Our study involving largemouth bass provides the first direct experimental evidence that vulnerability to angling is a heritable trait and, as a result, that recreational hook-and-line fisheries can cause evolutionary change in fish populations. – via Selection for Vulnerability to Angling in Largemouth Bass A twenty year study on Largemouth Bass yields an eye-opening conundrum [...]

There are so many absolutes, so many unequivocating terms in the below as to be downright scary: A new study has revealed that the impact of a hatchery environment on steelhead trout is so profound that in just one generation genetic traits are developed that cost fish the natural ability to be able to survive [...]

I’m giggling while Science chides me about noise pollution and fish –hoping to make me feel bad. I suppose if I owned a boat I’d feel worse, but the article concludes that even short bursts of noise can distract fish while feeding, and they’ll make more errors in judgment and ingest things they shouldn’t … [...]

Until recently fisheries biologists have seen the adipose fin as largely superfluous, and have clipped it to visually distinguish planted fish from their wild cousins. Now they’re not so sure. Recent studies suggest the adipose fin is crucial to fish, aiding it in navigating turbulent water. With the tiny fin removed, he says the fish need [...]

For most of the year I’ve resisted the urge to muck about on the local creek, largely for fear of upsetting the delicate balance of Nature given that once the flood receded I could only count 4 fish in eleven miles of its banks. Then again, once I saw the hurried exodus of neighbors, hastily [...]

Science suggests that it would prefer you not call an invasive species,  invasive … Firstly, it may hurt their feelings, and secondly, given that it’s successful in outcompeting the local fare means it’s possibly superior (owning Adonis DNA), and may simply be species extincting a weaker occupant of the same resource … In short, as [...]

I suppose the good news is that none of us has cracked under the pressure and sent pictures of The Family Jewels to some anonymous campus sweetheart, but that’s coming. Looking down, I think I’ll be safe enough, given that I haven’t seen mine in a couple of decades, but the rest of you concern [...]

Total dollar value for all farmed trout sold by United States growers was $71.3 million dollars, at an average price of $1.39 a pound, down 5% from 2009’s total. Idaho is the largest grower of commercial trout in the US, accounting for 50% of the nationwide total. For trout 12 inches or longer, 64 percent [...]

I finished my read of the Yellowstone Lake plan the Park recently published for comment. In it they specify the need to remove invasive Lake Trout and restore the native Yellowstone Cutthroat. Sure enough, our pal Rotenone coupled with gill netting will be the preferred fish killing method, gill nets deployed by a vendor in [...]

Research on Oregon’s Hood River steelhead population suggests a bit of good news may be in the offing. Wild trout inhabiting the river are the source of 40% of the genetic makeup of its steelhead brethren, which is neatly offsetting the “watering down” of genetic makeup due to hatchery fish. The trout and steelhead are [...]