Potomac Chapter Happenings!
Greetings from the President
The Potomac Chapter has had a very eventful final quarter of the year. As we end 2022, I am so grateful that we were able to host multiple events in-person this year, while staying safe and healthy. We are already beginning to plan events and activities for the coming year and would love to hear from you. Please share any ideas or let us know if you would like to become more involved.
I, along with all of the officers, would like to wish everyone a healthy and happy holiday season. We look forward to seeing you in the new year and hope it is a great one for all!
Best Fishes, Julie
The Annual Crab Feast is Back!
The 2022 Annual Crab Feast hosted by the AFS Potomac Chapter marked the return of the event after a two-year hiatus due to COVID. Everyone enjoyed the perfect fall weather. Thank you to Ward Slacum for procuring nice big, warm crabs and to other attendees for providing plenty of delicious side dishes and beverages. This year we moved to a park in Bethesda and it proved to be a wonderful venue for our event.
A good time was had by all with the opportunity to reconnect or meet new people and talk fish! Funds raised from this event, will help us to fund student travel. Speaking of student travel…
AFS Potomac Chapter and NOAA Fisheries sponsor NOAA Central Library Series Presentation
The Potomac Chapter of AFS funds an annual award, named for former Potomac Chapter President (and NMFS leader) Richard Schaefer, for a promising graduate student to attend and make a presentation at the AFS annual meeting. Two recent awardees, Seth Gibbons and Vaskar Nepal, will describe their research on river herring environmental DNA, and salinity and thermal tolerance of blue catfish, respectively. These presentations should be of interest to anyone interested in the Potomac River watershed, invasive species, eDNA, and AFS work in the local Washington, DC area. Keywords: river herring, blue catfish, eDNA
Seth Gibbons, Clemson University (East Carolina University at time of travel grant): A third-year PhD student in the Parks, Recreation, and Tourism department at Clemson. Received a BS in Wildlife Biology (with a minor in history) from Lees-McRae College and an MS in Biology (with a concentration in environmental and organismic biology) from East Carolina University. His prior research has focused on using environmental DNA to assist management decisions for freshwater/anadromous fish.
Vaskar Nepal, Western Illinois University, Assistant Professor of Biology: In 2020, Dr. Nepal completed his PhD from Virginia Institute of Marine Science, where he was subsequently a post-doctoral researcher for two years. His research interest is in ecophysiology and life-history of fishes.
