What do fish eat? With regard to the non-native Blue Catfish in Virginia’s tidal rivers, this question is routinely answered as “everything!” Once these Blue Catfish grow over 23 inches, however, they shift to piscivorous (eating mostly fish) diets that allow them to grow to weights in excess of 100 pounds! These fishy diets wouldn’t…
Winter: the forgotten study season
As researchers, we’ve built sampling regimes that ignore an entire season because winter is harsh and unforgiving.
I Am A Fisheries Biologist
So what are these crazy unrealistic fisheries biologists up to? They are working with the United Nations and non-fisheries folks to help provide food for a growing global population.
Freshwater, Fish, and the Future
While fishing, itself, is often the largest anthropogenic influence on marine fisheries, inland fisheries are often impacted by other societal needs and uses of water resources, particularly competition for freshwater needed for agricultural production, human consumption, and power generation.
Raw Salmon Linked to Death In Dogs
By Patrick Cooney Knowledge of two simple things could make the difference in the life of your dog: Know the geographic region where your salmon was harvested. Do not feed raw or undercooked salmon to your dog. Can salmon kill my dog? Consumption by dogs of raw or undercooked salmon from California, Oregon, and Washington…
Some Like it Cold
As winter buckles down for most of us in the Northern Hemisphere, we’re reminded of how difficult it can be to endure extreme weather. While numerous terrestrial and aquatic adaptations exist to survive the cold, the Notothenioids (pronounced: No-tow-then-ee-oids) are likely the aquatic winners of the the competition for adaptation to extreme cold. The Notothenioids…
Nutrients: how too much of a good thing can be bad
By: Dana Sackett Consuming too many nutrients is something many of us can understand following the holidays. Similar to ourselves too many nutrients in streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans can cause major health problems. In fact, excess nutrients that enrich plant growth in aquatic ecosystems has a special name: eutrophication. While this term was originally…
Q-n-A: Marine Fisheries Observer
Bycatch from commercial fishing vessels is a major fisheries issue. But did you ever wonder how bycatch is estimated and accounted for? This week, we sat down with Mitchell Masser, a National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) certified North Pacific groundfish observer, to get a feel for the importance of the work of marine fisheries observers….
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Fish: bioluminescence in fish
The following festive fish would make even Clark Griswold jealous: they don’t need twinkle lights to help make their season bright!
What happens when fish get drunk?
It’s that time of year again when we get together with friends, family, and co-workers to celebrate the holidays. For many this means loading up on cookies, mistletoe, and presents. Invariably, someone—Uncle Frank or that guy in the mailroom that never talks—will have one too many eggnogs and everyone will notice. They might slur their…
What is the actual value of our nation’s fisheries?
Why should you care about fisheries in the United States? The Factual Fish Squeezer eloquently explains the economical, ecological, and cultural reasons in the following video. Dr. Jesse “Factual Fish Squeezer” Trushenski is a fisheries scientist, foodie, and fish culturist, or “fish squeezer” as they are affectionately known. The Factual Fish Squeezer is committed to communicating…
Radioactive fish: probably not going to turn you into Aquaman
By: Dr. Dana Sackett with contributions and edits by Dr. Daniel Madigan, an expert in the field of radioactivity in the environment. Articles ranging from fear-inducing hysteria to ‘everything is totally cool’ have been hitting the media about radioactivity in the Pacific Ocean over the last several years following the disaster at Fukushima. This week…
Depletion boat electrofishing
by Brandon Peoples Boat electrofishing is one of the most effective methods of sampling fishes in lakes and non-wadeable rivers. Depletion boat electrofishing involves conducting several electrofishing passes while retaining fish after each pass. Hopefully, workers will capture consistently less fish in each pass. Depletion electrofishing allows biologists to perform quantitative population estimates, rather…
Too school for cool: how fish schools make unanimous decisions
Thanks in part to the onslaught of political ads, many of us are acutely aware of how people are asked to participate in election day’s group decision making process. But, have you ever thought about how fish make decisions in group settings?
10 Scary Fish in Natural Halloween Costumes
By Patrick Cooney All of these fish are real and they sure look like they are wearing scary Halloween costumes inspired by menacing characters. Be sure to let us know in the poll at the bottom which one you think is the scariest fish of them all. 1. Sarcastic Fringehead as Predator Sarcastic Fringehead Blennies live in the…
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