We have a spectacular offer for Forum Members only! Many of you contacted us, asking for the opportunity to participate in the Silent Auction that benefits the Jesse West Research Endowment at SDSU. Last year�s proceeds from the endowment went to Melissa Wuellner to buy observation tanks for her work on walleye and smallmouth bass interactions. Melissa will be one of the speakers at the annual conference this year. We�ve also used those tanks for work on the endangered pallid sturgeon. This year�s proceeds went to Justin VanDeHey, who is working on a cool new technique to assess food habits from fish tissue, fin clips, and scales. It turns out that different diets will create a different �signature� in the fish. We�ll have Justin come to next year�s conference and report on his results. However, we are hoping for a very exciting research opportunity. We think we can go back and get walleye scale samples from 20 years ago, before smallmouth bass were introduced, and then compare their diet signatures with current walleye samples after the smallies have been introduced. If this works, how cool will that be??
Dr. Dave and Eric, I believe that many of our forum members that will not be able to attend the PB conference would be interested in bidding for items at the �silent� auction.
Would it be feasible to consider �on-line� or �land-line� bidding for the impressive list of items that will be donated for the auction?
It�s all about raising money for the Jesse West Research Endowment at SDSU, so maybe the more the merrier?
