By Patrick Cooney Question: What do Jackson, my mutt dog, and my research fish all have in common? Besides both being incredibly photogenic, what do Jackson and this Brook Trout have in common? Answer: They are all implanted with Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags that transmit a unique identification number when exposed to a magnetic…
Category: Fun Fish Fodder
Something’s Fishy
By: Dana Sackett To kick-off the New Year, I wanted to share something fun, and what’s more fun than fish idioms! You may be wondering: what’s an idiom? An idiom is a figurative expression such as “big fish in a small pond” or “fishing for a compliment.” Some fish expressions are relatively obvious in their…
The Christmas Carp in My Bathtub
By Patrick Cooney Taking a morning bath with my Christmas dinner is growing stranger by the day. While many Christmas cooks will opt for an encore performance of a holiday gobbler or a stereotypical honey baked ham, I on the other hand have taken the challenge of raising a Christmas Carp. Elaborate holiday fish meals…
Why are there fish in my peanut butter?
By Patrick Cooney We have all heard of Jelly Fish, but what about Peanut Butter Fish? If you found a fish in your peanut butter, would you take the jar back and demand a refund, or would you dive right in and smear the tainted spread across your sandwich? What about finding a fish in…
Waterfall Climbing Fish
By Patrick Cooney Patrick Cooney My perch atop a 100-foot waterfall affords a small break in the tropical rainforest canopy that frames a distant golden-sand Caribbean beach. I crouch in the heavy humid air, anxiously awaiting the arrival of a fish that is reaching the tail end of an arduous journey incredibly disproportionate to the…
The Trouble with Shark Week
Dear Discovery Channel, Please pick a theme for Shark Week! In a fear evoking frenzy, you arbitrarily rank the most deadly sharks and most gruesome attacks, then go on to demonstrate the ecological importance of sharks and the need to save them. Your constant back-and-forth is very confusing and may be doing more harm than…
Eliminating an Invasive Predator: Lessons From Lake Davis Pike
It was like the loud crash of an old Batman episode: BOOM!! KAPOW!! The shock waves from the explosion tore through the water and blew the fish apart from the inside by fatally rupturing the gas filled swim bladder, the organ designed to provide buoyancy in the water column. Desperate times and previous blunders had led…
The Fish Are Fighting Back!
By Patrick Cooney As the mist swirls from the tannin stained Okefenokee Swamp water, prehistoric behemoths lurk below waiting to “maim”, “strike”, “clobber”, and “attack.” Lacking teeth, they utilize their sheer size and sharp bone-like protrusions against us humans. Weighing up to 220 pounds and reaching lengths of eight feet, the stealth attackers have struck…
Earliest Fish Hook Found
The day after Thanksgiving 2011, while we were all still stuffed with turkey, Science published an article by O’Conner et al. suggesting that pelagic fish may have been on the dinner table long before we thought. It’s accepted that humans traveled the high seas as long as 50,000 years ago—they would have needed to colonize…
High Sierra Trout Stocking
By Patrick Cooney Duane Johnson Firmly strapped into the only remaining passenger seat of an airplane, barf bag perched at my beck and call, I was surrounded by the precious cargo I had raised all summer in preparation for this very day. It started out as a gentle flight, but quickly became the wild ride…
The Fisheries Blog 