Help us celebrate our 50th anniversary
On our 50th anniversary, we invite ASFB members, past and present, to help fill the gaps in our history by sharing their favourite memories.
ASFB logo on display at the 2017 conference in Albany, Western Australia.
This year, the Australian Society for Fish Biology celebrates 50 years of supporting fish and fisheries research in the Australasian region. We invite ASFB members, past and present, to help fill the gaps in our history by sharing their memories.
There are three ways you can contribute:
Tell us your favourite ASFB memory
Send us your favourite photo from an ASFB event, or a photo of yourself in action undertaking some fishy work (send your photos, with a descriptive caption, to asfb50th@gmail.com)
Answer 10 quick questions about yourself
To get you into the spirit, members of our 50th Anniversary Committee have shared a few of their favourite ASFB moments below.
Favourite ASFB memories
A pretty special memory was seeing my PhD supervisor Mike Kingsford get the K. Radway Allen Award. He gave the presentation at my first ASFB conference (Melbourne 2018), which was a fitting way to see how researchers follow in each other’s footsteps. Mike spoke about his mentors, as well as the post-docs and students he guided along the way. There were some great throwback pictures! It was my very last conference as a PhD student, and also a great reunion with past lab-mates April Boaden Hall and Kynan Hartog-Burnett and other JCU alums. I think we often forget how mentorship begets both a social and a professional legacy. It was a privilege to see him receive that honour from ASFB and be surrounded by colleagues and students past and present.
Tiffany Sih
In February 1979, having arrived in Australia to take up my position as Curator of Fishes at the then National Museum of Victoria, I set out to make my way in this brave new world. I had just completed the qualifications for a PhD, and, over my rather lengthy student career, had come to appreciate the importance of developing networks and establishing links with important players in my field. It had become clear that top professional societies, and, in my case, the American Society for Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, were vital avenues for doing this. A quick whip around to colleagues at museums in Australia, whom I had come to know via tedious snail mail, identified the Australian Society for Fish Biology as the closest equivalent. It actually appeared to be an amalgam of what in the States is the ASIH – an academically oriented aggregation – and the American Fisheries Society focusing on the industrial side, two enormous societies. I quickly joined and signed up to attend my first conference in Port Stevens with expectations based on my experiences at the ASIH conferences. They are extremely formal affairs with the quintessential dichotomy between long-established icons of the disciplines and the yet-to-be-proven larval members. Certainly, interactions between the two do occur, but they invariably take place post formal sessions, often at a local watering hole and usually based on prior introductions. To my great delight, the Australian version proved to be far more casual and welcoming, with even a bit of humour creeping into no less professional oral presentations. The final Sunday barbeque at the fisheries station was a sealer, with endless food and beverage literally flowing throughout the space. I was hooked.
Martin Gomon
ASFB in pictures
“The 2016 conference in Hobart, Tasmania, was a very memorable conference for me, as I was able to present work on the Tasmanian Carp Management Program (CMP), alongside four other staff members from my team, who also covered varying aspects of the CMP. To be able to do this in my hometown was even more special.” Submitted by Jonah Yick.
“The ASFB supported my PhD research that led to the discovery of a new species of freshwater fish that we named after author and conservationist Tim Winton. A highlight of my career (and life) was presenting a Roger Swainston illustration of the newly-described Hannia wintoni to the man himself.” Submitted by James Shelley.
Long-time ASFB member Richard Tilzey hauls a boatload of conference attendees at the 2017 conference in Albany, Western Australia. © Andrew Katsis
10 questions
Karissa Lear and Ebb are asking you to accept a once- or possibly twice-in-a-lifetime opportunity to celebrate a major fish science milestone. Will you be around for ASFB’s 100th celebrations in 2071? Hard-hitting questions, indeed.
Send us your responses to one administrative question and ten semi-professional questions for posting on ASFB social media. This is an opportunity for all members of the society to celebrate 50 years of ASFB with a tiny allocation of time.
Karissa and Ebb have boldly provided the first working examples for you to scoff at. Please send your responses through when you are ready, and we will feature them once they have been vetted (yes, Dr Kerezsy, we are watching you and the mob)
Karissa Lear
Are you a robot fish? Not that I know of
First ASFB conference: Hobart, 2016
Favourite fish: So many…. Hmmm – Greenland shark?
Main fish biology interests: Behaviour, physiology, conservation
Memorable ASFB conference experience: The ‘Women in Fish Science’ panel discussion in Hobart, 2016 – as my first ever conference, this was pretty different to my previous experiences in the field.
Memorable field experience: Ending up in the middle of a vortex of 30+ spotted eagle rays in the Turks and Caicos Islands
Which fish would you most like to be? Sleepy cod – naps are king
Which fish would you least like to be? Maybe a sawfish – after watching them try to feed and swim around in tight areas, it seems like it would be a real drag to carry that saw around for your whole life. And to have yourself and all your closest relatives on the extinction watch list.
Do you have any fishy aspirations? Have my work make a difference for conservation of threatened fishes and ecosystems
Favourite reads: Winnie-the-Pooh
Ebb (Brendan Ebner)
Are you a robot fish? No
First ASFB conference: Sydney, 1995
Favourite fish: Anampses femininus
Main fish biology interests: fish behaviour especially feeding ecology, conservation, rare & unusual species, fish art and imagery
Memorable ASFB conference experience: Gavin Butler presenting remote underwater video of eastern freshwater cod fighting an eel off nest back in the day when field-based freshwater camera research was new in Australia
Memorable field experience: Seeing four freshwater morays in a stream for the first time
Which fish would you most like to be? A male Anampses femininus (gorgeous gals everywhere)
Which fish would you least like to be? Any cold-water species. I’m thermally challenged, with poor circulation to my hands and fingers
Do you have any fishy aspirations? To spend more time watching fish misbehave
Favourite reads:
1st: Libenzi, E. E. (1975). Robin and the Pirates. Putnam Pub Group
2nd: Muñoz et al. (2012). Extraordinary aggressive behavior from the giant coral reef fish, Bolbometopon muricatum, in a remote marine reserve. PloS One, 7(6), e38120.
American Fisheries Society President Scott Bonar checks out a few North Queensland streams for fish with Ebb as a tour guide, just prior to the 2019 ASFB Conference in Canberra. © Brendan Ebner