Fisheries, Habitat, and Pollution Conference Series

Goal: Advance understanding of how pollution, habitat degradation, and other environmental stressors affect fisheries and aquatic ecosystems, and improve their integration into fisheries management.

Beginning in 1995, TerrAqua developed and organized a national conference series that brought together fisheries biologists, ecologists, toxicologists, habitat specialists, and resource managers to examine the combined effects of pollution, habitat degradation, and other environmental stressors on fish populations and ecosystem health. At a time when these disciplines were largely studied independently, the conferences promoted a more integrated, ecosystem-based approach to fisheries science and management.

Held in Baltimore, Maryland; Bodega Bay, California; and Charleston, South Carolina, the conferences identified key scientific and institutional barriers to integrating environmental factors into fisheries management and helped translate emerging research into practical guidance for resource managers and policymakers. The series anticipated many of the concepts that later became central to ecosystem-based fisheries management.

Selected papers from the conferences were published in three leading peer-reviewed journals: Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, North American Journal of Fisheries Management, and Ecological Applications.

Clients: A consortium of national and regional agencies, including the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries, NOAA's National Ocean Service, and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

TerrAqua's role: Conceived, planned, organized, and secured funding for the conference series.