California Estuarine Research Society (CAERS) Inaugural Meeting - April 14, 2003

CAERS Announces First Meeting

The newly formed California Estuarine Research Society (CAERS) will hold its inaugural meeting on Monday, April 14, 2003, at the Hubbs Sea World Conference Room in San Diego CA.  The meeting will be held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Western Division and California-Nevada Chapter of the American Fisheries Society (AFS), April 14-17, at the Hyatt-Islandia Hotel.  There will be a CAERS mixer late in the afternoon of 14^th.   The AFS sessions begin on the 15^th. 

Registration -  Registration for both meetings will be handled by AFS.  Fees for the CAERS meeting are as follows: $40 for members, $20 for students, and $55 for non-members.  More information about the 2003 AFS conference can be found at the AFS Western Division (http://www.fisheries.org/wd/meet/2003/meet2003.htm) or CAL-NEVA Chapter (http://www.afs-calneva.org) websites. 

CAERS Program now available!

Theme - The theme of the one-day CAERS session, chaired by Wim Kimmerer of the Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies and President-elect of CAERS, is: 

“Natural and restored estuaries and marshes: how important are they to Pacific coast invertebrates and fishes?”  

Much of the literature demonstrating that marshes are important rearing
habitat for fishes and invertebrates comes from Atlantic and Gulf coast
estuaries.  Pacific coast estuaries are less well endowed with tidal
marshes than their counterparts in the east, and use of these marshes by
fish and invertebrates is less well known.  Several key questions about use
of these habitats in Pacific estuaries may be addressed in this session: 1)
To what extent do fishes and invertebrates use marsh and other shallow
habitat for rearing or other life cycle phases; 2) Are marshes and shallow
estuaries essential habitat for some species; and 3) at what point in the
restoration trajectory do restored and natural marshes provide similar
habitat value for fishes and invertebrates?

The CAERS Executive/Program Committee (Fred Nichols - past president, Randy Brown - president, Wim Kimmerer - president elect, Fred Feyrer - secretary-treasurer and John Largier and Steve Weisburg - members at large) anticipates filling much of the day with papers addressing the above theme, but will accommodate contributed papers on other estuarine topics, as time is available.  Student papers are encouraged. There will be a brief business meeting just before the CAERS social.

CAERS website: http://online.sfsu.edu/~caers/welcome.htm