By: Dana Sackett Consuming too many nutrients is something many of us can understand following the holidays. Similar to ourselves too many nutrients in streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans can cause major health problems. In fact, excess nutrients that enrich plant growth in aquatic ecosystems has a special name: eutrophication. While this term was originally…
Author: dksackett
Radioactive fish: probably not going to turn you into Aquaman
By: Dr. Dana Sackett with contributions and edits by Dr. Daniel Madigan, an expert in the field of radioactivity in the environment. Articles ranging from fear-inducing hysteria to ‘everything is totally cool’ have been hitting the media about radioactivity in the Pacific Ocean over the last several years following the disaster at Fukushima. This week…
As it turns out, what we don’t know can hurt us.
By: Dana Sackett Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid or perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) is quite the mouthful and while, like me, you may have difficulty pronouncing it, chances are you, along with almost all of your surrounding aquatic environments, are home to these chemicals. A potential problem considering that recent research has a number of scientists concerned about the prevelance, persistence…
How many fish are in the sea?
By Dana Sackett The old adage, “there are plenty of fish in the sea” begs the question, how many fish are actually in the sea? Many fisheries scientists have worked tirelessly to answer this question. Estimating the size of a fish population (which can range from largemouth bass in a few lakes in North Carolina…
The cup spilleth-over
By: Dana Sackett When marine protected areas (MPAs) are established as a strategy for fisheries management, spillover is one of the primary goals. Conceptually, spillover is relatively simple: protect an area from fishing to allow fish populations to grow inside the MPA and eventually the benefits caused by the protected status (larger and more fish)…
Fish out of water
By: Dana Sackett The saying, ‘fish out of water’ has often been used to describe someone out of their comfort zone, because if you take a fish out of water and drop them onto land most would not be very comfortable. However, there are a number of fish across the world that would scoff at…
Coal-ash goes unchecked
By: Dana Sackett When most people think of pollution caused by coal-burning power plants, a tall smokestack spewing a large cloud of soot and fumes is the first image that comes to mind. This image represents the air pollution caused by coal combustion and is perhaps the most obvious. In actuality, there are many less…
Q-tip anyone?
By Dana Sackett You may have come across a video or two (or ten) of sharks munching down on dead whales and it’s easy to understand how a few sharks may get excited over encountering all that easily acquired energy-rich blubber. However, sharks are not the only ones that can benefit from these large dead…
Top 5 Most Poisonous and Venomous Fish!
By Dana Sackett Many TV shows and nature guides have been dedicated to educating the public on the most poisonous and venomous spiders, snakes and even frogs, but what about fish? Unlike spiders or snakes, we rarely hear about which fish are the most poisonous (or venomous). This week we are dedicating our blog post…
When the quick cure causes long-term danger: Who knew antibiotics could be such a problem?
by Dr. Dana Sackett Whether for an ear infection or something more serious, chances are we have all had to take antibiotics at one point in our lives. Despite this regular use of antibiotics, few people know where they come from or that our overuse of these drugs are causing some serious problems in our…
Marine Protected Areas
By: Dana Sackett Marine protected areas (MPAs) have been used as a tool to protect biodiversity, genetic diversity, habitat, and reverse declining trends in overfished populations across the world. Many of these MPAs allow at least some fishing while excluding a form of fishing deemed unacceptable (e.g. harvest that is destructive or targets a particular…
Bold, hungry, anti-social, but anxiety-free fish
By: Dana Sackett We have all seen the numerous drug advertisements on TV with their list of ridiculous disclaimers and adverse effects. These commercials are an indication, and have even been considered the reason behind, the increased societal use of pharmaceuticals drugs in recent years. In fact, it was only in 1997 that the FDA…
The BP oil spill saga continues..
By: Dana Sackett More than 2 years have passed since the BP–Deepwater Horizon rig spill caused more than 200 million gallons of oil and 1.8 million gallons of dispersants to be dumped into the Gulf of Mexico. Despite being one of the largest oil spills in history, the Gulf fisheries were back in business only…
Something’s Fishy
By: Dana Sackett To kick-off the New Year, I wanted to share something fun, and what’s more fun than fish idioms! You may be wondering: what’s an idiom? An idiom is a figurative expression such as “big fish in a small pond” or “fishing for a compliment.” Some fish expressions are relatively obvious in their…
Coral calls for help and fish respond
By: Dana Sackett An interesting symbiotic relationship (defined as a close and often long-term interaction between two or more species) highlighted in a recent Science article demonstrates the delicate balance between species in aquatic ecosystems and how chemicals can be used to harm and benefit both corals and fish. Here I discuss this article and…
The Fisheries Blog 