I just saw this announcement on the Fisheries-Science list. Is anyone familiar with this book, any opinions on its quality and use? I'm not an AFS type of guy, so I don't even recognize the names of most of the contributing writers. Thanks.



Standard Methods for Sampling North American Freshwater Fishes

Scott A. Bonar, Wayne A. Hubert, and David W. Willis, editors

335 pages, hardcover, index
Published by the American Fisheries Society
Publication date: August 2009
ISBN: 978-1-934874-10-3
$60.00 list price, $40.00 AFS members
To order: http://www.afsbooks.org/55059c.html

This important reference book provides standard sampling methods recommended
by the
American Fisheries Society for assessing and monitoring freshwater fish
populations in North America. Methods apply to ponds, reservoirs, natural
lakes, and streams and rivers containing cold and warmwater fishes.
Range-wide and eco-regional averages for indices of abundance, population
structure, and condition for individual species are supplied to facilitate
comparisons of standard data among populations. Provides information on
converting nonstandard to standard data, statistical and database procedures
for analyzing and storing standard data, and methods
to prevent transfer of invasive species while sampling.

284 biologists and managers from 107 agencies, universities, and businesses
contributed to the book as authors, reviewers, or sponsors.

CONTENTS

An Introduction to Standardized Sampling (Scott A. Bonar, Salvador
Contreras-Balderas, and Alison C. Iles)

Warmwater Fish in Small Standing Waters (Kevin L. Pope, Robert M. Neumann,
and Scott D. Bryan)

Warmwater Fish in Large Standing Waters (L. E. (Steve) Miranda and Jeff
Boxrucker)

Warmwater Fish in Wadeable Streams (Charles F. Rabeni, John Lyons, Norman
Mercado-Silva, and James T. Peterson)

Warmwater Fish in Rivers (Christopher S. Guy, Patrick J. Braaten, David P.
Herzog, John Pitlo, and R. Scott Rogers)

Coldwater Fish in Small Standing Waters (Nigel P. Lester, Paul E. Bailey,
and Wayne A. Hubert)

Coldwater Fish in Large Standing Waters (David A. Beauchamp, Donna L.
Parrish, and Roy A. Whaley)

Coldwater Fish in Wadeable Streams (Jason B. Dunham, Amanda E. Rosenberger,
Russell F. Thurow, C. Andrew Dolloff, and Philip J. Howell)

Coldwater Fish in Rivers (R. Allen Curry, Robert M. Hughes, Mark E.
McMaster, and
David J. Zafft)

Warmwater and Coldwater Fish in Two-Story Standing Waters (Phaedra Budy,
Gary P. Thiede, Chris Luecke, and Roger W. Schneidervin)

Statistical Analysis and Data Management (Michael C. Quist, Kimberly I.
Bonvechio, and Micheal S. Allen)

Converting Nonstandard Fish Sampling Data to Standardized Data (James T.
Peterson and Craig P. Paukert)

Controlling the Spread of Invasive Species while Sampling (Stewart Jacks,
Steve Sharon, Ronald E. Kinnunen, David K. Britton, Doug Jensen, and Scott
S. Smith)

Standardizing Electrofishing Power for Boat Electrofishing (L. E. (Steve)
Miranda)

Length Frequency, Condition, Growth, and Catch per Effort Indices for Common
North American Fishes (Mark J. Brouder, Alison C. Iles, and Scott A. Bonar)

Appendix A: Descriptions of standard North American inland fish sampling
equipment and fish communities for which they are used

Appendix B: Glossary of terms

Appendix C: Conversions commonly used by fisheries biologists

Index

I haven't seen the book yet, but now that you brought it to my attention, I'm going to get one for my lab. Will give a review once I get through the red tape of the university and get a copy (and scrounge up the time to flip through it). Class, ich lab, and much serious collecting gets under way starting Wednesday. I can see myself standing on a rock in the field reading from this book like a preacher to all of our young fish disciples. I think I'll make them believers after three days in hundred-plus heat with no sleep. I'm excited.

It's literally a day or two old, but it has been much hyped. I've always enjoyed the dark red and blue books that are primarily reviews in methods. Fish Biology and something else??? Some big names associated with chapters. Looking forward to reading it and I'm sure they'll be pimping it out at the conference next week. In the end I wonder how successful it will be...every agency seems to have their own objective, which leads to different methods (to put it nicely). If anything we are on the path further away from standardization. I laugh when I hear someone trying to make a regional index from state data.

My copy has not arrived yet so no review but I'm very much looking foreword to reading it through.

That is definitely something I'd be interested in. Please let us know how it is!