The Mississippi Chapter of the American Fisheries Society coordinated the Southern Division meeting in Biloxi, January 26-29, with CCA Mississippi exhibiting and sponsoring student presentation awards embedded in the meeting format. The American Fisheries Society is the major professional and scientific group of fisheries biologists. Mississippi members are drawn from the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, Mississippi State University, Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, other state and federal agencies involved in fisheries work, and students at the graduate and undergraduate levels from our universities.

Student presentations were evaluated by professional members with the winners being named at the Mississippi Chapter meeting on the last day of the meeting. The awards include a plaque with the winner’s name and presentation title and a monetary award of $300, $200, or $100 for First, Second or Third places, respectively. This year, all three winners were students with the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture at Mississippi State University.

This is the fourth year that CCA Mississippi has sponsored the student presentation awards as a commitment to support marine research of future scientists who will provide the research on which our advocacy work will be based. And the winners are:

1^st Place: Rebecca Krogman. A classification system for large U. S. reservoirs and its relationship with the fishery and fish community.

2^nd Place: Jonathan Fleming. Patterns of faunal diversity associated with altered macrophyte coverage.

3^rd Place: Michael Sherman. Pond management approaches and effects on trophic-dynamics.

CCA Mississippi congratulates these students and all of the students who participated in this competition. We also honor Jim Franks on receipt of the AFS President’s Fishery Conservation Award for 2011 and Mike Lowe, USM/GCRL PhD Candidate, on recognition for his research presentation at the 2011 AFS Meeting in Seattle, WA.