Some 1,500 fisheries delegates from around the world are expected to convene in Seattle from March 3-7 for the 9th World Fisheries Congress (WFC), to discuss perspectives on research, emerging issues and governance related to fisheries science, industry, conservation and management.
WFC officials say they’ve already received more than 1,200 oral and poster presentations from 70-plus countries for the meeting.
Plans are for major topics of discussion to range from bringing back salmon from the brink and road maps for incorporating new methods into science-based fisheries management to dam removal as a river restoration tool at the water-energy-food nexus.
The session on bringing salmon back from the brink, organized by Gary Morishima of Quinault Management Center, in Bellevue, Wash. is expected to include talks related to salmon ecology, hatchery production, adaptive management, stock assessment and indigenous knowledge addressing the challenges and opportunities needed to ensure persistence of these populations for future generations.
Also on the agenda: sessions on the potential of digitalization of the whole value chain of the fishing sector toward sustainability; quality and safety; application of population models to predict dynamics of fish exposed to anthropogenic changes; pathways for a sustainable co-existence on offshore energy; fisheries and marine conservation; and evolutionary effects of species distribution shifts and building adaptive capacity for conservation and management.
Scheduled keynote speakers for the conference are Professor Bronwyn Gillanders of the University of Adelaide, Australia; founding director David Obura of Coastal Oceans Research and Development-Indian Ocean (CORDIO); principal scientist Ana Parma of the Argentine National Scientific and Technological Research Council; and Shakuntala Thilsted, director for nutrition, health and food security impact area platform for the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a global research entity.
More information is available at https://wfc2024.fisheries.org/.