Leading Fisheries Conservation Professional is the New Executive Director for the American Fisheries Society

Bethesda, MD, October 19, 2013 --(PR.com)-- “AFS has an immense impact on the fisheries profession worldwide and provides an incredible opportunity to influence and help fisheries programs and professionals in new and exciting ways. Fisheries resources, both freshwater and marine, and from Arctic to Antarctic and everything in-between, are facing huge impacts from harvest, climate change, land development, and many other stresses. AFS can provide the needed science and translation of that science to help us better ensure that these resources will be healthy for generations to come,” Doug Austen

Dr. Douglas J. Austen, a fisheries conservation professional with more than 30 years of fisheries and natural resource management experience in a variety of top-level positions, has become the new executive director of the American Fisheries Society (AFS). Created in 1870 and with 9000 members from over 50 nations, AFS is the world's largest and oldest organization of professional fish and fishery scientists and managers. As executive director, Austen will interact with the officers, the governing board, and staff to oversee and guide the society in its mission to improve the conservation and sustainability of fishery resources and aquatic ecosystems by advancing fisheries and aquatic science and promoting the development of fisheries professionals. Dr. Austen will also work toward the AFS 2020 Vision: a future where world-wide fisheries production is optimized and sustained while structural and functional conditions of marine, freshwater, and estuarine ecosystems are maintained or improved. In addition to AFS duties, Dr. Austen serves as secretary-general of the World Council of Fisheries Societies, which includes members or cooperating fisheries societies from Australia, Britain, India, Japan, Pakistan, Mexico, Korea, China, and other nations.

Dr. Austen earned degrees in fisheries sciences at South Dakota State University (B.S.), Virginia Tech (M.S.), and Iowa State University (Ph.D.). After completing his formal education, he held positions with the Illinois Natural History Survey, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and served for six years as the executive director of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. Prior to becoming the AFS executive director, Doug worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as the national coordinator of Landscape Conservation Cooperatives, a highly collaborative conservation effort that engaged hundreds of federal, state, and private conservation partners from across North America. He has a long history with AFS, serving in a variety of roles, including president of the North Central Division, president of the Illinois Chapter, associate editor of the North American Journal of Fisheries Management, co-chair of the Fisheries Action Network, a member of the Continuing Education Committee and Professionalism Committee, and other AFS sections and committees. Doug also served as president of the Northeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.