This fall, we (the Marine Fisheries Ecology Program at Mississippi State University) offered our very first FISHES: Fishermen Invested in Science, Healthy Ecosystems, and Sustainability course. It was a great success! Despite the challenges presented by COVID-19, we were able to conduct the course in person at MSU’s Coastal Research and Extension Center in Biloxi.
After nearly two years of delivering outreach and education content virtually, we were so happy to interact with our students in a classroom setting! A total of 12 students enrolled in the course; several were fishermen, others were teachers and some simply wanted to learn more about fish and fisheries for their own personal enjoyment.
The FISHES lectures, which focused on fisheries management, fisheries science and sustainability, were taught via five classroom sessions, each about 2 hours in length. While the Marine Fisheries Ecology Program personnel gave the majority of the presentations, a key feature of the course consisted of guest lectures by fisheries and coastal habitat specialists.
Senior Research Scientist Jim Franks, of The University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, discussed fish movement and the Cooperative Sport Fish Tag and Release Program; Associate Extension Professor Eric Sparks, of MSU and the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, described human impacts on the coast; and Research Associate Mark Albins, of the University of South Alabama and Dauphin Island Sea Lab, presented on invasive red lionfish.
During the classroom sessions, students enjoyed opportunities to connect with one another over catered meals. A textbook, written by the instructors and provided to each student in PDF and hard-copy formats, served as a complement to the lecture material.
Once the classroom sessions were completed, the FISHES instructors and students gathered at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab on Dauphin Island, Alabama, for a field excursion on the R/V Alabama Discovery. Although the weather was a bit chilly, everyone had a great time!
During the four-hour trip, the instructors set and hauled two types of fishery-independent survey gears: a trawl and a bottom longline. Then, the students got up close and personal with the catch! They held an Atlantic stingray and examined lots of bony fishes including cutlassfish, lizardfish, pufferfish, croaker, spot and multiple flounder species. Invertebrates made an appearance, too, with quite a few brown shrimp and white shrimp – along with a squid and a mantis shrimp! – caught in the trawl. To make the field excursion even more fun and inclusive, each student was permitted to bring a guest free of charge.
At the conclusion of the course, each FISHES student was awarded a completion certificate with an accompanying “swag bag." The bag itself was a 20-L dry bag and contained a SeaQualizer, a dehooker, a FISHES koozie and a FISHES waterproof sticker. Also, each teacher was provided two continuing education units for the 20 instructional hours.
If the FISHES course sounds like something you’d be interested in, please check our FISHES webpage next summer for details and registration instructions! This information will also be posted on our Marine Fisheries Ecology Facebook page. We hope to see you at the second annual FISHES course in fall 2022!