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…
Category: Ecology: Organisms & Habitats
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…
How do fish handle cold water?
Summertime’s come and gone, and winter has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere. Inland waters across North America are cooling down, and many will soon be covered with ice. Winter can be hard on fishes, being poikilotherms that can’t regulate their own body temperature (with some exceptions). So just how do they make it through this…
The Peaceful Betta
Guest Blogger: Joelle Montes. What if I were to tell you that there is a fish out there that is equally as mesmerizing to the Siamese fighting fish but lives a more peaceful lifestyle?
Blog Biodiversity: Related Species in the Scicomm Ecosystem
It’s my first semester teaching Evolution & Ecology at Nicholls State University; with plenty of challenging and complex topics to tackle, I’ve also been given the latitude to integrate more science communication (scicomm) into this upper-level biology course. We’ve included Twitter and popular science articles alongside analyses of natural selection, genetic drift, and traditional scientific…
