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
- Comunidades con voz El futuro de la pesca artesanal en Latinoamérica y el Caribe (Saavedra-Díaz and Díazgranados 2022)
- The CBD Post-2020 biodiversity framework: People's place within the rest of nature (Friedman et al. 2022 – how people fit into biodiversity and the global framework – heavily informed by the aquatic sector)
- Shoal September 2022 update
- The role of seafood in sustainable diets (Koehn et al. 2022)
- Fisheries as ecosystem services: A case study of the Cauvery river basin, India (Pownkumar et al. 2022)
- 2022 Annual reports on IUCN resolution 18 on Valuing and Protecting Inland Fisheries
- Technoscience and the modernization of freshwater fisheries assessment and management (Cooke et al. 2022)
- A freshwater perspective on the United Nations decade for ecosystem restoration (Cooke et al. 2022)
- Looking upstream to achieve SDG 14 (SIWI blog post)
- Time for decisive actions to protect freshwater ecosystems from global changes (Oberdorff 2022)
- State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture Report (FAO 2022)
- Global goals overlook freshwater conservation (Gonçalves and Hermoso 2022)
- Overturning stereotypes: The fuzzy boundary between recreational and subsistence inland fisheries (Nyboer et al. 2022)
- Encyclopedia of Inland Waters (Mehner and Tockner, eds. 2022 – including “Societal values of inland fishes”!)
- Global Biodiversity Outlook-5 Inland Water Highlights
Job / funding / award opportunities
- 2024 International Fisheries Science Prize – Request for Nominations. Materials must be submitted by 31 January, 11:59pm PST. For more information, please contact Julian Olden (olden-at-uw.edu).
- University of Illinois – Two PhD assistantships in fisheries conservation. Start date Fall 2023. Contact Cory Suski (suski-at-illinois.edu) for more information.
- University of Missouri
- PhD research assistantship - developing a mid-sized river habitat sampling protocol. Open until filled, start date January 2023. Contact Craig Paukert (paukertc-at-missouri.edu) for more information.
- PhD research assistantship - statewide multi-scale mussel habitat relationships and development of flexible mussel sampling protocols. Open until filled, start date January 2023 or May 2023. Contact Jacob Westhoff (westhoffj-at-missouri.edu) for more information.
- Research associate – Understanding the consequences of conservation actions on stream condition and the associated response of fish communities. Contact Jodi Whittier (whittierj-at-missouri.edu) for more information.
- Ohio State University Fish and Fisheries Ecology Assistant Professor (tenure-track). Application deadline: 30 November 2022.
- Michigan State University Global Inland Fisheries Assistant Professor (tenure-system). Review of applications begins 1 December 2022.
- Charles Sturt University Next Generation Water Engineering and River Management Hub Scholarships for PhD students. Expressions of interest will remain open until candidates for the three projects have been selected. See here for more information.
Do you participate in freshwater fishing in the US?
Please consider completing this short (< 20 minutes!) online survey. The study will investigate subsistence fishing, food security, and climate vulnerability of American communities.
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.
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.
Inland fisheries around the world – and the people who depend on them for food, livelihoods, and well-being – need international cross-sectoral action to improve the sustainability of freshwater aquatic resources, according to recommendations in 2015 at the Committee on Fisheries (COFI) meeting at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome.
