The Southern New England Chapter of the American Fisheries Society held its summer 2009 meeting awarding UMass faculty and students for their accomplishments.

Dr. Francis Juanes received The Award of Excellence, which recognizes an SNEC member who has made exceptional contributions to the field(s) of fishery administration, education, management or research. Criteria for the Award can include significant publications, exceptional service, outstanding teaching or training of students, important discoveries or inventions, or other major contributions to the advancement of fishery science.

David Stormer, PhD student in Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation, has been awarded a $500 travel grant from the Southern New England Chapter of the American Fisheries Society to attend the national meeting in August in Nashville, Tennessee. The award is given to deserving graduate students or exceptional undergraduate students to make an oral or poster presentation or attend the American Fisheries Society (AFS) annual meeting. David will be giving two presentations at this meeting.

The Saul B. Saila for Best Student Paper Award was awarded to Michelle Staudinger, PhD student in Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation. Michelle Staudinger received the award for her paper entitled, "Behavioral interactions between summer flounder (Parlichthys dentatus) and longfin squid (Loligo pealeii): The influence of relative prey size on predatory behavior and selectivity". The Saul B. Saila Award is a $100 award presented at each meeting. A minimum of three committee members or members-at-large judge the papers using the standardized student paper evaluation form from the AFS Education Section. The Professionalism Committee Chair coordinates judging and tallies the scores.