american elasmobranch society

Applications now open for the Elasmobranch Society’s new diversity in marine science initiative

Posted on by David Shiffman

The American Elasmobranch Society is the world's oldest and largest professional association of shark and ray scientists

The American Elasmobranch Society is the world’s oldest and largest professional association of shark and ray scientists

The American Elasmobranch Society, the world’s oldest and largest professional society focusing on the scientific study and management of sharks and their relatives, is now welcoming applications for the Young Professional Recruitment Fund, our new diversity initiative. Awardees will be given one year of Society membership, in addition to specialized professional development training, mentorship, and networking opportunities specific to their needs as international or historically underrepresented minority scientists and professionals.

To be eligible for the Young Professional Recruitment Fund, applicants must fill out the application below and demonstrate that they:

Read More

American Elasmobranch Society announces new initiative to promote diversity in marine science

Posted on by David Shiffman

The American Elasmobranch Society is the world's oldest and largest professional association of shark and ray scientists

The American Elasmobranch Society is the world’s oldest and largest professional association of shark and ray scientists

The American Elasmobranch Society, the world’s largest and oldest professional society focusing on shark and ray research, announced a new diversity initiative today. The new Young Professional Recruitment Fund will identify and contact students, postdocs and early career professional from historically underrepresented minority groups and from developing countries whose research focuses on elasmobranchs. Additionally, if you are (or know of) a student, postdoc, or early career professional from a historically underrepresented minority group or a developing country, please feel free to reach out to us.

The Young Professional Recruitment Fund will be used to inform these early career scientists of the benefits of joining the American Elasmobranch Society. To welcome them to the Society and encourage their long-term participation, it will cover the costs of their Society membership for one year. Additionally, in cooperation with MinorityPostDoc.org, the fund will be used to give these scientists specialized professional development training, networking opportunities, and mentorship.

This fund is the latest in the American Elasmobranch Society’s continuing commitment to fostering diversity and inclusiveness in marine science. More details will be released soon. For more information, please contact Society Editor David Shiffman( WhySharksMatter at gmail dot com.)

World’s largest group of shark scientists calls on AP and Reuters to resist using the phrase “shark attacks”

Posted on by David Shiffman

davesquare

The American Elasmobranch Society is the world's oldest and largest professional association of shark and ray scientists

The American Elasmobranch Society is the world’s oldest and largest professional association of shark and ray scientists

The American Elasmobranch Society, the world’s largest professional organization of shark and ray scientists, has issued a resolution calling on the Associated Press Stylebook and the Reuters Style Guide  to retire the phrase “shark attack” in favor of a more accurate (and less inflammatory) wording that is scaled to represent real risk and outcomes. The AP Stylebook and Reuters Style Guides are reference guides for journalists and editors which focus on, among other things, reducing the usage of inaccurate and outdated terminology. The latest AP Stylebook, for example, had more than 90 new or updated entries which include encouraging journalists and editors to a stop using terms like  “illegal immigrant“,  “ethnic cleansing” and “homophobia”.

“Shark scientists in the United States and around the world have great respect for the integrity and reporting of the Associated Press and Reuters. We hope they will act on this recommendation and update their style guides to ensure that the public gets the most accurate information in the reporting of these incidents,” said Lara Ferry, President of the American Elasmobranch Society, who sent a formal letter to the AP Stylebook and Reuters Style Guide.

Currently, although “shark attack” is associated with an image of a large shark and a human fatality, the phrase  is used by the media as a catch-all to describe any encounter between a human and a shark, even those that don’t result in any physical contact whatsoever. Fully 38% of reported “shark attacks” in New South Wales, Australia from 1970-2009 resulted in no injury whatsoever. This is misleading and facilitates a perception among the public that sharks are more dangerous than they really are, a perception which has negatively impacted shark conservation and management policy.

“The accuracy in media reporting of shark bites and different human-shark interactions is especially important during the kinds of tragic periods we have seen this summer. The public deserves the best information to make sure there is no confusion between very serious and fatal shark bites and minor incidents,” said Christopher Neff, a Ph.D. student at Sydney University.

In a recent paper,  Neff and Bob Hueter of Mote Marine Lab proposed a scaled labeling typology to describe human-shark interactions. This typology covers the full range of these interactions,  including:

Read More

Tweets from the American Elasmobranch Society: Ecology and Conservation

Posted on by David Shiffman

davesquareAESlogoThe American Elasmobranch Societyis a non-profit professional organization of shark, ray, skate, and chimaera scientists. Each year, AES holds an annual conference in a different North American city where members meet and present their research. The 2013 meeting took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico from July 10-15th. The full schedule of talks (including other societies participating in the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists) can be found here.

Presented below are selected tweets from the Ecology and Conservation sessions.

Read More

#RaysTheRoof : Research symposium will focus on the biology and conservation of stingrays

Posted on by David Shiffman

davesquare

July 10-15th in Albuquerque!

July 10-15th in Albuquerque! I hope to see you there!

The upcoming Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists will include a research symposium focusing on the biology and conservation of durophagous (shell-eating) stingrays. Organized by Dr.’s Matt Ajemian (Texas A&M University Corpus Christi) and Julie Neer (Southeast Data Assessment and Review), this symposium aims to gather together the world’s experts on these ecologically important and poorly understood animals.  It will include more than 15 research presentations, as well as a Q&A panel discussion and poster session.

Though they were once best known for their visually stunning schooling behavior, durophagous rays like the cownose ray are now considered a pest species by many fishers because of their perceived role in the collapse of shellfish stocks in the Chesapeake Bay and elsewhere. This has led to a misguided targeted fishing campaign called “eat a ray, save the bay“. With their slow growth and  limited reproductive rate, this is a receipt for a conservation disaster, particularly when paired with the extremely limited regulations governing the fishery. The symposium will cover this issue as well as the current state of biology and conservation of other durophagous stingrays, including spotted eagle rays and other perceived pest species like the Japanese longheaded eagle ray.

For those of you attending the Joint Meeting, this symposium will take place Friday, July 12th from 8:00 a.m. until 6:00 P.M. (mountain time) . If you’re not attending the meeting, follow along on twitter with #RaysTheRoof (and #AES2013 / #JMIH2013, the conference hashtags). We’ll take question from twitter during the Q&A!

Tweets from the American Elasmobranch Society: Elasmobranch Ecology

Posted on by David Shiffman

The American Elasmobranch Society is a non-profit professional society focusing on the scientific study and conservation of sharks, skates, and rays. AES members meet each year in a different North American city, and this meeting is the world’s largest annual gathering of shark scientists. AES recently met in Vancouver, British Columbia for the 2012 meeting, and for the first time the event was live-tweeted by meeting attendees, including myself. I’ve organized the best conference tweets by session using Storify. If anyone has any questions or comments about the research presented below, please feel free to share it in the comments section of this blog post.

Here are selected tweets from the Elasmobranch Ecology sessions.

Read More

Tweets from the American Elasmobranch Society: Elasmobranch Conservation

Posted on by David Shiffman

The American Elasmobranch Society is a non-profit professional society focusing on the scientific study and conservation of sharks, skates, and rays. AES members meet each year in a different North American city, and this meeting is the world’s largest annual gathering of shark scientists. AES recently met in Vancouver, British Columbia for the 2012 meeting, and for the first time the event was live-tweeted by meeting attendees, including myself. I’ve organized the best conference tweets by session using Storify. If anyone has any questions or comments about the research presented below, please feel free to share it in the comments section of this blog post.

Here are selected tweets from the Elasmobranch Conservation sessions.

Read More

Tweets from the American Elasmobranch Society: Gruber Award (best student presentation) talks

Posted on by David Shiffman

The American Elasmobranch Society is a non-profit professional society focusing on the scientific study and conservation of sharks, skates, and rays. AES members meet each year in a different North American city, and this meeting is the world’s largest annual gathering of shark scientists. AES recently met in Vancouver, British Columbia for the 2012 meeting, and for the first time the event was live-tweeted by meeting attendees, including myself. I’ve organized the best conference tweets by session using Storify. If anyone has any questions or comments about the research presented below, please feel free to share it in the comments section of this blog post.

Here are selected tweets from the Gruber Award (best student presentation) sessions.

Read More

Tweets from the American Elasmobranch Society: Elasmobranch Genetics

Posted on by David Shiffman

The American Elasmobranch Society is a non-profit professional society focusing on the scientific study and conservation of sharks, skates, and rays. AES members meet each year in a different North American city, and this meeting is the world’s largest annual gathering of shark scientists. AES recently met in Vancouver, British Columbia for the 2012 meeting, and for the first time the event was live-tweeted by meeting attendees, including myself. I’ve organized the best conference tweets by session using Storify. If anyone has any questions or comments about the research presented below, please feel free to share it in the comments section of this blog post.

Here are selected tweets from the Elasmobranch Genetics session.

Read More

Tweets from the American Elasmobranch Society: Elasmobranch Behavior

Posted on by David Shiffman

The American Elasmobranch Society is a non-profit professional society focusing on the scientific study and conservation of sharks, skates, and rays. AES members meet each year in a different North American city, and this meeting is the world’s largest annual gathering of shark scientists. AES recently met in Vancouver, British Columbia for the 2012 meeting, and for the first time the event was live-tweeted by meeting attendees, including myself. I’ve organized the best conference tweets by session using Storify. If anyone has any questions or comments about the research presented below, please feel free to share it in the comments section of this blog post.

Here are selected tweets from the Elasmobranch Behavior sessions.

Read More