Invitation to Attend
We invite you to join us in Fremantle, Western Australia for the 8th Indo Pacific Fish Conference (IPFC) and the 2009 Australian Society for Fish Biology (ASFB) Workshop & Conference, which will be held from 31 May to 5 June 2009.
The conference will attract many of the field's leading professionals, scientists, students and lecturers. The Organising Committee has constructed an interesting and engaging program including numerous symposia on a range of topics. Main themes of the conference include Biogeography & Phylogeography, Biodiversity & Community Ecology, Population Biology & Ecology and Conservation, Sustainability & Management.
The conference program is currently being developed and we welcome your input through our call for papers. Your submissions will help determine the final program content and direction. The ASFB Workshop, with the major theme of Biodiversity, is presently being constructed and will be held on Wednesday 3 June 2009, a lay day for conference only delegates.
Western Australia is an ideal location for the conference because of its diversity of marine environments, the confluence of tropical and temperate marine waters that drives the distribution of fish along the coast through the influence of the Leeuwin Current, and the presence of leading research organisations in the capital city of Perth. Fremantle, adjacent to Perth, offers excellent access to the attractive coastal marine environments in this region including Rottnest Island, where tropical waters flow past a temperate terrestrial landscape.
I look forward to seeing you in Fremantle, Western Australia in May 2009.
Neil Loneragan
Chair of the Organising Committee of the 8th IPFC
From the President of ASFB
Welcome to the 8th Indo-Pacific Fish Conference and the 2009 Australian Society for Fish Biology Workshop & Conference to be held in Fremantle in May and June 2009. This event will be hosted by Murdoch University and the Department of Fisheries, Western Australia, with the support of our principal and major sponsors. I am delighted that these two events will run concurrently, the first time this has happened.
The Australian Society for Fish Biology (ASFB) was founded in 1971 to provide a forum for the exchange of scientific information and to promote better research, education and management of fish and fisheries. During the last two conferences held in Western Australia, the Society contributed to a better understanding of population dynamics for fisheries management in 1993 and improving the sustainability of data-limited multi-sector fisheries in 2001. In 2009, the goal of clarifying the science of biodiversity to ensure better management outcomes will be addressed through a focussed workshop.
Western Australia offers an incredible diversity of marine, estuarine and freshwater habitats from the extremely remote tropical environments of the Kimberley to the deserts of the Pilbara and the temperate environments of the south coast. Over 3000 fish species inhabit the waters of Western Australia; almost half of these fish are associated with coral reefs and many are endemic to the region. The state has only about 70 species
of freshwater fish, but more than half of these are unique to Western Australia. Some of these marine species support valuable commercial and recreational fisheries.
I would like to invite you to share your collective knowledge, participate in the discussions, and contribute your insights on how to overcome the scientific challenges in order to understand and communicate how to care for our natural resources and to protect our heritage of biodiversity.
Patrick Coutin
President
Australian Society for Fish Biology