By: Anela Choy (guest blogger and postdoctoral researcher at MBARI) Plastic debris in the ocean is no stranger to headline news… Surfers gliding through waves filled with plastic in Indonesia. The world’s largest landfill in the middle of the ocean, a vast area otherwise deemed the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” Sea birds ingesting large amounts…
Category: Ecology: Organisms & Habitats
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…
Why are fish cold blooded?
A pretty simple question, right? But the answer may be a bit more complicated than you think. First, we have to specify what exactly it means to be “cold blooded” with a few definitions. We’ll start with the terms, endothermic and ectothermic. I’m sure you’ve got these down pat, as they probably were drilled into…
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…
Is seaweed stank preventing coral reefs from recovering?
By: Dana Sackett Chemical cues are ubiquitously used by animals and plants in every environment; often with the intended purpose to attract a nearby friend or repel an unwanted enemy. A recent article by Dixson and others examined these chemical cues from corals and seaweeds, enemies that fight for habitat in our shallow ocean environments. …
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…
Explosive questions
By: Dana Sackett Successful marine protected areas (MPAs) have helped to improve many fisheries. What, may you ask, helps those successful MPAs be successful? Well, there are a number of things that need to be considered to effectively pick a site and implement an MPA. Some of these include fish biology, politics, societal needs, and…
The Mystery of the Unidentified Fish Prey
What do fish eat? With regard to the non-native Blue Catfish in Virginia’s tidal rivers, this question is routinely answered as “everything!” Once these Blue Catfish grow over 23 inches, however, they shift to piscivorous (eating mostly fish) diets that allow them to grow to weights in excess of 100 pounds! These fishy diets wouldn’t…
Winter: the forgotten study season
As researchers, we’ve built sampling regimes that ignore an entire season because winter is harsh and unforgiving.
Raw Salmon Linked to Death In Dogs
By Patrick Cooney Knowledge of two simple things could make the difference in the life of your dog: Know the geographic region where your salmon was harvested. Do not feed raw or undercooked salmon to your dog. Can salmon kill my dog? Consumption by dogs of raw or undercooked salmon from California, Oregon, and Washington…
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…
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Fish: bioluminescence in fish
The following festive fish would make even Clark Griswold jealous: they don’t need twinkle lights to help make their season bright!
Depletion boat electrofishing
by Brandon Peoples Boat electrofishing is one of the most effective methods of sampling fishes in lakes and non-wadeable rivers. Depletion boat electrofishing involves conducting several electrofishing passes while retaining fish after each pass. Hopefully, workers will capture consistently less fish in each pass. Depletion electrofishing allows biologists to perform quantitative population estimates, rather…
Too school for cool: how fish schools make unanimous decisions
Thanks in part to the onslaught of political ads, many of us are acutely aware of how people are asked to participate in election day’s group decision making process. But, have you ever thought about how fish make decisions in group settings?
EXTREME FISHES: Fish can live there?
Fish live in almost every aquatic ecosystem on the planet. But, in some of the places that fish live – dry deserts, extraordinary pressure, absolute darkness, below-freezing temperatures, and harsh acidity – it’s hard to imagine that anything can survive.
The Fisheries Blog 