Adoption of AFS Standard Methods: The South Dakota Experience

Abstract

Standardization is a critical component of scientific inquiry, but has been difficult to implement for inland fisheries sampling in North America. In 2009, the American Fisheries Society (AFS) published Standard Methods for Sampling North American Freshwater Fishes. Since publication, numerous management agencies have adopted AFS standard methods. However, few agencies have reported on the utility of AFS standard methods. Here we discuss the process of adopting AFS passive standard methods for sampling lakes and reservoirs in South Dakota during 2012–2017 by the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish, and Parks. Adoption of AFS methods took 5 years and was pursued as a defensible way to standardize passive gears used to survey most game fish across management regions. Many of the advantages, and potential challenges were realized while adopting AFS gears and methods, which will be relevant to other resource management agencies and researchers.