Winter-Run Critical Habitat Conundrum
Just when you think you’ve got a species figured out, sometimes they show up where they’re “not supposed to be” and make you reconsider. This recently happened Read More…
otoliths
Learning from Carcasses and Final Fish Counts
What can you learn from a dead fish? Surprisingly, a lot. Dead salmon are a common sight this time of year, as adult fall-run Chinook salmon perish Read More…
Tsunami Stunts Fish Growth
Picturing the effects of the 2011 Japan tsunami conjures up vivid images of the immediate disaster: swamped fishing boats, towns washed away, or the meltdown at the Read More…
Retracing migrations of Mekong River mud carp
When researchers want to understand where a fish spends its time, they often use tagging techniques to track the fish’s movements, like a detective tailing a suspect Read More…
Miniature ear bones
Fishes can hear (and produce) quite a range of sounds, as we discussed in our recent Fish Report, “The Symphony Aquatic.” One of the mechanisms by which Read More…
Rings in their ears
Fish bones have plenty of stories to tell – particularly a special type of ear bone called an otolith that keeps a record of a fish’s entire Read More…
On the next episode of Ghost-Fish Hunter…
Though the fish pictured above may resemble a Halloween prop, they are in fact gobies that have been marked with calcein, a chemical that adheres to calcium-containing Read More…
What’s for lunch?
As lunchtime approaches, Patrick may be thinking about what’s for lunch, but at the moment he’s trying to figure out how we're going to fit more salmon Read More…
Otolith extraction
[gallery link="file" ids="9029,9030,9031"] Otoliths are small mineral structures (ear bones) found in the head of all fishes other than sharks, rays and lampreys. Otoliths allow fish to Read More…
Heads up: otoliths needed
Although this looks like a scene from a gruesome horror flick, no fish were harmed while taking this photo. These Chinook salmon carcasses died naturally after spawning, Read More…