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Retrospective on the origin, intent, and impact of the Gutshops and some directions for the future

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Abstract

The eighth in a series of workshops on fish feeding ecology (“Gutshops”) was held in 2015, continuing a tradition started in 1976 that expanded in scope and participation. Topics in early Gutshops focused on methodology and analysis, and evolved to include niche overlap, competition, nutrition, and community trophic interactions. Major accomplishments were enhanced communications, standardization, design and evolution of indices (IRI, GII, PSIRI, etc.), statistical improvements, graphics, and chemical studies such as stable isotope and fatty acid analyses. Future directions, some of which were presented at the 2015 meeting, include internal tags (detecting feeding through movements, acidity, temperature, etc.), additional stable isotope and fatty acid analyses, genetic identification of prey and physiological indicators (enzyme analysis and digestion processes).

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Acknowledgments

We thank Richard Brodeur for strongly encouraging us to participate in Gutshop 2015, co-present a keynote address, and prepare this paper introducing the proceedings of this Gutshop Revival. He and Jason Link both invited us to the 2015 AFS symposium, and also subsidized our travel expenses. Accordingly, we extend our appreciation to the National Marine Fisheries Service, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, for travel, and the American Fisheries Society, University of Washington, and Moss Landing Marine Laboratories for supporting us in our efforts to present the keynote address and to prepare this manuscript. We particularly express our appreciation for the comments and suggestions of two anonymous reviewers and editor Brodeur that we believe allowed us to considerably improve the manuscript.

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Simenstad, C.A., Cailliet, G.M. Retrospective on the origin, intent, and impact of the Gutshops and some directions for the future. Environ Biol Fish 100, 299–308 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-016-0545-2

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