton, acknowledges alifetime of high achievement in fishbiology or fisheries science. Inconsidering the ichthyologists whohave had the greatest influence in ourfield of fish biology, and aredeserving of the award of our seniormedal, a name that stands out isRichard Mann (see first article for apicture of Richard). Given anyfreshwater fish in Britain, in runningor still water, Richard seems to havecontributed something new to ourknowledge of its ecology, and to theecology of the communities of whichthe species forms a component part.

Richard began his studies onfreshwater fish first at the Windemere

Laboratory, then at the RiverLaboratory and latterly at MonksWood Experimental Station nearHuntingdon. His research encom-passed small and large rivers as wellas still waters, providing a wealth ofbaseline information on coarse (non-salmonid) and salmonid fishes,standard laboratory techniques andseminal reviews on life-history traits,age and growth characteristics.Amongst his numerous publications,Richard’s studies and reviews of life-history strategies stand out, as doeshis seminal research on the effect ofpike predation in a mixed fishery(Mann 1980, 1982).

Richard played an active role in thetraining of young scientists, hismanner of research supervision char-acterised by common sense and open-minded debate. A kind and patientindividual, Richard fostered andsupported the career aspirations of

those who worked with him andunder his supervision. Over theyears, Richard hosted a long list ofnational and international studentson research visits to his laboratory,including visitors from Finland,Poland, Czech Republic, Spain,Turkey and Bangladesh.

Richard was an approachable andamiable ambassador for the FSBI, andcontributed to the work of the Societyas Assistant Editor of JFB for anumber of years. Recognition ofRichard’s enormous contribution tofreshwater fish biology came in the1990s when he was awarded a Doctorof Science by the University ofLeicester. This was followed by avisiting Professorship at the Univer-sity of Hertfordshire, and then (onretirement) an MBE by H.R.H. QueenElizabeth II.

Richard Mann, Beverton Medal winner 2007

FSBI NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2007 4

The 40th Annual University of Exe

The following is an abbreviatedversion of the minutes of theAGM. Any member wanting toread the full minutes can obtaina copy either from the Secretaryor from the Newsletter Editor.

President’s reportThe President welcomed Dr. JenniferNielsen, President of the AmericanFisheries Society, to the meeting andthanked the University of Exeter for anexcellent venue and conferencefacilities. The valuable help of thesponsors, the Marine BiologicalAssociation, CEFAS, the EnvironmentAgency and Blackwell Publishers wasgratefully acknowledged. Theorganisers of the Symposium, ProfessorAnne Brown and her team, werethanked for arranging a stimulatingprogramme and the President thankedTricia Ellis-Evans of Pace Projects forsupervising the logistics of the meetingwith quiet efficiency. The Presidentthanked the Guest Editors, DrsVladimir Kovac and Gordon Copp andthe Editor of the Journal, Dr JohnCraig and his team, for efficientlyorchestrating and assembling thematerial to be published in theSymposium Proceedings.

A Position Paper on ClimateChange and Fish has been completedduring the year under Dr ChrisHarrod’s leadership and will bepublished shortly.

Since the Society’s principal sourceof income comes from sales of thejournal, open access publishingcontinues to cause us concern. In2005 a UK Research Councildiscussion paper proposed that theresults of publicly funded researchshould be freely available to all, butthe Research Councils have shownlittle readiness to underwrite thepublishing costs. If librarians canobtain journals at no cost, there will belittle reason for them to continue to

subscribe for them, with consequentsevere loss of revenue to the Societiespublishing them. In common withmany other learned societies, the FSBImade representations to the fundingagencies, but with little positiveresponse so far. In May the officers ofthe Society and the Editor met with theManaging Director of Blackwells, tolearn how the publishers wereapproaching this development, andwere assured by him that we shouldnot expect any drastic changes in thenear future. He will keep us closely intouch with developments.

The 5th World Congress of Fisherieswill be held in Yokohama, Japan, in2008, and the Society is representedon the programme committee by DrInigo Everson and Prof. Michel Kaiser.The Japanese Society of FisheriesScience is responsible for localorganisation but Michel Kaiser isorganising an FSBI contribution in theform of a programme section on fishwelfare. Our bid to hold the 6th WorldFisheries Congress in Edinburgh in1012 will be made formally at theYokohama meeting in September2008.

There were two meetings of theWorld Council of Fisheries Societies(WCFS) during the year. In September2006, at Lake Placid, New York, theSociety was ably represented by one ofour PhD students, Marion Perutz.Preliminary discussions were heldabout the future role of the WorldCouncil, and at a second meeting inTokyo in March 2007, a committeewas formed to develop a detailedstrategy for the World Council. Thisstrategy will be debated further at theAmerican Fisheries Society AnnualMeeting in San Francisco this comingSeptember. Meanwhile the constituentsocieties of the WCFS are beingencouraged to cooperate in a meetingon Fish Diversity to be held inTennessee in 2009, and we shall invite

other members of the WCFS to join usin our own annual meeting in 2010,which will be on Climate Change andFish, organised by Dr Chris Harrod,and held in Queen’s University,Belfast.

Honorary Secretary’s report forthe period August 2006 to July2007.MembershipIn December 2006 the Society had721 members, slightly down on 2004.Approximately 75% of members residein the United Kingdom and Europe butthere are significant numbers in Northand South America, Australasia andthe Far East.

Studentship CommitteeChaired by Iain Barber, the committeereceived 15 applications, of which sixwere interviewed. Studentships wereawarded to Mary Ledlie , University ofExeter, “Effect of coral reef fishes onreef resilience” and Paul Nichols,University of Hull, “The role of crypticriverine fish diversity in generatinglacustrine species flocks in LakeMalawi cichlids”

Travel Grant CommitteeThe committee (chair Dr VictoriaBraithwaite) considered 60 appli-cations through the year. Fifteenpercent of the applications weresuccessful and a total of £33,951 wasawarded.

Research Grants Committee The committee chaired by PavelJurajda, received 53 applications.Seventeen applications were fundedand the total awarded was £15,345.

SymposiaThe Society’s annual symposium in2008 will be held at the University ofCardiff on the theme ‘Consequencesof parasitism for the behaviour,

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5 FSBI NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2007

General Meetingeter 25 July 2007

ecology and evolution of fishes’. The2009 symposium at the University ofLeicester will be the ‘6th InternationalConference on Stickleback Behaviourand Evolution’. In 2010, the subjectwill be “Climate Change and Fish”, tobe held jointly with the AFS and theJSFS at the University of Belfast.

Gordon Copp, Honorary Treasurer’s report Total incoming resources for 2006were £288,820, 10% down on 2005.This income was dominated by thethree streams of subscriptions, profitsfrom the Journal of Fish Biology (72%)and investments (13%), which togetheraccounted for over 85% of totalincome. The Society’s bank interestincome was £15,739, an increase of4% over the 2005 level. Subscriptionincome decreased by 6% from that of2005. Profits (£207,943) from theJournal of Fish Biology represent adecrease of 33% over those of 2005.As the market investment climategradually improves, total investmentincome increased by 5% over that of2005. However, in the last half of2006, with the Society’s investmentsunder the management of CitigroupQuilter, growth has been at 8%.

Resource expenditure is divided intoDirect Charitable Expenditure(£272,821, 93% of total spend) andManagement and Administration(£20,101, 7% of total spend). DirectCharitable Expenditure was 31%greater than in 2005. The Society’ssubsidy of members’ copies of theJournal of Fish Biology increased by43% in 2006 relative to 2005.Expenditure on Management andAdministration almost doubled relativeto the 2005 level, due to theanticipated costs of staff wages to legalfees and an increase of Councillorssubsistence costs. Total resourceexpenditure in 2006 was £292,922,which was 32% greater than the 2005

figure. The Society invested surplusmonies, as planned, into marketinvestments during the first half of2006. The Society’s total assets (minuscurrent liabilities) on 31 December2006 were £1,568,988, whichrepresents an increase of about £60kover the same time in 2005. Inconclusion, the balance sheet showsthat at the end of 2006, the Societywas in an extremely sound financialstate.

Report on the Journal of Fish Biology by the editor, John Craig.A total of 785 manuscripts werereceived for submission to the Journalof Fish Biology during the year 2006,23 down on 2005. In 2006, 293papers (39%) were accepted forpublication and 449 (61%) wererejected, redirected or withdrawn bythe authors.

The distribution of the papers byarea of origin show that the Journal istruly international with the largestproportion, 35% , coming from Europeother than the UK. The next largestgroup was North America with 20%closely followed by Asia contributing19%. Ecology was the most commonsubject of papers at 31% followed bybehaviour 14%, physiology andgenetics (both 10%).

Volumes 68 and 69 of the Journalfor 2006 contained two editorials,three reviews, 223 regular papers, 66brief communications, 14 book reviewsand two obituaries. Fish PopulationStructure: Implications to Conservation(Supplement C) was the proceedings ofthe Aberdeen Symposium andconsisted of 11 regular papers, threebrief communications, the posterabstracts and the paper abstracts. TheGuest Editor for the Supplement wasDaniel Ruzzante and I thank him for hisefforts. Four issues of the newMolecular Sciences Supplement,

overseen by Norman Maclean, werepublished. They contained 32 regularpapers and eight brief communicationsand comprised a total of 640 pages.The total number of pages published inJFB in 2006 was 4896 (3952 in2005). The number of Assistant Editorswas increased to 20.

The Journal’s impact factor in 2006was 1.393 (1.188 in 2005). Note thatthe factor relates to the volumespublished two years previously.

Annual Subscription and receiptof JournalA sample ballot of the membershiprevealed that c.75% of the memberswould prefer to receive the Journal ofFish Biology in electronic format only.Therefore, as from 1 January 2008,access to JFB in electronic format willbe the standard method of receivingthe Journal. Paper copies will still beavailable to those who wish tocontinue to receive them, but a formalrequest for these will be needed. Anotice to this effect will be circulated toall members shortly, including arequest form for paper copies.

Election of Officers and CouncilmembersAt this AGM John Thorpe retires andthe nominee for President is FelicityHuntingford. The nominees for VicePresident and for the vacancy onCouncil are Michel Kaiser and Maria J.Collares-Pereira. In the absence ofother nominations these nomineeswere elected.

Vacancies for Council will occurnext year and Full Members of the FSBImay nominate other Full Members ascandidates. Such nominations must bereceived by the President or Secretaryat least seven days in advance of themeeting and be supported by at leastsix other Full Members.

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FSBI NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2007 6

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ECOHYDROLOGICAL PROCESSESAND SUSTAINABLE FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT:

Opportunities and Concepts for Water Hazard Mitigation, and Ecological and Socioeconomic Sustainability

19-23 May 2008: LODZ, POLAND

Floodplain ecosystems offer great potential to modifyhydrological conditions at a watershed or basin scale. Theyprovide sustainable resources – food, fisheries, landscapeaesthetics, recreation space – and enhance robustness andabsorbing capacity of whole river basins. Floodplains areusually one of the most important refuge areas for bothaquatic and terrestrial fauna, and they ensure ecologicalhealth and resilience in river ecosystems and adjacentgrounds.

The conference will address the following issues:● Enhancement of floodplain properties to mitigate flood-

and drought-related hazards ● Rules, regulations and procedures for ecohydrological

management of floodplains and watersheds● Ecohydrological evaluation and management for hazard

mitigation, while maintaining ecological sustainability● Naturally functioning floodplains and flood damage

reduction, water supply, irrigation, fisheries, recreation,navigation, hydropower, etc.

● Case studies of successful uses of ecohydrologicalprinciples in flood and drought management

The conference is organised as part of UNESCO’sInternational Hydrological Programme by the EuropeanRegional Centre for Ecohydrology, Lodz, Poland; theDepartment of Applied Ecology, University of Lodz; theInternational Centre for Water Hazard and RiskManagement, Tsukuba, Japan; the Institute for WaterResources, Army Corps of Engineers, USA; the WorldMeteorological Organisation, Switzerland; and theEuropean Inland Fisheries Advisory Commission of FAO.

For further information, submission of abstracts (by 1 October 2007), and registration, please contact the

conference secretary, Dr Z.Kaczkowski at: kaczko@biol.uni.lodz.pl

or 3 Tylna St., 90-364 Lodz. Poland. Phone: (48) 42 681 70 07 Fax: (48) 42 681 30 69

www.erce.unesco.lodz.pl

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Information on the scientific programme will be updatedregularly on the website (http://www.fsbi.org.uk/2008/index.html). Sessions will be based around thefollowing major themes:● Parasites, genes and evolution: detection and

avoidance of infective agents; host-parasite co-evolution; immune genes and parasite infection;virulence and local adaptation in host-parasiteinteractions.

● Fitness consequences of infections: effects on hostphysiology, behaviour, growth and development;parasites and sexual selection in fish; pathology ofinfection.

● Ecological implications of parasitism: population,community and ecosystem consequences of parasiteinfections; brood parasitism in fish; the ecology andevolution of cleaner fish symbioses.

● Host-parasite interactions in altered environments:impacts of climate change, habitat degradation andaquatic pollutants on host-parasite interactions; theimplications of species introductions for host-parasite interactions.

INVITED SPEAKERSJack Jones Lecture:

Kevin Lafferty (USA) Ecosystem consequences of fish parasites

Keynote speaker:Lexa Grutter (Australia)

Ecology and evolution of cleaning symbioses in fish

Plenary lectures:Steve Feist (UK)

Pathology of fish parasite infections

Mathias Wegner (Switzerland)The role of MHC genes in host-parasite interactions

Bernd Sures (Germany)Host-parasite interactions in polluted environments

Potential contributors should indicate their interest inpresenting a paper and/or poster by submitting a titleand abstract (up to 250 words) by e-mail attachment(preferably in a Word document) to the conference co-ordinator, Tricia Ellis-Evans (e-mail:tricia@paceprojects.co.uk) by 1st November 2007.

FSBI Summer Symposium July 2008Parasites as Agents of Selection in Fish:

from genes to ecosystemsConveners: Iain Barber (Leicester) and Joanne Cable (Cardiff)

7 FSBI NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2007

David Boyle of the Department of Nutrition, King’sCollege London, attended the 17th Annual Meeting of theSociety for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry(SETAC) in Porto, Portugal. The conference was attendedby approximately 1000 delegates from academia, govern-ment and industry all working in the broad field ofecotoxicology. The presentations were diverse, rangingfrom establishing mechanisms of pollutant toxicity usingproteomics and genomics, to the improvement of en-vironmental risk assessment and this contributed to alively conference atmosphere. A large number ofpresentations were directly related to fish toxicology andwere therefore of considerable personal interest.

The conference was also an opportunity for me topresent a poster entitled “Effects of a natural metal-contaminated diet on reproduction in fish”, the focus ofmy PhD. The feedback I received was positive andprovoked ideas for further research. It also enabled me tomake useful contacts with academic groups who couldprovide future collaborative and/or employmentopportunities. In addition, I have returned refreshed andeager to continue my experimental work and submit thedata I presented at SETAC for publication.

I am extremely grateful to the FSBI for providing mewith the funds to attend SETAC Europe, which willundoubtedly be of great benefit to the development of mycareer.

Thanks to funding provided by the Fisheries Society ofthe British Isles, Jen Covello, Univeristy of TasmaniaSchool of Aquaculture was able to attend the 7thInternational Symposium on Fish Immunology held at theUniversity of Stirling, Scotland from June 18-22nd, 2007.This conference is held every three years and bringstogether fish immunologists from all over the world. Itprovides the chance for scientists to present and discusstheir current research. This was the first internationalconference I had the opportunity to attend, and as astudent half way through my PhD it was an excellentforum in which to discuss my current research as well asplans for the future. A number of interesting talks weregiven and it was great to learn about the research thatother groups are performing. My PhD project is focusedon gaining an understanding of the immune response ofthe striped trumpeter (Latris lineata). The stripedtrumpeter has been identified as a species of interest forthe Tasmanian finfish culture industry. Over the pastseveral years, much research has gone into improving thegrowth and survival of the early development stages. Weare now in a position where trial cohorts are being sent tosea for grow out. As these transfers continue to intensify,an understanding of the immune response in terms of

both onset and response to pathogens becomes animportant factor in the husbandry practices developed forthis species. Some of the work completed earlier in myPhD dealt with characterization of the antibody moleculeand the creation of polyclonal anti-serum to be used as atool to look at ontogeny of the antibody response. I wasable to give a presentation entitled “Characterisation andOntogeny of the Antibody Molecule in the StripedTrumpeter” during the session on Ontogeny of EmergingSpecies. I think the talk was well received as I wasapproached by a number of people interested in my workafterwards. As part of my trip to Scotland, I also had theopportunity to visit the Scottish Fish ImmunologyResearch Centre (SFIRC) at the University of Aberdeen. Itwas here that I able to discuss plans for the latter part ofmy PhD with Prof. Chris Secombes and some of hisstudents. Prof. Secombes is best known for his extensiveresearch dealing with fish cytokines. As I am planning touse inflammatory cytokines to measure the response ofthe striped trumpeter to pathogens, my meeting withProf. Secombes helped to narrow the focus for the latterpart of my PhD. Once again, thanks to FSBI forsupporting my overseas experience.

Carlos Cristian Martinez-Chavez’s PhD at the Institute ofAquaculture in the University of Stirling has been focusedon using the Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus as a tropicalmodel in circadian biology (endogenous melatonin

rhythms), photoperiod manipulationand molecular studies on the onset ofpuberty. In total his group presented 3posters (2 with data from his PhD)and one oral communication at the 8thInternational Symposium on Repro-ductive Physiology of Fish June 2007,St. Malo, France, all of which werevery well received. The title of theposter which Carlos presented as first

author was “Kisspeptin in Nile tilapia O. niloticus:receptor expression during the onset of puberty andeffects of constant illumination” and in it he and hiscollaborators showed not only the onset of puberty by asurge in expression of this receptor, but also thatcontinuous light could affect this system which is crucialfor the timing and onset of puberty in vertebrates. It wasvery important for him to put names and faces together,to talk with peers about the topics he is most passionateabout and to see where research in the area is going. Allthis networking and information exchange would havenot been possible without the help from the FSBI andCarlos is very grateful for the support.

Travel Grant Reports

CORRECTIONThe notice to stickleback researchers from Sarah Kraak and Beat Mundwiler, which was published in the last issue, contained an edit thatgave the impression that the study by Spoljaric & Reimchen 2007, J Fish Biol 70, 1484-1503 was an illustration of how transplanted fishmight be used to make incorrect inferences about fish that the researchers assumed had lived in the same place for time immemorial. Thiswas not the intention of Kraak and Mundwiler who cited the study as one where inferences about evolution have been made from a studyof a natural population. The wrong impression was created by the editor’s dislike of brackets! In removing brackets from the original, themeaning was changed slightly. Ed.

David Sims, FSBI Medal winner 2007

FSBI NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2007 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

The Fisheries Society Medal is awarded to a researcherunder the age of 40 who has already made notablecontributions to fish biology or fisheries science. Thisyear the medal is awarded to Dr David Sims who hasheld lectureships at the Univer-sities of Plymouth and Aberdeenand since 2000 has held a ResearchFellowship at the Marine BiologicalAssociation’s laboratory at Ply-mouth where he is now a SeniorFellow.

It is difficult to compress into afew words the astonishing breadthof David’s accomplishments. Hisresearch began with studies ofecophysiological aspects of fishbehaviour but has developed tounderstand how fish behave andstructure movement patterns inrelation to environmental vari-ability. His innovative approachcombines telemetry technology,remote sensing and environmentalsampling, with elegant laboratorymanipulations. David has usedboth elasmobranchs and teleosts as model species toinvestigate natural strategies via a quantitativeapproach, with key studies centred on theplanktivorous basking shark and the benthic dogfish.A breakthrough study in 1998 (Nature front cover)quantified fish foraging tactics in response to preygradients in the open sea and has been widely citedacross a broad range of disciplines, from fish biologyto sensory biophysics and biological oceanography.Further papers have appeared in Nature and in theProceedings of the Royal Society, he has been a keynote

speaker at many prestigious venues including WoodsHole Oceanographic Institution. David was awarded a‘Scientist of the New Century’ prize lecture by TheRoyal Institution (RI) in 2001 in recognition of

“outstanding research by a youngscientist”. He was also awardedHonorary Life Membership of theRI, a rare achievement for a (then)32-year old.

Innovatory studies since theninclude the world’s first ocean-basin-scale field test of foragingtheory in large, highly migratorypelagic fish across naturallandscapes. The results togetherwith recent work on biodiversityhotspots in the oceans and howclimate affects migration andspawning in fish and squid haveimplications for fisheries manage-ment because they allow predictionof temporal peaks in populationabundance some months inadvance.

David has also demonstratedleadership at the forefront of the field. He initiatedand now chairs the European Tracking of Predators inthe Atlantic – EUTOPIA – programme within theinternational Census of Marine Life. The Eutopianetwork aims to determine the behavioural ‘rules’free-ranging fish and other marine vertebrates use inthe ocean to better predict their spatial distributionpatterns and responses to environmental change.David is Editor-in-chief of Advances in Marine Biologyand an Associate editor of Journal of Animal Ecology.

The Society website has a new home which is WWW.FSBI.ORG.UK.

Dave Sims with a satellite tag forattachment to basking sharks.