Fisheries<\/em> magazine and our other journals, with creative direction from Sarah Harrison and Laura Hendee.<\/p>\nPolicy took a front seat in 2017. Thanks to our new policy director, Drue Winters, AFS partnered with scientific and conservation organizations around the country to talk to U.S. lawmakers about protecting habitat and species in the Recovering America\u2019s Wildlife Act (RAWA), and the 2015 Clean Water Rule, also known as the Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule. We asked our members to support the work of the Cooperative Wildlife Units, requested that the White House restore funding to the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit Program (CRU), which supports 40 units in 38 states\u00a0highly valued by fish and wildlife professionals. Finally, we continued our dialogue with lawmakers on the \u201cmark-up\u201d discussions around the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.<\/p>\n
As always, AFS volunteers contributed a huge amount toward advancing fisheries science and fisheries management in the U.S. and internationally this past year. Our members\u2019 generous contributions of time and energy continued to drive the Society\u2019s mission. In 2017, leaders of our AFS Sections, Committees, Chapters, and Divisions all volunteered in ways that made us proud. They led AFS Units successfully throughout the year and they created new ones, like the Science Communications Section.<\/p>\n
In Tampa, not only did we see and hear stellar symposia, but science and planets aligned as a solar eclipse stopped us in our tracks in the middle of our Annual Meeting.<\/p>\n
We hope to see you in Atlantic City in August 2018 for a compelling array of symposia. With plenary speakers like Chris Oliver from NOAA, and symposia covering topics like aquaculture and coastal wind energy, this Annual Meeting should be especially stimulating.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s to a strong year ahead, as we edge closer and closer to our 150th<\/span>\u00a0anniversary. And help us imagine what the next 150 years will bring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There were many reasons to be grateful in 2017.\u00a0 Society membership numbers were up from the previous year. Folks told us that making all of our journals accessible online for free was a momentous benefit. Not only did they find out that they had free access to five journals, plus Fisheries, but they saw publications […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/annualreport.fisheries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5674"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/annualreport.fisheries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/annualreport.fisheries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/annualreport.fisheries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/annualreport.fisheries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/annualreport.fisheries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/annualreport.fisheries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}