Author: Patrick Cooney Artist: Henry Hershey (twitter: @spoonbill_hank; insta: @hanks_fish_art) Invasivore: A person who eats invasive species to reduce the ecological impact of invaders. Bad news Humans are to blame for the spread of aquatic invasive species across the globe. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) says, “Aquatic nuisance species are spread many ways…
How do fish handle cold water?
Summertime’s come and gone, and winter has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere. Inland waters across North America are cooling down, and many will soon be covered with ice. Winter can be hard on fishes, being poikilotherms that can’t regulate their own body temperature (with some exceptions). So just how do they make it through this…
The Peaceful Betta
Guest Blogger: Joelle Montes. What if I were to tell you that there is a fish out there that is equally as mesmerizing to the Siamese fighting fish but lives a more peaceful lifestyle?
Blog Biodiversity: Related Species in the Scicomm Ecosystem
It’s my first semester teaching Evolution & Ecology at Nicholls State University; with plenty of challenging and complex topics to tackle, I’ve also been given the latitude to integrate more science communication (scicomm) into this upper-level biology course. We’ve included Twitter and popular science articles alongside analyses of natural selection, genetic drift, and traditional scientific…
A cocktail of contaminants: why environmental toxicologists are moving away from single-chemical science
By: Dana Sackett For me, the word cocktail usually brings to mind delightful adult beverages or a foggy witch’s brew (still in Halloween mode). However, more frequently, as an environmental scientist, this word is being used to describe the conditions of our aquatic environments. Our waterways are often where the slurry of chemicals from agricultural…
Fish-inspired Halloween Costumes
On the day before Halloween, the Fisheries Blog brings you a boo-tiful list of fish, aquatic, and marine-life inspired costume ideas!
Woman scientist of color blazes path for others
Guest Author: Christina Uh Editor: Patrick Cooney Resilience. What does this word mean to you? To me it means overcoming obstacles that obstruct your mission, your goal, your purpose. It is your ability to succeed in the face of adversity; it is your power to be adaptable, strong, and tough. I am of Mayan and…
Coming to ‘terms’ with species invasions
Believe it or not, fish don’t care what we call them. However, terminologies associated with certain species can affect how society perceives their importance and impact. Naturalists have been interested in the effects of species introductions just as long as we have been moving species around. In that time, species introductions have had a variety…
A fish scientist’s 10 tips for surviving a hurricane: Lessons learned from Puerto Rico
Guest Authors: Zach Moran and Mackenzie Gunn Editor: Patrick Cooney On September 20th, 2017, Puerto Rico was directly hit by a Category 5 hurricane. We were on the island conducting research on fish and found ourselves unaware of all the proper steps to take ahead of time to prepare ourselves for the aftermath. Hurricane Maria…
Birds vs Fish
These days, many scientists stand unified on several topics, including the defense of science itself. But it’s also good to know that scientists still have a sense of humor, and that some scientific debates can be entertaining, educational, and accessible, all at the same time. Enter “Birds vs Fish”, an ongoing feud largely played out…
Fishery Regulations
Regulations—we hear that word more and more recently, and it means a lot of things to a lot of different people and industries. Fishing—both commercial and recreational—is no different. Fishes are a public resource that if left unregulated would not be the sustainable resource that they can be. Many fisheries do, in fact, suffer from…
A Breath of Fish Air
I recently migrated from Michigan to Louisiana to join the faculty at Nicholls State University as assistant professor. Moving from the Great Lakes to the bayou is inevitably laced with logistical concerns; in this case they included mobilizing myself, my wife, all our stuff, and…my fishes. That’s a two-day trip across ~1200 miles, but I…
