LIFELONG LEARNING FOR AGENCY FISHERIES PROFESSIONALS - WHAT ARE THE CONTINUING-EDUCATION NEEDS

Continuing education priorities of 696 fisheries biologists and 185 na tural resource agency administrators in 48 state agencies were request ed by mail questionnaire and assessed in November 1993. The survey ind icated that fisheries biologists were remarkably homogeneous in their continuing education needs regardless of job title, years of professio nal experience, level of education, or geographic location. Fisheries biologists identified high demands for continuing education in compute r science, data collection and analysis, experimental design, and data base management. The great demand for these particular skills indicate s the popularity of computer technology and the growing recognition of the importance of and costs associated with collecting and managing f isheries data. Other areas of high educational demand were population biology (limiting factors, demographics) and habitat management (resto ration, enhancement, protection). Agency administrators placed a highe r priority on nontechnical skills used in communication, interpersonal relations, management, and leadership as subjects for continuing educ ation than their fisheries biologists. Agency administrators value the ir employees and recognize the importance of professional development but allocate few resources to continuing education.