The 2018 China Society of Fisheries Resources and Environment Annual Meeting & the 4th Mississippi-Yangtze River Basins Symposium (MYRIBS) was held at the Southwest University in Chongqing from October 15 to 20, 2018.  

The 2018 China Society of Fisheries Resources and Environment Annual Meeting & the 4th Mississippi-Yangtze River Basins Symposium (MYRIBS) was held at the Southwest University in Chongqing from October 15 to 20, 2018. The theme of this symposium was “Mississippi-Yangtze River Basins Fishery Resources Management and Environment Conservation”.    

The symposium was organized by China Society of Fisheries, American Fisheries Society, Institute of Hydrobiology (IHB) of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Southwest University. It was co-organized by the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute under Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Office of Fisheries Law Enforcement for the Yangtze River Basin under Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Worldwide Fund for Nature, the Nature Conservancy, Chinese Ichthyological Scoiety, Lower Mississippi River Conservation Committee, and State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology.     

More than 160 people, including 22 American experts, attended the symposium. The attendees were from the American Fisheries Society, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research laboratory, the Nature Conservancy, and universities and institutes from both the U.S and China.  

The opening ceremony was chaired by IHB Prof. CHEN Yushun, the 4^th MYRIBS program chair. Distinguished guests who addressed at the opening ceremony were ZHANG Weiguo, president of Southwest University, YIN Zhan, deputy director of IHB, Donna Parrish, co-vice president of World Council of Fisheries Societies, ZHAO Yimin, deputy director of Office of Fisheries Law Enforcement for the Yangtze River Basin under Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Scott Bonar, the first vice president of American Fisheries Society, WANG Qingyin, president of China Society of Fisheries.    

There were in total more than 40 oral presentations, covering a wide range of topics including resource status and conservation of fishes, estimation of lake sturgeon abundance by using sonar, biological invasion, river recovery, fish diversity, assessment of river fish habitats and so on. Besides, 23 posters were presented.    

In the session chaired by IHB Prof. CHEN Yushun, attendees decided that the fifth MYRIBS would be held in the U.S in 2020.