We’re taking this week off from blogging because we are busy with events at the American Fisheries Society’s Annual Conference in Portland, Oregon! If you are at the conference, say hi, otherwise we’ll be back next week.
Author: Steve Midway
Adventures with the Humpback Chub
Brandi Salmon, Guest Blogger Well, I must say, going from large, saltwater fish to the not-so-large, freshwater specimens involves a slight amount of adjustment. Being a marine fisheries biologist in South Florida, I am constantly measuring anything from small grunts to huge sailfish. Southeast Florida is known for having a diverse fishery thanks to its tropical…
Three Things You Should Know About North Carolina’s Sharks
The shark population of North Carolina has been in the news quite a bit lately. Thanks to a record-setting string of eight bites on people so far this summer (about four times what North Carolina has in an average year), there has been a surge of interest in what sharks are doing in the state’s…
Fishackathon
When reading the news this weekend I came across something pretty cool. I wasn’t even looking for fish-related news, but I couldn’t resist. What I found was something called ‘Fishackathon.’ Here is the website, and here is the release from the US Department of State announcing what it is, and how Fishackathon is held. So what the…
NOAA Stock Status Update: Good News
Last week NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) reported its annual Status of Stocks, a document that provides an update on the overfished and overfishing status of many US fish population. (See a summary here.) Overfishing is defined as the catch rate being too high to sustain a population of fish, while overfished refers…
The Prolific Life of Barton Evermann
Anyone who’s studied fisheries science will have seen the name “Barton Evermann.” He was a full-fledged member of the gilded age of American ichthyology and created a greater good working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s ancestral U.S. Fish Commission. Barton Evermann was born in Iowa in 1853, and came of age on an…
Aging Sea Monsters
By Steve Midway Many of you may remember back in October 2013 a giant oarfish was spotted just off of a beach on Catalina Island, California. Despite being one of the largest fish in the sea, giant oarfish remain one of the most elusive. And so when one finds its way to shore, it’s not…
Some Like it Cold
As winter buckles down for most of us in the Northern Hemisphere, we’re reminded of how difficult it can be to endure extreme weather. While numerous terrestrial and aquatic adaptations exist to survive the cold, the Notothenioids (pronounced: No-tow-then-ee-oids) are likely the aquatic winners of the the competition for adaptation to extreme cold. The Notothenioids…
What happens when fish get drunk?
It’s that time of year again when we get together with friends, family, and co-workers to celebrate the holidays. For many this means loading up on cookies, mistletoe, and presents. Invariably, someone—Uncle Frank or that guy in the mailroom that never talks—will have one too many eggnogs and everyone will notice. They might slur their…
Stream Planning Tools in the 21st Century
By Mark Scott, Guest Blogger The noted flowing-water ecologist H.B.N. Hynes wrote about the stream and its valley, pointing out that water quality, channel form, biological communities, and other stream conditions are linked to characteristics of the drainage basin. Countless studies have since reinforced that observation, and although Clean Water Act provisions to address point…
Crowdfunding Fisheries Science
Directly or indirectly, fisheries scientists (and nearly all scientists) are constantly thinking about where financial support will come from in order to continue important research. On one hand, a growing number of funding agencies now exist to support fisheries research, but on the other hand funding rates are often low (reported <25% for federal funds)…
Fish Oil, and Other Sources of Omega 3s
By Steve Midway Omega 3 fatty acids are a regular health item in the news cycle. One month these ‘fish oil’ supplements are good for lowering cholesterol, the next month they are linked to prostate cancer, and soon there will undoubtedly be another claim. It would take a lot of sleuthing through the primary literature to…
Q-n-A: The Susquehanna River
By Steve Midway Welcome to another Fisheries Blog Q-n-A! This segment is designed to showcase the knowledge and specialty of someone in the fisheries world who flat out knows their stuff. For this Q-n-A, we are featuring Megan Kepler, a PhD student at the Pennsylvania State University who is conducting dissertation research on fish in the Susquehanna River basin….
Q-n-A: Recreational Fishing
By Steve Midway Welcome to another Fisheries Blog Q-n-A! This segment is designed to showcase the knowledge and specialty of someone in the fisheries world who flat out knows their stuff. For this Q-n-A, we are featuring Rob Southwick, the president of Southwick Associates, a fish and wildlife consulting company that helps resource managers better understand resource use…
Road Salts in Your (Ground) Water
As the latest of what seems like an endless conveyor belt of winter storms hits the middle and eastern portions of the US, it’s worth considering not only the record amount of snow that has fallen in many places, but the vast amounts of road salt that have been used this winter. One estimate of…
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