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
- A weekend for fish and the free-flowing rivers they need (Inland Fisheries Alliance 20 May blog post)
- Missouri scientists work to save lake sturgeon by electronically tracking them (NPR 16 May)
- A future for the inland fish and fisheries hidden within the SDGs (Elliott et al. 2022)
- Underwater photos showcase one of the world's most-threatened ecosystem (CNN article on photos from Jeremy Shelton)
- Urban fishing reveals underrepresented diversity (Boonstra et al. 2022)
- Resist-accept-direct (RAD) considerations for climate change adaptation in fisheries: The Wisconsin experience (Feiner et al. 2022)
- A Resist-Accept-Direct decision-support tool for walleye Sander vitreus (Mitchill) management in Wisconsin (Dassow et al. 2022)
- Resisting ecosystem transformation through an intensive whole-lake fish removal experiment (Embke et al. 2022)
- Ecological and social strategies for managing fisheries using the Resist‐Accept‐Direct (RAD) framework (Lynch et al. 2022)
- Perspective | More Attention Needed on Freshwater Biodiversity
- Global Biodiversity Outlook-5 Inland Water Highlights
Job/grant opportunities
- Two PhD assistantships in river ecology, University of Missouri. Contact Craig Paukert (paukertc-at-missouri.edu) for more information. Review of applicants begins 15 June 2022.
- Freshwater Aquaculture Consultancy Opportunity, The Nature Conservancy. Proposals due 25 May 2022. Please email Sui Phang (sui.phang-at-tnc.org) with any questions regarding the proposed scope of work or application process.
- Assistant/Associate Professor of Fisheries Science, Ecology and Management, Mississippi State University. Review of applications will begin on 20 May 2022. Please contact Sandra B. Correa (sbc257-at-msstate.edu) for more information.
- Doctoral position, ETH Zürich - "Behavioral responses of young fish to hydropeaking." Please contact Joëlle Robinson (joeller-at-ethz.ch) for more information.
- Post-doctoral associate, University of Missouri - quantifying stream condition based on relationships between biotic endpoints and water quality parameters. Contact Jodi Whittier (whittierj-at-missouri.edu) for more information.
- Mussel Conservation at Mississippi State University: Four-year PhD student or 2+ year postdoctoral or postmaster’s Research Associate depending on applicants. Contact Corey Dunn (corey.dunn-at-msstate.edu) for more information.
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.
