The FSBI is the premier Society in the British Isles, and increasingly in Europe, catering for the interests of professional fish biologists and fisheries managers. The Society is a Learned Society and, as such, is not a political interest group.

The Society is registered as a United Kingdom charity (Registered Number: 256475) and is affiliated to the UK Institute of Biology and the Society for Science and Technology.

Our purpose is more formally stated in the Society's Constitution and the following extract covers the key points:

"The objectives of the Society shall be to encourage, promote and support all branches of fish biology and fisheries science and conservation. In furtherance of the said objectives, ... , the Society shall have the following powers:

• to convene and provide financial support for meetings on appropriate aspects of fish biology and fisheries science and conservation;

• to disseminate research and technical information through the agency of the Society's journal The Journal of Fish Biology and other means;

• to support research in or connected with fish biology and fisheries management including the provision of travel bursaries, PhD studentships and small research grants;

• to collect and disseminate information on all matters affecting the said objects and exchange such information with other bodies having similar objects whether in this country or overseas"

FSBI Constitution (119 KB) | FSBI Reserves Policy (1.02 MB)

A Council of 14 decides policy on behalf of the members. The day to day affairs are run by the officers which are the President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer. Council members are elected for a four year term by the members at the Annual General Meeting. This is held concurrently with the annual symposium. The officers are elected at the AGM for a four year term although their status is reconfirmed at each AGM during their term of office. Members may propose candidates for election to Council either as ordinary members or officers. Each year two Council members stand down and replacements are elected. At least one member of Council is from a European country outside the British Isles. All Council members are Trustees of the Society.

Council meets in April and December each year at the Royal Astronomical Society. There are four sub-committees of Council, each of three people, that take care of the business arising from travel grant, research grant and PhD studentship applications. There is also a Finance sub-committee that deals with detailed aspects of financial planning for the Society.

The present Council consists of:

President: Prof. Felicity Huntingford (2007-2011) [WWW]

Graham Kerr Building, University of Glasgow. G12 8QQ UK

Vice-President: Prof. Michel Kaiser (2007-2011) [WWW]

School of Ocean Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor, LL59 5AB

Secretary: Prof. Brian Eddy (2005 - 2013) [WWW]

Faculty of Life Sciences, Biological Sciences Institute, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 4HN, UK.

Honorary Treasurer: Prof. Gordon H. Copp (2005-2013)

Cefas-Lowestoft and Bournemouth University; Address for correspondence: FSBI Treasurer, 16 Rowton Heath, Norwich NR7 0NT, England

Council members:

In the mid-1960s a series of annual conferences on non-salmonid fish ecology was initiated in Liverpool by Dr Jack W Jones. Jones was a member of the Department of Zoology in the University of Liverpool. At the third of these so-called Coarse Fish Conferences in March 1967, informal discussion took place about the formation of a British society for fisheries biology. Discussants were Jack Jones, David LeCren, a freshwater biologist at the Windermere Laboratory, Peter Tombleson, an angling journalist and administrator, Lionel Mawdesley-Thomas a fish pathologist at the Huntingdon Research Centre and Alwyne Wheeler a taxonomist at the Natural History Museum, London. The discussions lead to an inaugural meeting of the Society on 21st October 1967 at the meeting rooms of the Zoological Society. At the time, Jimmy Chubb, also from the Department of Zoology, University of Liverpool, was appointed as the first editor of the Journal of Fish Biology. These five people were responsible for the founding of the new Society and for guiding it through its early years.

Jack Jones was the first President but stepped down when he became ill in 1978. Subsequent presidents have been David LeCren, Ray Beverton, Colin Purdom, David LeCren again for a short interim period, John Blaxter and Paul Hart.

In 1992, at the quarter centenary conference in Liverpool the Jack Jones lecture was inaugurated in memory of the founding president. At each summer conference, one of the invited speakers is chosen as the Jack Jones Lecturer. The first Jones lecture was given in Liverpool by Professor Geoff Parker from Jones' old department. Subsequent speakers have included Larry Dill, Richard Haedrich, Ed Houde and Daniel Pauly.

In 1995 the Society decided to award a medal each year to an individual who had contributed significantly to fisheries biology. The first medal was awarded to Ray Beverton who sadly died a few months later. In his honour, the medal is now known as the Beverton Medal. (See below).

Compared with the American Fisheries Society, the FSBI is a newcomer. The AFS was founded in 1870 and has about 8,000 members. Despite this the two Societies maintain close links and Presidents try to attend each other's main symposium of the year.

Office Holders of the Society

2005 Report to the Charities Commission (125 KB) | 2005 Report by the Auditors (157 KB)
2006 Treasurer's Report to the AGM (52 KB) | 2007 Treasurer's report to the AGM (114 KB)

Each year the FSBI awards two medals, the FSBI medal for young scientists and the Beverton medal, which goes to an older scientist for life long contribution to the discipline. Because there are so many different kinds of contribution to fish biology and/or fisheries science, FSBI Council have decided to inaugurate a third medal. This is the Le Cren medal, named after the distinguished fish ecologist and conservationist David Le Cren and designed to honour scientists who, in addition to a distinguished research career, have made significant contributions in more applied fields. Nominations (which can be for scientists from Universities, Government Institutions or other relevant bodies) are therefore invited for the following medals for 2010:

• The FSBI medal: awarded annually to a young scientist who has made exceptional advances in the study of fish biology and/or fisheries science and whose work will shape the future of our discipline, in recognition of their achievements and promise. Nominees must be under 40 years of age on 28 February of the year in which the medal is awarded. The medal recipient will be invited to write a formal review paper for the journal, to highlight their award.
• The Beverton medal and the Le Cren medal: Both these medals are awarded annually to a distinguished scientist who has made an outstanding lifelong contribution to the study of fish biology and/or fisheries science. Their purpose is to recognize distinction in the field of fish biology and fisheries science, but also to raise the profile of the discipline and the society in the wider scientific community.

The Beverton medal focuses on ground-breaking research.

The Le Cren medal focuses on conservation, training or public understanding of the discipline.

Medals awarded previously

Nominations

Nominations should be in the form of a 1 page summary of how the nominee meets the criteria for the relevant medal and either a CV or a link to an informative website. The Medal Committee will draw up a short list of candidates and may request additional information for the nominators. Please email your nomination to the following address nominations@fsbi.org.uk by 28th February 2010. Nominators should also provide their own contact details.

Unsuccessful nominations may be reconsidered the following year, the age of the candidate being taken as that at the time of the original nomination. After two years, a nomination will have deemed to have lapsed and will require renomination for further consideration.

Presentation Of The Medals

The Beverton and Le Cren medals will be presented to the successful nominee at the Society's Annual International Symposium held in July each year.
The FSBI medal will be presented to the successful nominee at a time and place mutually agreed by the Society and the recipient.