By: Dana Sackett While the title of this article may bring to mind runway models in lab coats, this week I want to discuss those ‘super’ models that scientists use to describe, understand, and predict the world around us. These types of models allow us to better understand why an ecosystem is the way it…
Category: The Fisheries Blog
10 Lessons Learned From Writing a Book About Fish
Guest Authors: Corbin D. Hilling, Derek A. Wheaton, and Donald J. Orth Editor: Patrick Cooney We are impatiently awaiting the September 24, 2019 release of the Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes of Virginia. We’d rather not admit when we first began thinking about this field guide, because we grossly underestimated how much work this little…
Stop Trash Talking These Fish!
It’s time to dispose of the trash fish label when it comes to native species
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…
Five Questions For All Fish Scientists
How would you answer these five questions about being a fish scientist?
Essential Alligator Gar Research Underway in Oklahoma
By Craig Springer, USFWS Lake Texoma lies over the Texas – Oklahoma state line. This boundary water is enormous. Denison Dam backs up the Red and Washita rivers for miles. The swollen arms of several tributary streams form massive lake coves that shoulder into the main water body. Consequently, there is much open water and…
Repeat Spawner Series: The 7 Wonderful Gar of the World
At the Fisheries Blog, we’re starting a new series of posts, once a month, where we bring back “oldie but goodie” posts from our now extensive archive. Rest assured, these “repeat spawner” posts, smell a whole lot better than that leftover fish you found in the fridge from two weeks ago! It’s that time of…
A potential solution to removing a persistent pollutant
By: Dana Sackett In this week’s article I wanted to revisit a topic we covered in 2014 and share some potentially promising new information. That topic involved a group of man-made chemicals found in non-stick/non-stain, fire retardant and firefighting products known as poly- and perfluorinated compounds (PFCs). Our previous article discussed the emerging problems associated…
Choosing the right graduate program
by Bryan Bozeman, guest author I emailed at least 100 professors in my hunt for a grad position…and received less than 20 responses. Half of those were out-of-office emails, several others were ‘thanks-but-no-thanks’, and a few showed actual interest. I was fortunate to have three opportunities, and ended up selecting one that has been an…
Hot Take on Our Planet: Freshwater Biodiversity
Big-budget nature documentaries are chronically ignoring freshwater biodiversity relative to terrestrial and marine systems…
