Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) just can’t catch a break. Like their Pacific counterparts, Atlantic salmon are anadromous, meaning they live in the ocean as adults, but swim upriver to spawn. Despite having the evolutionary advantage of being able to spawn more than once in their…
This probably should have gone under the annual Southern Fried Science Week of Ocean Pseudoscience, but last week kept me busy enough to effectively prevent me from doing any writing here. For some reason, I’ve been hearing from multiple fishermen, people who have worked with…
Editor’s Selection IconI’ve been on hiatus for a little bit as I adjust to the workload inherent in starting a PhD program (while putting the finishing touches on a thesis, but that’s neither here nor there…), so that’s my excuse for not posting on this…
The Order Squaliformes, home to the dogfish sharks, is one of the most diverse groups of sharks currently swimming the oceans, second only to the Carcharhiniformes in sheer number of species. Within that order is the Family Squalidae, made up of the very familiar spiny…
Just got back from a little pre-school-year vacation visiting the Hot Girlfriend up in New Jersey, which has seen its share of shark sightings this summer. New Jersey has a long history with sharks, what with the first high-profile string of shark attacks in U.S….
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 studies can provide just as…
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 were following me on that…
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 make any sense: spiny dogfish…
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. Obviously it’s never good news…
Even the biggest fan of spiny dogfish can’t deny that these little sharks sure are great at choking up entire nets. This is especially problematic for commercial fishermen who are trying to catch anything other than dogfish, and particularly for fishermen targeting silver hake, one…