With five years under our belts and over a million site visits from over 220 countries, The Fisheries Blog can now look back at our body of work and say that we’ve covered a large range of topics.  From our most popular posts on poisonous fishes, distortions by Disney, and shark anatomy to more personal posts on unconventional paths to a Ph.D. and serving as a military spouse, our goal has always been to provide our readership with interesting fisheries-related topics in an easy, conversational style.  We have a rosy vision of you enjoying a delicious cup of coffee and reading the weekly post on Monday mornings as you settle into the work week ahead.  While we could hope that you agree that our writing choices have been informative and entertaining, we really have had very little way to know if that was the case – that is – until our recent Readers’ Survey!

We were sincerely grateful and indebted to those who took the time to complete the survey and share your opinions as we look ahead to the next five years of The Fisheries Blog.  We received a range of constructive comments that will shape our content as well as the overarching scope of The Fisheries Blog.  We wanted to use this post as an opportunity to THANK YOU for your participation as well as share some of the results, recommendations, and common comments.

Who are you?

The demographics of the survey results indicate that almost three-quarters of readers are male, a significant minority (40%) are between the ages of 25 and 34, and just over half have Master’s degrees.

The majority of readers are from within the fisheries profession but there is also a strong readership contingent of recreational readers and fish enthusiasts.  We are honored that most readers make our posts a part of their weekly routine and most reach the posts via the email link or Facebook, so perhaps our imagined reader isn’t too far off for some of you!

The Future of The Fisheries Blog

Looking ahead to topics on which readers would like to see posts, we do have some differences of opinions on preferred post types.  We will aim to continue to post on topics across this diverse range of themes to satisfy across our readership interests!

Expect to see posts on these other recommended topics in the coming months:

• Historical perspectives
• Recent scientific findings
• Why fish should be important to the general public / policy-makers
• Emerging tools and technologies in fisheries
• Fisheries management success stories
• Species-specific posts
• Comparative fisheries policies (e.g., across states, countries)
• Angler perspectives
• Non-traditional fisheries professions
• Reading lists on current on seminal articles / books in the field
• Maybe even some recipes!

A few responses to survey questions / comments:

“I wish there was more content each week / I would like to see more posts.”  While we sincerely appreciate that you enjoy reading our blog, we are not likely to increase our posting rate to higher than once a week.  The Fisheries Blog is a fully volunteer endeavor, not affiliated with any professional society (though we are all American Fisheries Society members).  Once a week posts are what we can commit to maintain with our other professional and personal commitments.

“Hannah Dean’s art is most wonderful.”  We wholeheartedly agree!  We’ve been working with Hannah for over a year now and we feel that her creative artwork really enriches our posts.

“The voice of the blog is easily read by non-fish people, it’s entertaining, and you cover a variety of topics well!”  THANK YOU!

“There is no other source I’ve found that consistently allows fish scientists to communicate with each other and the general public in a more conversational, less scientifically rigorous tone.” ¡GRACIAS!

“I love the mix of in depth science knowledge with interesting topics. Writers have a great grasp of the scientific topics but write about a variety of topics with a mix of both technical and easily understandable information.”  MERCI!