In 1976, Congress passed the Magnuson-Stevens Act (Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act). The Act originally focused on zoning and controlling territorial waters, and establishing regional councils to manage fish stocks, among other things. The Act has been reauthorized a several times and has generally been viewed as a bipartisan success story. Many fish stocks have…
Category: The Fisheries Blog
Artifacts of epochs past: Rio Grande cutthroat trout benefit from private lands conservation
By Craig Springer One might say that the past is dead and gone—but that notion doesn’t fly on the Vermejo Park Ranch, near Raton, New Mexico. Managers of this private land seek to restore long reaches of mountain streams for the benefit of native Rio Grande cutthroat trout—not to mention the guided anglers who seek…
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 ideal invasive fish
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…
Are fish ‘Bad Moms’?
By: Dana Sackett The lives of fish cannot technically be compared to the lives and pressures placed on today’s human moms (that then naturally let loose in an epic party). However, in honor of Mother’s Day we decided to share some of the maternal roles fish play and imagine if these same roles existed for…
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…
Communicating science through digital media
If a scientist conducts research, and never tells anyone, did they really do it? Scientists communicate with one another in very specific ways: peer-reviewed journal articles and technical presentations. However, most journal articles largely go unread and conference audiences can be limited.. Public trust in science is decreasing, so it’s our job to help them understand the…
Changing venom
By: Dana Sackett You have probably heard the myth that baby snakes are more dangerous than adults because they haven’t learned to control the amount of venom they inject. The theory being that baby snakes unintentionally release much more than an adult would when they bite. While this myth has been mostly dispelled by herpetologists…
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…
What’s Your Story?
I just read For the Love of Rivers by Kurt Fausch. It came out a couple years ago when I was a postdoc, but I just got around to reading it because, as it turns out, postdocs don’t have a whole lot of spare time for leisure reading. For the Love of Rivers describes the…
