By Ian Stewart, Quantitative Scientist, International Pacific Halibut Commission Edited by Patrick Cooney and Steve Midway, The Fisheries Blog When you think of weather and climate, it is probably about how it will impact your clothes choice for the day, your plans for the weekend, or the potential need for an umbrella. A question…
Category: Fisheries Management
Salmon On the Fringe: Not all who wander are lost
Guest Post By: Karen Dunmall, PhD Candidate, University of Manitoba Edited by Patrick Cooney I study salmon “on the fringe”. They are not part of the mainstream. They exist on the extreme periphery. They live in the Arctic. Specifically, the Canadian Arctic of the Northwest Territories. Naturally, Pacific salmons are primarily distributed in waters of…
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)…
Killing sea lions to save salmon
By Patrick Cooney I rubbed my eyes, focused, and asked: Is it Sasquatch? A massive beaver pushing a log? Or is it Humphrey the Wayward Whale up to his old shenanigans? After spending much of my life in rivers around the globe, I had never seen such a large hairy beast plying freshwater like I…
Are NOAA Administrators and President Obama giving up on a century of research?
By Ben Kornegay and Patrick Cooney Who warns you about approaching dangerous weather and hurricanes, produces incredible maps and charts of the seas and skies, conducts research for sustainable use and protection of ocean and coastal resources, and is responsible for improving stewardship of the environment? We will tell you who: Scientists with the National…
5 Ways Mountaintop Removal affects Streams
It’s not hard for everyday citizens to take a position on mountaintop coal mining. The web is scattered with nasty before-and-after photos of mine sites and gripping narratives of environmental degradation. But sometimes it can be tough to hear the science over the screaming. After all, few of us spend time digging through scientific literature…
Through the Ears of a Fish
by Ed Kluender, guest blogger Ask a fish its age or where it’s been and what it ate for lunch, and chances are it couldn’t tell you. It could probably hear your question, though, with the help of its inner ear bones, called otoliths. Otoliths are one of the most useful tools in a fish…
One Fish, Two Fish, Where Fish for Whitefish?
Currently, the Great Lakes Lake Whitefish fishery is the most economically valuable commercial fishery in the upper Great Lakes.
The Four "Fs" of Fish
We recently had the distinct pleasure of meeting Abby Lynch, a fisheries research scientist with Michigan State University. Please read her great story below and look for more from her on The Fisheries Blog in the coming months. Some time ago, on my way back home after an international trip, I was asked by the…
Scientists group fishes to improve prediction
Brandon Peoples Most scientists share the gripping compulsion to place things into tidy categories. Fish ecologists are no exception. Why group? Grouping species helps improve our understanding and management of aquatic ecosystems. Because local fish diversity can be quite high, predicting responses of individual species to environmental change or nonnative introductions can be difficult. Grouping…
Fisheries CSI: DNA in the Water
By Brandon Peoples Fisheries managers often must monitor rare species. Regardless of the sampling gear being used, detecting numerically rare fishes can be difficult. With traditional fisheries gears, increasing detectability often means increasing sampling effort—which costs more money. Recently, researchers have found a new way to monitor rare species: environmental DNA (eDNA). Like any animal,…
Young Anglers Team with Scientists
By Patrick Cooney Flame azalea blooms blanketed the opposite river bank in vibrant orange while long morning shadows still harbored temperatures that required a warm beverage to chase away the chills of the Appalachian Mountains. A gaggle of kids, warm with excitement, flanked the close shoreline like a battalion ready to face its adversary. The…
What can fish tell us about ecosystem health?
by Brandon Peoples Chances are if you’re reading this post, I don’t have to convince you that clean water is important. We’re responsible to ourselves to maintain enough clean water to support our society. Most obviously, we must maintain water quality for human consumption. In addition, agencies are required to manage water quality to protect…
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…
Magnuson-Stevens and Stock Recovery
Commercial marine fisheries on the whole are showing signs of recovery. At least that’s what the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) announced earlier this week. A recent report put out by the NRDC re-evaluated many previously-overfished marine species, and came to the conclusion that 64% of stocks are successfully rebuilt or show significant signs of…
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