Salmon and other native fish across California are threatened by inhospitable streamflows altered by some of the states thousands of dams. The controversial work of getting flows right for fish can't begin until managers know which dams might be causing problems. Luckily, a new screening tool has narrowed the list down to 181. The post Making Dams in California Fish-Friendly appeared first on FishSens Magazine ..read more

Fun to catch and delicious to eat, walleye are a favorite sport fish for anglers across the United States and Canada. Commonly found throughout the Great Lakes, anglers flock to the region each year in search of walleye. According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, walleye are freshwater predators in the perch family that have two dorsal fins and are generally olive or brown. Their non-spotted top dorsal fin and white lower-tipped tail differentiate them from their lookalike, saugers. The two species are close relatives but can be differentiated by the spotted top dorsal fin and all-dark ..read more

Iowans are well-known for their vast cornfields and farmlands, but they also dedicate a considerable chunk of time to their lakes. Surveys by Iowa State University discovered that 65% of Iowans visit a lake several times a year, generating over $1 billion from recreational activity annually.  “Sixty percent—that’s a super majority of people—visit a lake each year,” said Mike McGhee, the restoration program manager for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Fisheries Bureau.  The popularity of the lakes made Iowa’s Lake Restoration Program (LRP) an easy sell to the state legis ..read more

Sharks play an important ecological role as predators in marine ecosystems—loss of the species could lead to a boom in prey species leading to vegetation loss, overpopulation, and habitat degradation. While sharks have historically not been impacted by many of the same fishing-related conservation issues as other species, they are still harmed by unsustainable fishing practices. Despite not being a popular food choice, sharks are still sometimes commercially fished, and finning (the act of removing only the shark’s fins and then releasing them) still occurs off the U.S. coast. Because sha ..read more

Researchers and resource departments utilize fish tags as a means of improving current fish and habitat management strategies. Depending on the type of tag used, tagging initiatives can reveal a great deal about fish behavior, population decline, and species movement over time. Satellite tags provide continuous data as long as the fish remains in the range of receivers, helping to identify behaviors and document fish movement. Cheaper plastic tags can also be used to support fish movement observations, though not consistently or remotely, as the plastic tags require the fish to be caught ..read more

The Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent oil spill claimed 11 human lives and countless non-human lives. The infamous spill is just one of several large oil spills in the world’s oceans. Oil spills can have devastating impacts on the ecosystem and surrounding cities that rely on the ocean for food and revenue. According to NOAA, the Deepwater Horizon spill was, far and away, the worst oil spill to date. In 1969, a spill “off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, spilled over four million gallons of oil.” Twenty years later, in 1989, an oil tanker crash in Alaska spilled over 11 million ..read more

September 6th, 2014, a video of a man killing and dumping an undersized muskie on the Detroit River went viral, stirring up an investigation and mobilizing online groups against the man in question. According to the Windsor Star, the video showed Eddie Parent bludgeoning an undersized muskie before throwing it back into the water.  Mike Cowley and Dane Alexander were actually fishing for muskie on the day of the incident and were the two who caught the event on camera. According to Outdoor Canada, the event took place on the 3rd, though the video was uploaded on the 6th. In the ..read more

As reliance on fisheries is on the rise in order to support humanity’s growing population and need for food resources, the sustainability of fisheries has also been called into question. After all, if these resources are supposed to last well into the future, taking care of fisheries is a necessary part of preserving these systems. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Fisheries division conducts annual reviews of fisheries and assesses the status of various populations of fish stocks. As of the 2022 report, NOAA Fisheries manages 492 stock or stock complexes i ..read more

For years, water monitoring programs have documented declines in the water quality of mountain streams as a result of climate change and various forms of pollution that contaminate and deteriorate the waterways. Mountain streams were long thought to be pristine, with clear flowing waters and lower pollution rates than lower altitude bodies. Unfortunately, research has found that these streams are no longer as clean as previously thought. What is Contaminating Mountain Streams? A 2021 study published in BioScience assessed data collected over four decades, which revealed that the qual ..read more

Lake Huron’s waters are split between Canada and the United States, and the two countries have contrasting approaches to fish farming on the lake. According to Info Superior, Canada has had net pen aquaculture since 1982 and twelve sites currently operate in Lake Huron, four of which are Indigenous-owned. These fish farms allow managers to rear a host of fish that have a significant impact on the regional economy in terms of jobs and exporting seafood. Seeing the success of aquaculture on the Canadian side has encouraged conversations on the other side of the lake. While fish farming in C ..read more