Category Archives: ecology

The Most Badass Fish in the Sea

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Chuck

You might think that the title of this post refers to the spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias), the main species of interest for this blog.  You’d be wrong.  You’d also be wrong to guess the great white, as badass a shark … Continue reading →

Posted in behavior, cephalopods, ecology, research blogging, sharks | 7 Comments

The Tidewater Recap

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Chuck

Last weekend I attended the 26th Annual Meeting of the Tidewater Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, better known as AFS Tidewater or just plain Tidewater.  To recap, this conference encompasses fisheries academics, students, and managers from the so-called “tidewater … Continue reading →

Posted in AFS, conference, cownose rays, dorkiness, ecology, fisheries management, grad school, NOAA, North Carolina, spiny dogfish, striped bass | Leave a comment

The Social Shark Network

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Chuck

Recently Jason Goldman at the great blog The Thoughtful Animal (if you have any interest in animal behavior at all, you should be following it) put up a post titled “Sharks With Friends.”  In that post, he summarizes a recent … Continue reading →

Posted in behavior, ecology, research blogging, sharks | 1 Comment

Post-Halloween Horror: Hagfish Slime

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Chuck

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in dorkiness, ecology, gill nets, video, weird gross and awesome | Leave a comment

101 Uses for Shark Puke Part 2: How Much Do Sharks Eat?

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Chuck

The last time I wrote about the usefulness of shark puke, I discussed a few of the less obvious uses of diet studies on sharks.  As apex predators, sharks can sample a wide variety of potential prey species, and diet … Continue reading →

Posted in ecology, fisheries management, gut contents, methods, research blogging, sharks, spiny dogfish | Leave a comment

101 Uses for Shark Puke

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Chuck

Earlier today WhySharksMatter and I had a little light-hearted smack talk about new-school (stable isotopes) vs. old-school (gastric lavage or straight-up dissection) methods of measuring the diet of sharks.  These are the things you could be privy to if you … Continue reading →

Posted in cephalopods, ecology, gut contents, methods, research blogging, sharks, spiny dogfish | 5 Comments

Reproduction: Secret Weapon of the Dogfish?

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Chuck

Spiny dogfish are one of the rare success stories in the management of shark fisheries, with the U.S. Atlantic population representing one of the few shark stocks ever to fully recover from overfishing.  At first glance this doesn’t seem to … Continue reading →

Posted in behavior, ecology, research blogging, sharks, spiny dogfish | 2 Comments

River Herring News

Posted on May 22, 2011 by Chuck

This post isn’t about sharks, but I do like to give props to those working-class fish that help feed the predators of the marine world.  Here are a couple items of interest for fans of those delicious and declining fish, … Continue reading →

Posted in conference, ecology, grad school, North Carolina, research | 2 Comments

Protected Sharks Still Eat Fish

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Chuck

Amid the constant talk of lowered biodiversity, invasive species, habitat destruction, global climate change, and any other examples of how thoroughly we as a species have wrecked the planet, it’s always good to hear an actual success story in conservation.  … Continue reading →

Posted in conservation, ecology, fisheries management, research blogging, sharks | 5 Comments

Sphyrna linkwini

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Chuck

It’s been a rather busy weekend/week here due to catching up on grading and attempting to get my thesis done and defended sometime before the next school year, but fear not, I haven’t forgotten you.  Because other people manage to … Continue reading →

Posted in blogging, conservation, dorkiness, ecology, grad school, linkage, science, sharks | 1 Comment