What should be done with Dungeness crabs?

Fisheries Students Present Poster at Regional American Fisheries Society Meeting in Redding

HSU graduate student Honored May 3, 2004

One Humboldt State University distinguished graduate student, received a fellowship award at ceremonies held in Goodwin Forum on Monday, May 3, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Former HSU President Alistair McCrone and his wife presented this new award, the McCrone Graduate Fellowship, a fund established to promote HSU graduate education. Kristin Engel, a second year graduate student of Natural Resources, Fisheries, was the inaugural recipient. Congratulations Kristin!

The latest winner of the $3,000 "lucky tag " drawing in Humboldt State University's three-year Dungeness Crab Tagging Project is Larry Evanow of Eureka, the second Eureka fisherman in a row to win the drawing. Evanow received the prize November 25 from Dr. David G. Hankin, professor and chair, HSU Department of Fisheries Biology, following a drawing at Englund Marine Supply, Eureka.The Dungeness Crab Tagging Project, funded by the California Sea Grant College program, collects data on the natural mortality rates and movements of male Dungeness crabs. Fishermen from Eureka, Trinidad, and Crescent City voluntarily return tagged crabs to collection barrels. The data are used to regulate harvests.This year, the tagging project is providing rewards of $15 per return of each legal-size tagged crab and $10 for each sublegal size specimen, $5.00 higher than last year's rates. As an additional incentive, a single tag is drawn from those collected during the most recent season and a $3,000 check awarded to the participating fisherman.This is the second year in a row that a Eureka fisherman has won the grand prize. Last year's recipient was Gary Mooslin.In the past two years, HSU faculty and staff, in collaboration with Jim Gullett, a commercial crab fisherman from Trinidad, have tagged more than 8,300 male Dungeness crabs.

This past spring, the Fisheries Biology Faculty at HSU engaged in an intensive search for a new faculty position. We searched for an individual with ability to take over instruction in our core Ichthyology course, and we stated a preference for advanced knowledge and skills of modern genetic methods and analyses. A total of 51 PhD scientists applied for this position and a large number were well qualified to teach Ichthyology for us. Three of these candidates were invited to our campus for personal interviews. These candidates were given extensive tours of our facilities, met with all our faculty and with many students, and were asked to deliver two talks: a "research seminar" on a topic of their own choosing, and an "Ichthyology classroom lecture" on topics provided to the candidates.

We are delighted to report that Andrew Kinziger has accepted our offer of employment. Before he arrives in Arcata in early August, Andrew will have completed his doctoral dissertation at Saint Louis University. Andrew has been working with a distinguished group of researchers who have been applying modern phylogenetic methods to better understand the systematic relationships among animals. His doctoral work has involved systematic relationships and biogeography of cottid fishes from North America (including some recent collections that he made in California's Smith River) and Lake Baikal in Russia.

Next year, Andrew will be teaching our core Ichthyology class for us, and he will also be teaching Fisheries Communications (scientific writing and oral presentations) and Genetics Applications in Fisheries classes. We are hoping that Andrew will expand his work on cottids to include the abundant and diverse marine cottids off California, including the commercially and recreationally important cabezon. We are especially excited to have Andrew's new genetics expertise and we hope to see a substantial expansion of fisheries genetics research and instruction in our program. Andrew will be working in our modern Fisheries Genetics Laboratory and using our newly acquired Beckman-Coulter Gene Sequencer to expand the kinds of genetic analyses, which are carried out in our program.

Andrew tells us that he likes to spend his free time outdoors. He is an avid runner and cyclist and is part of an "adventure racing team" aiming to qualify for nationals this year. He says that his first adventure after arriving here at HSU will be to try surfing!

Please join us all in welcoming Andrew to our program and in wishing him the very best success in his teaching and research this coming academic year. If Andy is lucky enough to have any free time next year, we all hope that he learns to enjoy surfing and other activities that make Humboldt County such a great place.

For more information about Andrew, see Andrew Kinziger

The Fisheries Biology Department Picnic will be held this Saturday, May 10th, 2003, from 3pm to 8pm at Freshwater County Park. All undergraduates, graduates, faculty, and staff (plus families) are invited. No dogs.... it will not be necessary to pay the $3 day use fee to enter the park. There will be games (volleyball, horseshoes, fishing skill challenges, and ??).... winners of the third Departmental golf tournament will be announced and honored (picture from last year). Please bring a dish to share and your beverages of choice. Plates, napkins, utensils, and grilling equipment provided.

HSU Fisheries MS student Stosh Glowacki has recently taken a job with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) in Long Beach. For his MS research with Dr. David Hankin, Stosh worked on comparing growth rates of rainbow trout before and after the tragic Cantara spill on the upper Sacramento during 1991. During that spill, a train derailed and spilled a toxic soil fumigant into the upper Sacramento River, killing all stream life for a 30 mile stretch of stream below. In his new job, Stosh continues his efforts devoted to restoration of salmonids in California streams. To see the recent report from the Santa Barbara Independent please click here.

The City of Arcata's wastewater aquaculture program was the subject of a front section featured article in an August 2002 issue of the Sacramento Bee. Begun as the brainchild of George Allen, HSU Fisheries Emeritus faculty member, this cooperative venture between the City of Arcata and Humboldt State University has been in successful operation since 1971 and continues to be an important component of HSU's aquaculture program. Featured in the Sacramento Bee article are Dr. Kristine Brenneman, the current Director of the Wastewater Aquaculture Facility and faculty member in Fisheries Biology, and Mike Shoemaker, an HSU Fisheries Biology undergraduate student who works extensively at the wastewater aquaculture facility and clearly "flushes with pride"! To see the front page article, click here, which is continued here.

Every 5-7 years, the Fisheries Biology Program is obligated to engage in a thorough self-study of program performance and program needs. Although this self-study often focuses on facilities and faculty staffing needs, we are also very concerned to establish that our program remains relevant and up-to-date for our students. Therefore, as part of this Program Review process, we surveyed our recent graduates (last ten years) to solicit opinions regarding their HSU education in Fisheries Biology and asking them for suggestions or improvements to our program. The summarized survey results that follow should allow you to see the questions that recent graduates were asked as well as the average responses that we received to these survey questions. We are please to report that results of our undergraduate survey indicate that our graduates have been extremely satisfied with their undergraduate education in Fisheries Biology at HSU. Among the more notable findings were: Most of our undergraduate majors successfully secure employment in a fisheries-related area. (Mean reply to the question "Is your job fisheries related?" was 1.597, with a scale of 1 = "very much", 2 = "somewhat", and 3 = "not at all".) Our graduates found that their course work in Fisheries, Math/Statistics, Communications, and Computer Skills have all been very useful in their current jobs (median score of 1 on a scale with 1 = "very useful", 2 = "of some use", 3 = "not very useful"). Few important deficiencies were identified, but graduates recommend increased emphasis on law, statistics/sampling, computer usage and communications. Our graduates receive strong ratings as employees. Those of our graduates who have directly supervised other HSU Fisheries graduates as employees gave our students strong ratings for work performance (median = 1, mean = 1.520 on the above 5 point rating scale). For more detailed results, see the complete survey results file.

Cinco de Mayo Party - Ocean-Caught Chinook Salmon Win Taste Test Competition

At a May 2002 get together, Fisheries Biology Faculty, graduate students, and some undergraduates, all participated in a "blind taste test" of several species and/or types of salmon. The party was a great success and the results - completely hidden from all participants until nearly a week following the event - were very interesting!For the full story, see Salmon Taste Test.

HSU Fisheries Students Win Prestigious Scholarships

RECENT APPOINTMENTS FOR DR. HANKIN

Dr. Loudenslager appointed Chair of ISAB

AWWAP New Fish Barn