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…
Red Tide
Karenia brevis is the scientific name for a single-celled marine dinoflagellate known for its toxicity, which can manifest in high concentrations as a “red tide.” This dinoflagellate and the red tides that it produces are not new. Ocean waters are home to many dinoflagellates and other types of plankton. The problem arises when populations become…
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…
Below the Surface of South Africa’s Worst Drought On Record
Record drought and changing climate create incredible challenges for managing endangered and threatened fishes in South Africa. Researchers show compelling video to help others understand what they are doing to help freshwater life.
How to “attend” a professional meeting without attending
There are many reasons, financial, personal, professional, which inhibit us from attending every relevant conference and meeting in person. While other means of communication and engagement will surely never replace the experience of being present at a conference, we do now often have alternative means to participate in some capacity…
Heatwave
By: Dana Sackett In my recent adventures as a military spouse, I found myself and my family uprooted once again and headed to a new home; this time overseas in Germany. We made this move just a few short weeks ago during the intense heatwave that wracked the eastern portion of the United States. In…
A Conference Angle: From Socialization to Publication
Conference season is upon us, and the national meeting of the American Fisheries Society (AFS) is fast approaching! Here at The Fisheries Blog, we’ve shared posts on the value of professional conferences, as well as a student’s guide to networking at conferences (I recommend reading both prior to your next conference). I’d like to share…
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…
Reauthorizing the Magnuson Stevens Act
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…
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…
Electrofrogging: Zapping frogs on the front-line of invasion
Bullfrogs eat just about anything, including fish, mammals, crustaceans, and other amphibians, hence the concern with their introduction. Electrofrogging is an effective technique to interrupt their forward march.
How “little brother syndrome” makes our fisheries profession stronger
We instinctually look for and look up to “big brothers” in our organizations and careers. There can be great value in harnessing “little brother syndrome” to push our fisheries profession foward.
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…
NOAA’s Status of Stocks
Last week NOAA Fisheries announced the status of the fish stocks in the US and reported the lowest ever number of stocks on the overfished list. The 2017 Report can be found here. Recalled that the overfished status refers to the biomass of the stock being too low, and the overfishing status refers to the…
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