Skip to content

NTU-hosted fish sciences Symposium goes swimmingly

The annual fish biology and fisheries conference was hosted by Professor Iain Barber and Professor Andrew Hirst at Nottingham Trent University's Brackenhurst Campus.

    FSBI Symposium sign

    Last week, Nottingham Trent University (NTU) hosted the annual fish biology entity, Fisheries Society of the British Isles (FSBI) for their week-long annual Symposium.

    NTU welcomed more than 100 delegates from over 20 countries to our Brackenhurst Campus, including speakers, researchers and avid fish experts from all over the globe, with some tuning in virtually from as far as India. Guests came together for a week of sharing and celebrating their research, discovering Nottingham and making new connections.

    Addressing the subject of ‘Fish in a Dynamic World’, this year’s conference featured invited and keynote speakers covering a range of topics, including global fish distributions, the importance of publishing all findings, and the impacts of anthropogenic stressors; with the most prevalent trend by far, Climate Change, being the predominant factor affecting marine life.

    FSBI Symposium John Pinnegar delivers the Jack Jones lecture
    John Pinnegar delivers the Jack Jones lecture at the FSBI Symposium 2022 on ‘Climate Change and the Future of Fish and Fisheries’.

    Despite the overarching media narrative of impending doom whenever Climate Change is mentioned, researchers are ever thinking of innovative ways to consider and mitigate this threat, including using underwater soundscapes to repopulate reefs and better understanding fish migration behaviour.

    Aside from lectures and discussion sessions, the Symposium allowed guests a chance to network and explore Brackenhurst Campus and wider Nottinghamshire, with a BBQ, pub quizzes and a tour of Nottingham Castle.

    A banquet and awards ceremony were also hosted following the Nottingham Castle tour, at NTU’s City Campus. Awards presented included the 2022 FSBI medal, which was awarded to Dr Amy Deacon, Assistant Professor of Zoology at the University of the West Indies at St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.

    The inaugural award of the FSBI’s Huntingford medal (awarded for the best paper in the Journal of Fish Biology by an early-career researcher), was also presented, and this was won by Dr Martha Patricia Rincon Diaz, who studied at Oregon State University, USA.

    FSBI Symposium delegate arriving

    Co-organiser, Professor Iain Barber commented on the Symposium: “We are delighted to be able to host their year’s Symposium on behalf of the FSBI.

    “Despite the setback of the coronavirus pandemic, we are delighted that the Symposium topic of Fish in a Dynamic World has been so well received by the community, giving us confidence to offer the same theme for 2022.

    “After the success of last year’s virtual Symposium and understanding the continuing issues with international travel as well as the multiple economic challenges that persist, we have been keen to retain an online element to the meeting to allow delegates to join, present and engage with the Symposium virtually, to keep it truly international.

    “We hope that delegates benefit from several days of networking and social interaction with cross-disciplinary researchers that span different career stages and nationalities at our idyllic Campus, in the rural heartland of England.”

    Published on 4 August 2022
    • Category: School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences