Thresher Sharks vs. Whales – Finding Melville’s Shark?

Back in the day (earlier this year) Andrew at Southern Fried Science had a series of posts called “Finding Melville’s Whale,” in which he poetically summarized chapters of the Herman Melville classic (and required reading for anyone serious about the salty life) Moby Dick.  These…

Dogfish Quota Officially Increased

It’s good to be back.  Lots of news in the dogfish and shark fisheries while I’ve been busy. The ASMFC officially announced that they would be increasing next year’s spiny dogfish quota to 30 million pounds, up from the 20 million pounds this year.  The…

Checked off the List

Defended my thesis yesterday, despite the best efforts of the gunbrellaman.  Thanks to all for the words of encouragement.  Now that that bit of pressure is off, expect posting to resume a semi-regular schedule here.

Overdue Book Reviews – Demon Fish and Sharks of North America

I’ve reached that point where I’m starting to apologize in each post for how long its been since the previous post.  Well, no more apologies.  I’ve been buried in both starting the PhD and finishing the Masters, and unfortunately the free time to post has…

Post-Halloween Horror: Hagfish Slime

Hagfish are awesomely disgusting creatures.  My first personal encounter was seeing their handiwork (and then seeing the fish themselves) while gillnetting off of Massachusetts.  The sheer amount of slime produced by these little monsters has long been thought to function as a sort of predator…