In the mid-1960s, several annual conferences on fish ecology were initiated in Liverpool by Jack W Jones. a member of the Department of Zoology University of Liverpool. During 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. Participants in the discussion were: Jack Jones, David LeCren, a biologist at the Freshwater Biology Laboratory, Windermere, 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 led to an inaugural meeting of the Fisheries Society of the British Isles on 21 October 1967 at the meeting rooms of the Zoological Society, London. James 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 resigned when he became ill in 1978. Subsequent Presidents have been David LeCren, Ray Beverton, Colin Purdom, David LeCren again for a short interregnum, John Blaxter, Paul Hart, Inigo Everson, John Thorpe, Felicity Huntingford and currently Ian Winfield.

In 1992, at the quarter centenary conference in Liverpool the Jack Jones lecture was inaugurated in his memory as founding President. At the annual conference, held in July, one invited speaker is selected to give the Jack Jones Lecture. The first Jack Jones lecture was given in Liverpool by Geoff Parker from Jones' former department. Subsequent speakers have included Larry Dill, Richard Haedrich, Ed Houde, Daniel Pauly and Kurt Fausch.

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. In 1999, the Society began awarding a second medal each year, known as the FSBI medal, to a young individual who has contributed significantly to fisheries biology during their early career. The first FSBI medal was awarded to Neil Metcalfe.

Compared with the American Fisheries Society, which was established in 1870, the FSBI is a relative newcomer. The AFS has about 8,000 members. These two Societies maintain close links and the two Presidents normally attend each other's annual conference.

OFFICE HOLDERS OF THE SOCIETY