The purpose of these pages is to provide a rapid means to disseminate information to ELHS members and anyone looking for information about the ELHS section. As such, these pages will complement Stages, our official ELHS Newsletter.

WHAT'S NEW?

Course offering: Early Life History of Marine Fishes

Instructors Ed Houde and Nalani Schnell invite students to register for their graduate-level course in Early Life History of Marine Fishes to be held at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science from 10-28 June 2013.  Further information can be found here and at the course website: http://web.vims.edu/adv/657/index.html

Larval Fish Conference Information:

Mark your calendars!!! The 37th Larval Fish Conference will be held in Miami, Florida, USA from 2 June - 6 June 2013. Further information about the meeting can be found at the Larval Fish Conference website here.

The 36th Larval Fish Conference was held 2 July - 6 July 2012 in Bergen, Norway. The winners of the best student paper and poster awards are below.  Further information about the meeting can be found here. 2012 Sally Richardson Award. The twenty-seventh annual Sally Richardson award for the best student paper presented at the 36th Annual Larval Fish Conference was given at Bergen, Norway 2-6 July, 2012..

The winner of the award for best student paper was:

Rebecca Asch, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, for her presentation entitled "Climate change and the seasonal occurrence of larval fish in the Southern California Current Ecosystem"

Honorable Mention went to:

Deena Anderson, University of North Carolina Wilmington, for her presentation “ Experimental evaluation of patterns and mechanisms of juvenile red drum mortality due to acute cold stress during severe winters ”  F. Scharf, Co-author.

and

Erika Staaterman, University of Miami, for her presentation “Orientation behavior in fish larvae: a missing piece to Hjorts critical period hypothesis ”  C. Paris and J. Helgers, Co-authors.

Congratulations to all of you for an excellent job, and a hearty thanks to all the students who presented talks and the people who judged them.  Special thanks go to Elaine Calderone of NOAA NMFS Laboratory, Narragansett who was the co-chairman for the awards and helped contact judges and set up the schedule even though she was unable to attend; and Eric Roseman who helped with the judges on the first day of the meeting.

Grace Klein-MacPhee, Chairman - Sally Richardson Award Committee.

2011 J.H.S. Blaxter Award: Congratulations to Olivier Morissette and Alison Deary, winners of the 2012 John H.S. Blaxter Award for the best student poster presented at the 36th Larval Fish Conference, Bergen, Norway 2 July - 6 July 2012.

Olivier’s poster, entitled "Long time no see: The onset of a natural dynamic for the re-introduced striped bass in the St. Lawrence Estuary (Canada)" was co-authored by F. Lecomte, P. Sirois, M. Legault, and G. Verreault.

Alison's poster, entitled "Development of the pharyngeal jaws in the drums (Sciaenidae) of the Chesapeake Bay with comparisons to other members of the family" was co-authored by E. Hilton.

Jon Hare, Chairman - J.H.S. Blaxter Award Committee

Publications

STAGES ONLINE: The October 2012 Issue of Stages is now available. Email items for Stages to: Lee Fuiman.

Now Available! Larval Fish Conference Proceedings. Electronic copies or ordering information are available online here .

From Darrel Snyder:

About 60% of U.S and Canadian Freshwater and Anadromous Fishes Remain Undescribed as Larvae!

In Spring 2010, Darrel Snyder (Larval Fish laboratory, Colorado State University) and ten co-authors did a survey of 47 guides and descriptive publications or reports to document the coverage and quality of information and illustrations therein and provide an initial overall assessment of our current knowledge of the morphological appearance of the early life stages of freshwater and anadromous fishes in the continental United States and Canada.  The results were summarized in the lead presentation for a topical session on Descriptions and Identification held during the annual AFS-ELHS Larval Fish Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 31 May to 2 June 2010 (http://www.larvalfishcon.org/Conf_Abstracts.asp?ConferenceCode=34th).  A file containing the power point slides and text can be viewed or downloaded here.  Text can be viewed in edit mode.

Now Available! Kendall, A. W. Jr. (edited by) (2011).  Identification of Eggs and Larvae of Marine Fishes. 408 pages. Tokai University Press.  More information can be found  here .

Now Available! Richards, W. J. (edited by) (2006). Early Stages of Atlantic Fishes: An Identification Guide for the Western Central North Atlantic, Two Volume Set. 1824 pages. CRC Press.

Now Available! Fahay, M. P. (2007). Early stages of fishes in the western North Atlantic ocean, Davis Strait, Southern Greenland and Flemish Cap to Cape Hatteras, Two Volume Set. 1696 pages. Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization.  For ordering information click here.

Now Available! Early Life History of Marine Fishes" authored by Bruce S. Miller and Arthur W. Kendall, Jr. Information is available online here.

Now Available! "Fish Larval Physiology" edited by R.N. Finn and B.G. Kapoor. Information is available online here .

Now Available Online! "Recent Advances in the Study of Fish Eggs and Larvae" edited by M.P. Olivar and J.J. Govoni. Articles are available online here . You may distribute these PDF files freely. The full reference is: Olivar, M.P. and J.J. Govoni (Eds.). Recent advances in the study of fish eggs and larvae. Scientia Marina 70S2 (Supplement 2): 1-174. (ISSN: 0214-8358).

Now Available! Announcing the second edition of Guide to Catostomid fish larvae. The revised and expanded second edition of D.E. Snyder and R.T. Muth's guide to catostomid fish larvae of the Upper Colorado River Basin has been published as Colorado Division of Wildlife Technical Publication 42. The complete reference and access information is: Snyder D. E., and R. T. Muth.  2004.  Catostomid fish larvae and early juveniles of the Upper Colorado River Basin–morphological descriptions, comparisons, and computer-interactive key.  Colorado Division of Wildlife Technical Publication 42. PDF copies and associated keys can be downloaded from http://warnercnr.colostate.edu/larval-fish-lab-downloads/ (under pdf-doc, select “Snyder and Muth 2004.pdf”; for the associated computer interactive key click on the “delta-intkey” link for the host program and under cik-data, select: “cat-grb.zip.” for the data files).

Now Available! Snyder, D. E., K. R. Bestgen, and S. C. Seal.  2005.  Native cypriniform fish larvae of the Gila River Basin–morphological descriptions, comparisons, and computer-interactive keys. Final report of Colorado State University Larval Fish Laboratory to U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation, Phoenix, Arizona.  PDF copies and associated keys can be downloaded from http://warnercnr.colostate.edu/larval-fish-lab-downloads/ (under pdf-doc, select “Snyder et al 2005. . . .pdf”; for the associated computer interactive keys click on the “delta-intkey” link for the host program and under cik-data, select: “cyp-grb-r.zip”, for the cyprinid key, “cat-grb.zip” for the catostomid key, and “fam-grb.zip” for the family key)

Now Available! The Development of Form and Function in Fishes and the Question of Larval Adaptation. Edited by: John Jeffrey Govoni This book, the proceedings of a symposium held at the 26th Annual Larval Fish Conference of the Early Life History Section of the American Fisheries Society, in Bergen, Norway presents current thought that reflects upon the following questions: when and in what capacity do developing organs or organ systems come on line, and more importantly, are these organs and their functions specializations unique to embryos and larvae or are they simply rudimentary functional anlage of the adult form? For the complete table of contents, and ordering information, click on the link above.

Available Online! Proceedings of the 26th Annual Larval Fish Conference - The Big Fish Bang. Edited by: Howard I. Browman and Anne Berit Skiftesvik. Each article in the book can be downloaded as a pdf file from the website. For more information go to the book website.

FISHERY SCIENCE The Unique Contributions of Early Life Stages. edited by Lee A. Fuiman and Robert G. Werner. This outstanding text, edited by two of our own and with contributions by many ELHS members, was produced with financial support provided by ELHS. It offers a unique and valuable perspective on all the major topics in traditional fishery science by addressing the role and importance of early life stages. More information on the book and where you can order your own copy is available here.

Otolith Manual Now Available Online: In 1991 Dave Secor, John Dean and Betsy Laban published the Manual for Otolith Removal and Preparation for Microstructural Examination. This publication is out of print but still in demand, so Dave has secured copyright permission and has posted the Otolith Manual on his website as a pdf file. You will also find a link to it on our Other ELH Links page for future reference.

Northeast Pacific Ichthyoplankton Information System (IIS) The new NortheastPacific Ichthyoplankton Information System (IIS) has recently been completed and is now available on line at http://access.afsc.noaa.gov/ichthyo/index.cfm . This website is a consolidation of a larval fish guide and recently published distribution atlas, and provides access to data on the early life history (ELH) of fishes collected by the Recruitment Processes Program of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

The IIS functions in 2 modes, a taxonomic search and a character search. The taxonomic search allows users to view illustrations, meristics, information on ELH, and distribution and abundance maps. The character search helps you to identify an unknown specimen using meristic and pigment searches. In addition, the site presents useful interactive links to FishBase and LarvalBase, the University of Washington's Fish Collection, and other ELH sources. The IIS offers a complete bibliography of early life history literature and provides the data used to make the distribution maps. Currently, data and maps are available for about 1/3 of the taxa on the site. In the future, the database will be available with an option for downloading the latest data files in PDF format. We welcome and encourage any questions or comments. Please contact any of the IIS team for this project: Debbie Blood, Ann Matarese, or Bill Rugen.

From Darrel Snyder: With the upstart of many new 316B Projects, there are a lot of folks out there looking for larval fish identification guides. I recommend to most folks in the east and midwest the Ohio River volumes (six volumes so far) and Auer's 1982 Great Lakes volume. Electronic versions of Auer's Great lakes guide can be downloaded from http://www.glfc.org/pubs/pub.htm#pubs (select Special Publication 82-3). Click here for ordering information for the Ohio River Basin volumes.

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