By Craig Springer One might say that the past is dead and gone—but that notion doesn’t fly on the Vermejo Park Ranch, near Raton, New Mexico. Managers of this private land seek to restore long reaches of mountain streams for the benefit of native Rio Grande cutthroat trout—not to mention the guided anglers who seek…
Category: Ecology: Organisms & Habitats
Electrofrogging: Zapping frogs on the front-line of invasion
Bullfrogs eat just about anything, including fish, mammals, crustaceans, and other amphibians, hence the concern with their introduction. Electrofrogging is an effective technique to interrupt their forward march.
Jurassic World Fishes [Swimming Today]
Sharp teeth, bizarre shapes, gargantuan sizes, and a family tree that dates back over 100 million years…I’m not talking about dinosaurs, but ancient freshwater fishes! Twenty-five years ago today (June 11, 1993), Jurassic Park debuted in theaters. That date is fossilized in my mind because I recorded the trailer on VHS (wow, talk about ancient)…
The ideal invasive fish
There are hundreds of non-native fishes in the US. Some become harmful invaders, while others have established, but aren’t causing appreciable negative effects. As human transport networks continue to facilitate new introductions, it makes sense to ask, ‘is there something special about certain fishes that make them invasive?’. This isn’t a new idea—plant ecologists have discussed…
Radios Reveal Wandering Habits of Smallmouth Bass in Oklahoma: Angler-funded research lends greater understanding of one of America’s greatest sport fish
By Craig Springer, USFWS About the time that redbuds flash their pretty pinkish blooms on eastern Oklahoma’s hillsides and gray streamside sycamores unfurl their fresh leaves the color akin to a wet lime, there’s something curious going on. And it goes mostly sight unseen. Smallmouth bass are on the move with the singular purpose of…
World Fish Migration Day – Geaux Fish!
“Connecting fish, rivers, and people” is the overarching theme of World Fish Migration Day, a global event on April 21, 2018. Among the primary goals of World Fish Migration Day (WFMD) are to raise awareness of the importance of migratory fishes, as well as calling for action to safeguard and restore free-flowing waterways. This Saturday…
Commercial Fisheries of the Great Lakes
When you think about commercial fishing in the US, you probably think about walleye pollock, sardines, and menhaden. What most of us don’t think about are the commercial fisheries that historically and currently take place in the Great Lakes. In the past several decades over 50 species have been represented in the Great Lakes commercial…
Rare, Weird, and Ugly Sharks
“If I only kept the dollars when we actually caught sharks, I’d be left with about $3.”
Fisheries Science “Unplugged”
If a sturgeon leaps from the water and no one’s there to tweet about it, does it make a splash? Earlier this week, fellow Nicholls State University biology professor Dr. Gary LaFleur Jr. sent me photos from his biomarkers class after they “went off the grid”. Students took pirogues (a type of canoe) to a…
Invasivores Unite: Eat invasive species, save the world
Author: Patrick Cooney Artist: Henry Hershey (twitter: @spoonbill_hank; insta: @hanks_fish_art) Invasivore: A person who eats invasive species to reduce the ecological impact of invaders. Bad news Humans are to blame for the spread of aquatic invasive species across the globe. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) says, “Aquatic nuisance species are spread many ways…
