MN/host world fisheries conference

[Lee Borgersen]

      Twin Cities to host international fisheries conference

More than 1,000 fisheries professionals from throughout the world will gather Aug. 19-23 when the 142nd annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society (AFS) convenes in St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Gov. Mark Dayton and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Commissioner Tom Landwehr will welcome conference attendees on Monday, Aug. 20, during the morning's plenary session at RiverCentre in downtown St. Paul.

"Minnesota is renowned for its aquatic and angling resources," said Don Pereira, DNR fisheries research and policy manager and an AFS meeting co-chair. "We're proud to showcase our state, its natural resources, and Minnesotans' collective care and concern for them to our colleagues from throughout North America and the world."

Key Minnesota topics of interest at the conference include cormorant impacts on fisheries management and controlling invasive fish.

Minneapolis and St. Paul are the official host cities for the event. A demonstration of the DNR's Fishing In the Neighborhood program is scheduled at 1 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 19, in West St. Paul's Thompson Park.

AFS is the oldest aquatic conservation organization in the world, dating back to its establishment as the American Fish Culturists' Association in 1870 in New York City.  Minnesota last hosted the organization's annual meeting in 1963.

Said Pereira: "The conference provides a unique opportunity to discover and discuss a wealth of information about current issues, trends, research and challenges affecting aquatic natural resources, the professionals and scientists who manage them and a society and economy that depend on them."