“Currently, hypoxia and anoxia are among the most widespread deleterious anthropogenic influences on estuarine and marine environments, and now rank with overfishing, habitat loss, and harmful algal blooms as major global environmental problems.” Diaz et al. 2008 Fish killed by hypoxic events. (Source: EPA) The Dead Zone. Fish kills. Hypoxia. We increasingly hear these…
Why fishes need floods
In April of 2011, the river near my house was bigger than I had ever seen it. One afternoon I went to get a closer look at the flooding at a park near the dam. Although the park sat more than 20 feet higher than the normal river’s edge, water stood where children had played…
When the Levee Breaks
It’s that time of the year again…people across the northern hemisphere are looking towards dark skies and thinking of rain. For many fish biologists, high water simply means a perfectly good spring day spent in the office. For me, it means a long day tending to a flooded experiment. But to others, spring floods often…
New News for Old Fish
The coelacanth (pronounced ‘see-la-canth’) holds an interesting place in both ichthyology and the history of ichthyology. Many of us are familiar with the image of this large, speckled fish, easily identified by the thick lobes that characterize its fins. Surely it commanded a few moments of simultaneous intrigue and eyebrow-raising in Ichthyology or Evolution 101….
Top 10 Weirdest Things Found on a Fish’s Head
By Gus Engman and Patrick Cooney Have you ever looked at a fish and wondered, “What is that weird thing on its head and what is it there for?” Well here is our list of the ‘Top 10 Weirdest Things Found on a Fish’s Head’. Electrosensitive Rostrum: “That’s no banana, that’s my nose! Acha cha…
The Fisheries Blog gets recognition from Fisheries Magazine!
We at The Fisheries Blog were honored to be recognized with a mention and a link from The New York Times a few months back. Fast forward to an article in this month’s Fisheries Magazine (published by the American Fisheries Society), and we are once again honored to be recognized for taking a leading role…
Research Feature: Turtles, Crabs, and Bycatch Reduction
By the time long-lived marine vertebrates reach adulthood they have few natural predators. However, fishing gear set in critical estuarine and nearshore habitat can serve as anthropogenic “predators” to these megafauna. For larger marine megafauna such as sharks, marine mammals and sea turtles, fisheries-related mortalities are mostly due to incidental entanglement in gear such as…
Q-n-A: Fish illustrator
Ichthyology, the study of fishes, doesn’t always mean sitting down in a stuffy lab with jars of preserved fish. For this installment of Q-n-A, I sat down with Val Kells, a renowned marine science illustrator with a passion for ichthyology. Val has illustrated field guide books for fishes of the Atlantic coast of the US…
Marine Protected Areas
By: Dana Sackett Marine protected areas (MPAs) have been used as a tool to protect biodiversity, genetic diversity, habitat, and reverse declining trends in overfished populations across the world. Many of these MPAs allow at least some fishing while excluding a form of fishing deemed unacceptable (e.g. harvest that is destructive or targets a particular…
Magnuson-Stevens and Stock Recovery
Commercial marine fisheries on the whole are showing signs of recovery. At least that’s what the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) announced earlier this week. A recent report put out by the NRDC re-evaluated many previously-overfished marine species, and came to the conclusion that 64% of stocks are successfully rebuilt or show significant signs of…
What do your pet and my study fish have in common?
By Patrick Cooney Question: What do Jackson, my mutt dog, and my research fish all have in common? Besides both being incredibly photogenic, what do Jackson and this Brook Trout have in common? Answer: They are all implanted with Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags that transmit a unique identification number when exposed to a magnetic…
Losing Atlantis…Again?
Bimini, just 50 miles off the coast of Miami, sits beside the Gulf Stream. (Kristine Stump) “The house was built on the highest part of the narrow tongue of land between the harbor and the open sea…It was shaded by tall coconut palms that were bent by the trade wind, and on the ocean side…
Bold, hungry, anti-social, but anxiety-free fish
By: Dana Sackett We have all seen the numerous drug advertisements on TV with their list of ridiculous disclaimers and adverse effects. These commercials are an indication, and have even been considered the reason behind, the increased societal use of pharmaceuticals drugs in recent years. In fact, it was only in 1997 that the FDA…
Fish McBites: What are sustainable fisheries?
Initially marketed to create a seafood/non-meat alternative (for Catholics and others avoiding meat), for years, the “Fillet-O-Fish” sandwich and similar fast food items were purposely vague—both in name and taste. In response to what I’m guessing were poor sales and the increasing public cry to know more about the origins of their food, fast food…
Why Do Mussels Matter?
By Brandon Peoples If you’re like me, you’ll be hitting the creeks this spring to catch a trout or smallmouth bass. But did you know that as you wade along, the very stream bed you walk on is teeming with life? In fact, much of the stream bed itself is alive… Mussels are diverse and…
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