Underground rivers flow through the limestone bedrock underneath the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. When a river enters a cavern it flows in a circular pattern, eroding the walls into a circular shape. The roofs of these caverns eventually collapse, creating a small bucket-shaped lake known locally as a cenote. There are almost 20,000 cenotes on the Yucatan peninsula, and they host many unique fish species found nowhere else on earth. A recent survey of 4 cenotes captured 1,350 fish including 11 species from 5 families. The cenotes studied were small and deep–less than 2 acres wide but over 30 f ..read more

Fish have an amazing ability to replenish and increase their populations. Lake whitefish, a species related to salmon and trout, can lay between 8,000-130,000 eggs. During Ice Ages 90% of their present day range was covered by glaciers, making it uninhabitable for them. Yet, in less than 12,000 years they recolonized this enormous territory. The reproductive ability of this species outpaced the population of predatory fish and birds that fed upon them. Scientists used a study of genetics to determine modern day whitefish descend from 2 different refugial populations that clung to survival duri ..read more

90% of the seafood consumed in the U.S. is imported, and most of that is farm-raised.  This is a shocking statistic, considering how abundant fish were in American waters when Europeans first colonized the continent.  I was curious about my own seafood consumption, so I kept a tally of the fish and shellfish I ate in the year 2020.  I tried to avoid the Heisenberg Effect defined as the act of measurement altering the phenomenon under investigation, but I can’t rule out my subconscious influencing the results.  Nevertheless, I usually eat seafood once a week, and I believe t ..read more

I watched Food Paradise with my wife the other night, and we heard the chef of a restaurant in Florida say grilled amberjack was the house specialty. My wife asked what an amberjack was, and I told her it was a fish. She knew that, but she wanted to know what kind of fish an amberjack was.  This blog article is for her. The greater amberjack is a large predatory fish found in warm ocean waters around the world.  They swim in schools located 60-200 feet deep, but they prefer coastal waters studded with manmade and natural structures such as shipwrecks and rocky outcrops.  Amberja ..read more

Most people think of tuna as just some fish in a can that is an ingredient in tuna salad.  They don’t appreciate what a spectacular animal it is.  Biology books state that fish are cold-blooded, but tuna are an exception to this rule.  Tuna are actually a warm-blooded fish, and this physiology enables them to swim at ultra high speeds of up to 47 mph.  That is faster than most boats.  However, their warm-blooded physiology has a greater temperature range than those of mammals and birds.  Their blood temperatures do vary, while mammal and bird temperatures generall ..read more

I often found it hard to believe books or people who refer to some species of fish as trash. I think some reject eating certain fish based on their ugly appearance or difficulty in cleaning and dressing.  However, I don’t get to fish much because my wife is disabled, and I’ve had to give her 24 hour care for 24 years.  I never had the chance to prove these claims wrong.  Recently, I discovered a youtube channel produced by a man who does just that.  He has videos of hundreds of outdoor recipes including a series entitled “Fish: Trash or Treasure.”  His youtube channel is The Backwoods Gourmet ..read more

Pier fishermen often catch what many consider to be “trash” fish.  Stingrays, eels, dogfish, and puffer fish are common in shallow coastal waters during the summer and readily take bait.  Although fishermen usually throw them back in the ocean, they are all good to eat.  Pieces of stingray wings cut with a cookie cutter are used to make mock scallops.  Eel is a delicacy I have enjoyed.  Dogfish, a small species of shark, really does taste like chicken when fried. During WWII when rationing made meat scarce, fishermen caught hundreds of thousands of pounds of puffer fish off Long Island and sol ..read more

The bluehead chub (Nocomis leptocephalus) is a keystone species in piedmont and mountain rivers and streams of southeastern North America.  Dozens of species of shiners spawn and lay their eggs in bluehead chub nests.  Without the existence of bluehead chubs most of these species would probably become extinct.  Bluehead chubs and shiners are members of the minnow family, known scientifically as the Cyprinidae, and bluehead chubs are 1 of the largest minnow species, growing up to 8 inches long.  Bluehead chubs make large gravel nests and aggressively protect their young.  They bury their eggs w ..read more

Many Italians like to celebrate Christmas Eve with the feast of the 7 fishes.  I’m not Italian, but I like to eat seafood during the holiday season too, though my immediate family is small, and we enjoy the feast of the 2 fishes.  I wonder what species would’ve composed a feast of fishes for Paleo-Indians when they first entered the Tennessee River Valley.  Fish populations were much higher in the pristine pellucid waters of all southeastern rivers before man began destroying the environment, but the composition of species is poorly known because fish remains that old are rarely preserved.  A ..read more

River systems host a hidden world of tiny invertebrates.  Some are microscopic, while others, though visible to the naked eye, remain unseen unless a curious fisherman cuts open the stomach of his catch.  A fish’s stomach might contain small crustaceans including water fleas (Cladocera), seed shrimp (Ostracada), amphipods, copepods and/or isopods.  These minute shrimp-like creatures form the basis of a food chain that supports fish populations. Seed shrimp (Ostracods) along with other small crustaceans are an important part of the food chain in aquatic habitats. In southeastern North America ..read more