Catonsville Campus of the Community College of Baltimore County(CCBC).

AERS Fall meeting was a great success!

AERS visited Catonsville, MD for our two-day Fall Meeting, held at the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC). The College was a great location for our semi-annual gathering and AERS Board Member and CCBC Faculty Member Dave O’Neill was a gracious and accommodating host.

The AERS Board Meeting and Thursday evening reception was held at the College. On Friday morning, our Keynote Speaker and recent Mathias Medal recipient Grace Brush (Johns Hopkins University), delivered an interesting presentation entitled “The stratigraphy and paleoecology of the Chesapeake Bay.” Her presentation was followed by an expert panel session entitled ‘Recent Advances in Chesapeake Bay Science.” Invited panelists included Jeff Cornwell (University of Maryland, Horn Point Laboratory), Steve Giordano (NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office), Jonathon Kramer (Maryland Sea Grant), and Larry Sanford (University of Maryland, Horn Point Laboratory). AERS Board member Leila Hamdan moderated the morning panel presentations which were followed by a lively question and answer session.

The Friday afternoon session included a diverse array of contributed papers. We learned about ctenophore feeding, blue crab nursery habitat and hypoxia. The coveted Venerable Clam was awarded to long-time AERS member and current Honorary Membership Chair Mario Vieira.

At the AERS Business meeting, a new Treasurer was (finally) elected. Treda Smith, a Ph.D. student at VIMS, will take over responsibility for the Society’s money. Leila Hamdan will take over as AERS Parliamentarian. We welcomed Louise Wooten, of Georgian Court University, as our new Nominations Chair; and Gulnihal Ozbay, Delaware State University, as a new Member-at-Large. The location and dates for the Spring joint AER/SEERS meeting (Pine Knoll Shores, NC; March 15-17, 2007) were announced.

Following the conclusion of the business meeting, the Friday evening poster session was held at the College. The Friday evening banquet, held at Tersiguel’s French County Restaurant in nearby Ellicott City, was a great success. AERS members dined on tasty canapés, salmon, grilled chicken, beef Bourguignon and chocolate mousse in a historic 19th Century home.

Everyone was up early on Saturday to hear two more sessions of contributed presentations. Then came the Student Awards Ceremony…The award for best graduate oral presentation went to Chris Long, of VIMS, for his presentation entitled “Lethal and non-lethal effects of hypoxia on Macoma balthica: a laboratory experiment with a novel method for reducing dissolved oxygen concentrations.” The award for best undergraduate/Masters oral presentation went to Sean Cooney, of the University of Maryland, for his presentation entitled “Ecology of the fish-associated dinoflagellate Crepidoodinium cyprinodontum.” The award for best poster went to Emily Seldomridge, of Salisbury University, for her poster entitled “Wicomico Creekwatchers volunteer water quality monitoring program.” Unfortunately, poor weather resulted in the cancellation of our Saturday afternoon field trip to Hart-Miller Island.

Many individuals worked very hard to make the meeting a success. Dave O’Neill served as local host. Dave Gillett and Rachel Blake did a great job assembling the meeting program. Leila Hamdan and Pete Straub, along with several student volunteers, handled registration and T-shirt sales during the conference. Pat McGrath kept the web site humming along with up-to-date conference information. We wish to thank our meeting co-sponsors who generously donated funds and services to help defray meeting costs.

Community College of Baltimore County

HDR LMS

Maryland Port Administration

Maryland Sea Grant

YSI Instruments

-Dave Yozzo, AERS President

Keynote

The featured keynote speaker wil be Dr. Grace Brush of Johns Hopkins University. Her presentation will be entitled "The stratigraphy and ecology of Chesapeake Bay".

Panelists

Dr. Steve Giordano - Fisheries Program Manager, NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office
         Presentation title: Application of Acoustic Imaging Technologies to Ecosystem Assessment in Chesapeake Bay: NOAA's Habitat Characterization and Mapping Program
Dr. Jeff Cornwell - Research Scientist, Horn Point Lab, University of Maryland
         Presentation title: "Are Shallow Water Sediments Important to Chesapeake Bay Carbon, Nitrogen and Phosphorus Cycling?"
Dr. Jonathon Kramer - Director, Maryland Sea Grant, University of Maryland
         Presentation title: "From Innovation to Application: Technology for Environmental Problem Solving"
Dr. Larry Sanford - Research Scientist, Horn Point Lab, University of Maryland
          Presentation title: "Recent advances in estuarine sediment transport research"