Monday, 18th August Australian Society for Fish Biology Conference 2025

8:55am - 9:05am - ASFB President welcome - John Morrongiello
9:05am - 9:15am - Director of Fisheries address – Matt Osborne 

• Fintastic stories of connection for fish futures - Jess Melbourne-Thomas

ALL session chairs are to meet in The Auditorium at Morning Tea on Monday 18th of August for a chair briefing. It is important for all chairs throughout the conference attend.

• Zooming into recreational fishers: monitoring catches and waste using AI and surveys - Loeva Martin-Podevin
• Building a scientific knowledge base for recreational fisheries management through participatory stock assessments: lessons from Christmas Island - Shahrin Jamil
• A fine scale fish population model reveals how integration of spatial and temporal management can maximise conservation and recreational fisheries benefits - Charlotte Aston
• Assessment of existing and alternative data collection methods for recreational catches of billfishes and tunas in the southwest Pacific - Barrett W Wolfe
• Your Catch Counts: A New Way for SA Recreational Fishers to Support Sustainable Fishing Management - Jordan Lear
• Surveys reveal reasons for changed angler perceptions from capture towards tag and release in a recreational marlin fishery - Tristan Guillemin

Session Chairs: Curtis Champion, Laura Blamey, Jason Hartog

• Sea Change Australia: Empowering the seafood sector to navigate towards a climate resilient future - Gretta Pecl
• Marine heatwave evolution and impacts during the 24/25 Australian summer - Jason Hartog
• Marine heatwave response plans for ecosystems and fisheries - Curtis Champion
• Identifying emerging fisheries species in the rapidly warming southeast Australian marine ecosystem - Rikki J Taylor
• Parametric Insurance for Climate Adaptation in Fisheries and Aquaculture - Alistair Hobday

• Portfolio effects in estuarine fisheries: insights from 80 years of catch data - Patrick Reis-Santos
• Ten years of tracking threatened river sharks: novel insights into mortality, movement, and environmental drivers - Julia M Constance
• Climate extremes drive ecosystem change in an iconic Australian terminal wetland - Chloe Hayes
• Should I stay or should I go? A clash of diadromy, connectivity and hypersalinity - Chris Bice
• Quantifying impacts of altered river flow on catches of giant mud crabs - Laura K Blamey
• Quantifying habitat value for important fisheries species in southeast Queensland estuaries - Lucy Goodridge Gaines

• Industry-led science - Mitigating sawfish interactions in the Northern Prawn Fishery (NPF) - Brandon Meteyard
• Managing seabird bycatch in New Zealand's domestic surface longline fishery - Hannah Stilborn
• Managing bycatch of a critically endangered shark – a case study in sustainable bycatch - Richard Pillans
• Mitigating Threatened Species Bycatch in Commercial Net Fisheries - Joni Pini-Fitzsimmons
• Evaluating Bycatch Deterrents to Reduce Threatened Elasmobranch Interactions in Northern Australian Gillnet Fisheries - Emily E Taljaard
• TEPS associated with the Great Barrier Reef: What questions do we need to answer to ensure sustainable use of fisheries resources in this multi-use conservation area? - Susannah M Leahy

This session will conclude with a 15 minutes panel discussion.

• Harnessing the power of recreational fishers and social media in research: Insights from Project Kingfish - Belinda Goddard
• Support for environmental action stems from the confluence of values, knowledge and identity - Alexander Vaishampayan
• Perch on the plate? Investigating the age, growth and reproductive biology of ocean perch from the east coast of Tasmania - Alyssa Marshell
• Multi-method tagging reveals cross-jurisdictional and seasonal movements of yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi) - Daniel Ierodiaconou
• Fishing for answers: evaluating the impact of Tasmania’s artificial reefs - Jessica Kube

Session Chairs: Curtis Champion, Laura Blamey, Jason Hartog

• Tropical marine species riding dangerous and complex climate roller coasters - Eva Plaganyi
• Preparing for the Unpredictable: Managing Climate Extremes in a Northern Australian Prawn Fishery - Laura K Blamey
• Which fish life stage is most vulnerable to warming? - Zara Cowan
• Down the garden path: Influence of thermal effluent on biological traits of crabs in a recreational fishery - Matt Taylor
• Mitigation scenarios and future climate alter ecosystem outcomes of the downstream impacts of river regulation and diversion. - Rob A Kenyon

This session will conclude with a 15 minute panel discussion

• Two decades of research in the estuary of Australia’s largest river system, the Murray-Darling: what’s in it for the fishes? - Brenton Zampatti
• One Fishway, Many Life Stages: First Insights into a Novel Tidal Cone-Lock Fishway on the Fitzroy River - Joachim B. Bretzel
• Assessing the effects of highly-modified seascapes on fish distribution, connectivity and ecosystem functioning. - Nathan Knott
• Life History Trade-Offs Influencing Metabolic Performance in an Estuarine Fish - Elizabeth C Hoots
• Accounting for individual- and population-level variation in fish migratory histories using hidden Markov models: a case study of tailor (Pomatomus saltatrix) - Daniel E Hewitt

This session will conclude with a 15 minutes panel discussion

• Age and growth of commercially caught shark, Carcharhinus sorrah  - Amy Kirke
• Do some tiger sharks prefer beaches? Insights from a broad-scale tracking program - Matthew N McMillan
• Continental-scale biogeographic assessment of shark and ray communities in Australia - Sasha Whitmarsh
• Lord Howe Island shark research program: towards a conceptual framework to manage human-shark interactions - Victoria Camilieri-Asch
• Global FinPrint2 – A decade of a difference for sharks and rays in MPAs? - Leanne M Currey-Randall

Poster presenters will have the opportunity to give a 2-minute presentation about their poster during a dedicated session in Auditorium 2 on Monday, 18th. AV facilities will be available, and presenters may choose to either display their poster on screen or use a few PowerPoint slides to talk through their work.

Please note: If using PowerPoint slides, these must be uploaded with the AV technician at least two sessions prior to your presentation to ensure a smooth delivery.

This session is in addition to the main Poster Session on Tuesday, 19th, where printed posters will be displayed on poster boards for the duration of the session.

• Reproductive estimates of the spot-tail shark (Carcharhinus sorrah) in the Northern Territory, Australia - Abbey Keles
• Cultural considerations in the Menindee and Lower Darling Baaka Fish Passage Business Case   - Alexander Habilay
• Accelerating reference genome production with the Australian Fish Genomics Initiative and the Australian Tree of Life - Amy Tims
• Decadal nationwide assessment of climate-driven species redistribution using citizen science data - Barrett Wolfe
• Stranger in a strange land: A new, isolated population of Hypseleotris (Gobiiformes: Gobiodei: Eleotridae) from Karijini National Park, supported by phylogenetic analyses - Christopher Hofmeester
• Remarkable metabolic reconfiguration due to three classical nitrogen sources in Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis (Rhodophyta) - Hong Du
• Mitigating Entrainment: Modern Fish Screens Protect Native Freshwater Fish in the Murray–Darling Basin - Joachim B. Bretzel
• Reproductive potential of male redclaw crayfish (Cherax quadricarinatus) fed with plant-based diets supplemented with astaxanthin and/or cholesterol - Jon Aquino
• Offshore spawning of Giant Mud Crabs (Scylla serrata) – insights from satellite tagging and collation of reported sightings - Julie Robins
• Movement and connectivity of key fisheries species along the New South Wales coast - Karen Eigeland
• Rapid elemental profiling for species identification of shark fins - Patrick J Burke
• Dietary supplements and biological performance in Haliotis species: A systematic evidence map protocol - Rebecca L Pedler
• Seasonal differences in movement of endangered Macquarie perch (Macquaria australasica) in a newly enlarged upland reservoir - Rhian Clear
• Consistent allopatric distributions of co-generic species can be the ley to managing fisheries with bulk landed catches. - Rob Kenyon
• Urea utilization and dual enzyme systems in Symbiodiniaceae: Implications for the significance of urea under global warming - Tangcheng Li
• More new and recent records of fishes from the Mariana Islands - Terry J Donaldson
• Fish community dynamics in Cotter Reservoir before, during and after reservoir enlargement - Ugyen Lhendup
• The Wirrah Love Triangle: Definitive resolution of the enigmatic identity of Acanthistius paxtoni, the Orangelined Wirrah - Younis Menkara

Session Chairs: Curtis Champion, Laura Blamey, Jason Hartog

This session will conclude with a 45 minute panel discussion.

• Adaptive monitoring to inform management of a bivalve fishery impacted by a harmful algal bloom - Greg J Ferguson
• Diet and nutrition of southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii) associated with recent environmental events in southern Australia - Jessica Henkens

This session will conclude with a 30 minute panel discussion.

• Biotic and abiotic drivers of barramundi population dynamics in Corroboree Billabong, Northern Territory: evidence from a long-term monitoring program - Brien H Roberts
• Resolving the taxonomy of Indo-Pacific Lates and recent genomic advancements in the Lates calcarifer species complex - Matthew A Campbell
• Occupancy modelling of an endangered freshwater fish species across a river catchment using environmental DNA - Maxine P Piggott

As part of the Australian Society for Fish Biology’s commitment to recognising and celebrating the contributions of Indigenous, Torres Strait Islander and other First Nations people worldwide to research, water and fish, we invite all travel bursary recipients to an informal meet and greet on Monday 18^th August 15:15 – 16:15 in Waterfront room 3, Darwin Convention Centre. This session will offer a space for travel bursary recipients to speak about their research and connection to country, and provide a space to connect with delegates, mentor, and organisers in a culturally safe setting. Gathering will foster early conversations and relationships that will continue throughout the conference, aligning with our 2025 theme: Connecting Waters – Science, Policy and People for a stronger fish future.

This open session is intended for:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates;
• Other Indigenous and First Nations delegates from across the world; and
• Non-Indigenous delegates working in partnership with First Nations communities or on topics grounded in Country, culture, and Indigenous knowledge systems.

• Revealing the Diet of the Critically Endangered Stocky Galaxias (Galaxias tantangara) - Aliati Iswantari
• Diet & nutrition of southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii) in response to population shifts in southern Australia - Jessica Henkens
• Every marlin tells a story - Tristan Guillemin
• Optimising climbing substrates to enhance upstream passage of tropical juvenile anguillid eels in Indonesia. - Vitas Prakoso

An annual conference highlight for our student delegates

Date: Monday 18th August
Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Dress Code: Dress in your favourite fished themed clothes
Location: Wharf One Darwin
Cost: Free for registered students | All students are strongly encouraged to register.

This event is for Students and Invited guests only

Ticket must be selected by attending student at the time of registration.