Abstracts sought on Blue Water Marine Protected Areas session for the American Fisheries Society's Annual Meeting

The 154^th Meeting of the American Fisheries Society, co-hosted by the Western Division and the Pacific Islands Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, is taking place 15 – 19 September 2024 in Honolulu, Hawaii, under the theme, “Conserving Fishes and Fishing Traditions through Knowledge Co-Production”. 

The program contains a broad variety of sessions, including one on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) entitled "Large blue-water Marine Protected Areas: benefits and costs", described as follows:

"A number of large MPAs in the open ocean have been established and more are planned. This session will address what is known about the consequences of these closed areas, in terms of changes in the marine ecosystem, impacts on fisheries, and impacts on local communities. There will also be a focus on the methodology needed to estimate the impacts, in particular what constitutes a control. We anticipate papers will be presented evaluating existing examples, and model based evaluations of the potential impacts."

Session organiser, Ray Hilborn (University of Washington) is seeking a diversity of views on the global state of Blue Water MPAs, with a particular emphasis on those in the Pacific.

If you are interested in submitting an abstract for the session but travel to the meeting is an impediment, please contact Ray Hilborn at, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to discuss further.

Abstracts for this, or any session, can be submitted, here.

The deadline for abstract submission is 26 April 2024.

Registration for the meeting has now opened and more information on the programme, travel details and abstract submission, can be found at the AFS website, here.

8 April 2024