InFish is a professional network to raise the profile of inland fish to inform policy, advance conservation, and promote sustainable fisheries.
Please join us!
Recent relevant news / publications
- Designing protected and conserved areas to support free-flowing rivers: Environmental flows, connectivity and communities (Moberg et al. 2025)
- Global recreational consumption of non-native inland fish: Higher economic benefits, but lower nutritional value and climate resilience (Milardi et al. 2025)
- Advancing climate adaptation for inland fish and fisheries (Lynch et al. 2025)
- Repairing Australia’s inland river and groundwater systems: nine priority actions, benefits and the finance gap (Capon et al. 2025)
- Braiding traditional ecological knowledge and Western science in the management of freshwater social-ecological systems: a systematic map protocol (Maliao and Tóthmérész 2025)
- Fish passage and the food systems frontier: How fish passage barrier prioritisation frameworks can support aquatic food systems and SDG 2: Zero Hunger (Duncan et al. 2025)
- It takes all kinds: a composite approach to sustainable freshwater fisheries (Howarth et al. 2025)
- World Rivers Day Update: #5
- The Delta: #92, #93, #94 (Global Water Forum newsletter)
- The Stream: September 2025, October 2025 (Shoal)
- World Fish Migration Day Newsletter: September 2025
- WorldFish Monthly: October 2025, November 2025
- ACARE Newsletter: May 2025
Job / funding / award opportunities
- Colorado State University - Assistant Professor in Stream Ecology. Closing date 30 November.
- Lakehead University - Canada Excellence Research Chair in Freshwater Sustainability and Health Aquatic Ecosystems (Full-time). Closing date 1 December.
- Stanford University - Heilpern Lab opportunities (graduate students [starting Fall 2026], a postdoc, and a lab technician/manager [someone skilled in data management/analysis who is also open to some lab work]). Contact Sebastian Heilpern (heilpern-at-stanford.edu) with inquiries.
- International Fisheries Section of the American Fisheries Society:
- World Small-Scale Fisheries Congress Travel Award, supported by IFS - Apply directly through the congress website by 15 December (see the Student Support section for details).
- OLAF (Opportunity for Learning and Advancement in Fisheries) - International and Indigenous Membership Awards. Apply here by 19 December.
- Carl Sullivan International Travel Award - Apply here by 19 December.
- International Fisheries Section Fellow Award - Will open in January 2025!
- Danida Fellowship Centre - New initiative to attract more African students to Denmark and strengthen university collaboration
Inland Fisheries
Freshwater fish provide food, livelihoods, and ecosystem services to millions of people, especially in low-income countries, yet their value is generally not adequately considered in water use, energy, and development decisions. Freshwater fisheries around the world may appear to be very different, but their value to local communities and the threats to their sustainability are often similar.
The challenges to inland fisheries are also critical to the 60 million people who rely on freshwater fish for livelihoods – over half of whom are women. Fish is also an essential source of protein and other nutrients that cannot easily be replaced with other food sources.
InFish & SDG 1
The contribution of inland fisheries to resilient livelihoods, those which are buffered against difficult situations, is multifaceted and difficult to evaluate. Inland fisheries in Low-Income Food-Deficit countries are often part of a diversified livelihood strategy, exacerbating the tendency for them to be overlooked and undervalued. The challenge is in available data to highlight this role.
Grand Challenges
Even with long-standing management and extensive science support, North American inland fish and fisheries still face many conservation and management challenges. Addressing these grand challenges will promote open forums for engagement of diverse stakeholders in fisheries management, and better integrate the inland fish sector into the greater water and land use policy process.
Importance of InFish
Though reported capture fisheries are dominated by marine production, inland fish and fisheries make substantial contributions to meeting the challenges faced by individuals, society, and the environment in a changing global landscape. Inland capture fisheries and aquaculture contribute over 40% to the world’s reported finfish production from less than 0.01% of the total volume of water on earth.