**The symposium below has been accepted for the Ottawa meeting. The
symposium is in honor of Steve Berkeley, and anyone interested in
presenting in this symposium should contact Jon Brodziak as soon as
possible. A full description of the symposium is below, but please
contact Jon with any questions.**

**1) Symposium title:** Sustainable fisheries for highly-migratory large
pelagics

**2) Organizers:** Jon Brodziak^1^, Churchill Grimes^2^, Susan Sogard^2^

> NOAA Fisheries
>
> ^1^Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center
>
> 2570 Dole Street
>
> Honolulu, HI 96822
>
> Tel: 808-983-2964
>
> Fax: 808-983-2902
>
> <Jon.Brodziak@NOAA.GOV>
>
> ^2^Southwest Fisheries Science Center
>
> 110 Shaffer Road
>
> Santa Cruz, CA 95060
>
> <Churchill.Grimes@NOAA.GOV> , Tel: 831-420-3931
>
> <Susan.Sogard@NOAA.GOV> , Tel: 831-420-3932

**3) Description:** Fisheries for highly-migratory large pelagic species
present unique challenges for sustainability. Many large tunas, sharks,
and billfishes are apex predators that are captured in commercial and
recreational fisheries. While the economic importance of these game
fishes is substantial, scientific understanding of population dynamics
is hampered by issues of stock boundaries, vast geographical ranges,
multispecies and multinational fisheries in international waters, and
limited information on life history and basic biology. This symposium
describes current research on sustaining fisheries for and
highly-migratory large pelagic species, including tunas, sharks, and
billfishes. Symposium papers will address current research on bycatch
mitigation, tagging, stock structure, basic life history, stock
assessment, and fisheries management of large pelagic species worldwide.
The relevance to the theme of fisheries in flux is clear with the near
collapse of stocks of Northern bluefin tuna (*Thunnus thynnus)* in the
Atlantic and the depletion of swordfish and other billfish stocks. The
symposium will integrate the research experience of many colleagues of
Steve Berkeley, who recently passed away, as well as other marine
fisheries researchers. Due to the unique nature of these wide-ranging
apex predators, the Symposium will be of wide interest to AFS members
and meeting participants, including sport fishermen.

**4) Format and time requirement:** Oral presentations, 20 minutes per
speaker.

**9) Preliminary list of presentations (\* availability unknown at
present):**

Jon Brodziak Biological reference points for North Pacific striped
marlin

Enric Cortez\* Assessing shark fisheries in the Southeast US region

Bob Humphries\* Growth of swordfish in the North Pacific

Christopher Boggs\* Reducing incidental billfish catch in tuna longline
fisheries

Kevin Piner\* Stock assessment of North Pacific striped marlin

Ray Conser\* Limit reference points to sustain Pacific albacore
fisheries

Joe Powers\* Atlantic bluefin tuna: is there a path to sustainability ?

Dean Courtney\* Life history and conservation of salmon sharks in
Alaskan waters

Keith Bigelow\* The importance of habitat for standardizing longline
CPUE

Alex da Silva\* Sustainable shark fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico

Mark Maunder\* Using tagging data to improve stock assessments of HMS

Michael Hinton\* Stock structure of Pacific swordfish

John Carlson\* Life history of pelagic sharks in the Gulf of Mexico

Greg Calliet\* Growth and longevity of pelagic sharks in the north
eastern Pacific

Kim Holland\* Migratory behavior of large pelagic species in the
tropical Pacific

Barbara Block\* Pelagic habitat utilization by tunas and sharks

George Watters\* Minimizing dolphin interactions in sustainable EPO tuna
fisheries

Michelle Heupel\* Behavioral ecology of pelagic sharks in Australian
waters

Church Grimes and Ed Houde Reproductive strategies of tunas

**10) Sponsors:** AFS Marine Fisheries Section will sponsor this
Symposium.