The past is present at D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery and Archives in Spearfish, South Dakota. Guest blogger, Craig Springer (USFWS) shares insights on the facility is dedicated to preserving images, documents and objects related to fisheries conservation…
Category: Fun Fish Fodder
Repeat Spawner Series: How Many Species of Black Bass?
I was out on the bayou (Louisiana) with graduate students today, collecting fishes for one of their projects. We were targeting Spotted Gars, but ran into an unusual abundance of Largemouth Bass. This got me thinking about “the most popular sport fish” in the USA: the Black Basses. Although many anglers and fish enthusiasts are…
Clearly, the coolest fish in the sea
With its clear head and large green eyes, the Barreleye looks like an alien with a glass bulb on its head out of a sci-fi film…why does a fish need a transparent head?
How one scientist transformed scientific art
Art and science aren’t that different. Both require a deep level of curiosity, an experimental process, patience, and a high tolerance for failure. For me it just makes sense to blend the two, it’s a win-win.
Halloween’s greatest hits
It’s hard to believe we’ve been writing The Fisheries Blog for over six years. Over the years, we’ve been known to do a holiday-themed post or two. This week, we skip the traditional Monday post for a special wrap-up of Halloween-flavored posts over the year. Scary stuff! Way back in 2013, one of the first…
Facts and Fallacies: A Columbus/Indigenous Day Fish Story
We take a look at a very particular occurrence on one of Columbus’ return trips to the Western Hemisphere where he encountered indigenous people using, perhaps, one of the most interesting methods ever employed to catch fish.
Top Fish Books: Young Fry edition
From Swimmy to the Pout Pout Fish, this list of ten books are essentials for your young fry library…
SciComm, the Next Generation: #GARkansas
Science communication is surprisingly diverse, a necessity in order to be effective. “Scicomm’ers” engage diverse audiences (e.g. students, stakeholders, other scientists) using diverse methods (e.g. journals, social media, town hall meetings), but communicators themselves come from a variety of backgrounds, including ages. Over the past year I’ve been inspired by one of the next generation’s…
More Minnow Misconceptions
Today’s facts may be tomorrow’s fallacies. And last Thursday, I got a serious reminder that science is a progressive continuum of new discoveries, and not a static body of facts. I study minnows, and last year I wrote a post to clear up some misconceptions about minnows. Things like how many small fishes are called…
run. fish. beer. Conservation through Recreation.
The premise of “The Rare Fish Rare Beer Project” is simple: we believe that the brain cell that drives a craft beer / spirits snob is the exact same brain cell that fuels a native fish advocate. We’re just connecting the dots in a super tasty way…
Book review: the Squidtoons comic
This is the coolest piece of #scicomm I’ve seen in a while: Squidtoons: Exploring Ocean Science with Comics by Garfield Kwan and Dana Song. Squidtoons has been ‘illustrating science with farts, burps, and giggles’ since 2013. Their website features entertaining comics packed with info on the amazing diversity of marine life, including a 2016 collaboration…
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 fish so nice, we named ’em twice
There are some weird fish that have the same name twice. We celebrate these oddities by turning them into fun art.
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…
Can fish get fat?
Without fail, this time of year makes many of us turn to New Year’s Resolutions of better eating habits, weight loss, and improved exercise regimes. We want to shed our post-holiday pounds but have you ever wondered if fish can get fat as well?
