#fisheries biologist

[mel-smeld]

Video of coho salmon holding in a pool. Saw this on my survey the other day, it's always so exciting to get to watch the salmon so close! If you live in the PNW try to get out and see them spawning! The Chinook are winding down but coho are in (and hopefully we get some more big rains so they keep moving upstream as the smaller streams get bigger flows) and chum are next. It's a pink salmon year as well!

[el-ffej]

(But, y'know, more politely.)

Source: [x]

Follow Ultrafacts for more facts!

[reasonsforhope]

"For years, California was slated to undertake the world’s largest dam removal project in order to free the Klamath River to flow as it had done for thousands of years.

Now, as the project nears completion, imagery is percolating out of Klamath showing the waterway’s dramatic transformation, and they are breathtaking to behold.

Pictured: Klamath River flows freely, after Copco-2 dam was removed in California.

Incredibly, the project has been nearly completed on schedule and under budget, and recently concluded with the removal of two dams, Iron Gate and Copco 1. Small “cofferdams” which helped divert water for the main dams’ construction, still need to be removed.

The river, along which salmon and trout had migrated and bred for centuries, can flow freely between Lake Ewauna in Klamath Falls, Oregon, to the Pacific Ocean for the first time since the dams were constructed between 1903 and 1962.

“This is a monumental achievement—not just for the Klamath River but for our entire state, nation, and planet,” Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “By taking down these outdated dams, we are giving salmon and other species a chance to thrive once again, while also restoring an essential lifeline for tribal communities who have long depended on the health of the river.”

“We had a really incredible moment to share with tribes as we watched the final cofferdams be broken,” Ren Brownell, Klamath River Renewal Corp. public information officer, told SFGATE. “So we’ve officially returned the river to its historic channel at all the dam sites. But the work continues.”

Pictured: Iron Gate Dam, before and after.

“The dams that have divided the basin are now gone and the river is free,” Frankie Myers, vice chairman of the Yurok Tribe, said in a tribal news release from late August. “Our sacred duty to our children, our ancestors, and for ourselves, is to take care of the river, and today’s events represent a fulfillment of that obligation.”

The Yurok Tribe has lived along the Klamath River forever, and it was they who led the decades-long campaign to dismantle the dams.

At first the water was turbid, brown, murky, and filled with dead algae—discharges from riverside sediment deposits and reservoir drainage. However, Brownell said the water quality will improve over a short time span as the river normalizes.

“I think in September, we may have some Chinook salmon and steelhead moseying upstream and checking things out for the first time in over 60 years,” said Bob Pagliuco, a marine habitat resource specialist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in July.

Pictured: JC Boyle Dam, before and after.

“Based on what I’ve seen and what I know these fish can do, I think they will start occupying these habitats immediately. There won’t be any great numbers at first, but within several generations—10 to 15 years—new populations will be established.”

Ironically, a news release from the NOAA states that the simplification of the Klamath River by way of the dams actually made it harder for salmon and steelhead to survive and adapt to climate change.

“When you simplify the habitat as we did with the dams, salmon can’t express the full range of their life-history diversity,” said NOAA Research Fisheries Biologist Tommy Williams.

“The Klamath watershed is very prone to disturbance. The environment throughout the historical range of Pacific salmon and steelhead is very dynamic. We have fires, floods, earthquakes, you name it. These fish not only deal with it well, it’s required for their survival by allowing the expression of the full range of their diversity. It challenges them. Through this, they develop this capacity to deal with environmental changes.”

-via Good News Network, October 9, 2024

[sameteeth]

the gide/oda and fukuchi/fukuzawa storyline parallels are crazy. war vet convinced of his conviction drags morally upright (generous) guy to his level to achieve his goal, which was formed by the trauma of warfare on the human mind

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Smithsonian Magazine:

For the first time in 112 years, Chinook salmon are swimming freely in the Klamath Basin in Oregon.

On October 16, biologists with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) spotted the fish above the former site of the J.C. Boyle Dam in the Upper Klamath River. The dam was one of four that had blocked the salmon’s migration between the Klamath Basin and the Pacific Ocean. Each of those dams was recently deconstructed in the largest dam removal project in United States history, which has restored the river to its natural, free-flowing state.

At first, biologists wondered if they had really sighted a salmon. “We saw a large fish the day before rise to surface in the Klamath river, but we only saw a dorsal fin,” says Mark Hereford, leader of ODFW’s Klamath Fisheries Reintroduction Project, in a statement. “I thought, was that a salmon, or maybe it was a very large rainbow trout?”

But when the team returned on October 16 and 17, they were able to confirm the fall-run Chinook—making them the first to spot the species in the region since 1912.

The return of the salmon comes less than two months after the end of the dam removals in California and Oregon, an effort that took decades of advocacy by the surrounding tribes—including the Yurok, Karuk, Shasta, Klamath and Hoopa Valley, among others—whose people have deep ties to the Chinook salmon.

Ron Reed, a Karuk tribe member and traditional fisherman, participated in the campaigns for dam removal, advocating that the river’s restoration would help salmon recover. He isn’t surprised the fish have returned so quickly to their ancestral waters, he tells the Los Angeles Times’ Ian James.

“The fact that the fish are going up above the dams now, to the most prolific spawning and rearing habitat in North America, it definitely shines a very bright light on the future,” Reed tells the Los Angeles Times. “Because with those dams in place, we were looking at extinction. We were looking at dead fish.”

In one poignant case, tens of thousands of Chinook salmon died off in the span of days in 2002, as the water quality in the dammed Klamath River deteriorated from the lack of flow. The dams, built between the early 1900s and 1962, also contributed to algae blooms and diseases, and they blocked the salmon’s annual migration.

[puppadumz]

All? Is that weird? I travel a lot for work in situations with limited space. if I've forgotten to load books on my Kindle the phone reader is a life-saver bc the Kindle needs WiFi to download the books. I also am a fast reader so if there's enough downtime I can run through multiple books in a week, bringing enough physical books for a 2 week trip gets very heavy very fast.

[pwrn51]

Sharks of the World from a Shark Week Expert

    Today’s guest is  Dr. Gregory Skomal who is an accomplished Marine Biologist, Aquarist, Scientist, Underwater Explorer, photographer, Educator, TedxSpeaker, Writer and Author of several publications and books, and a Leading Great White Shark Expert in the Country, has been a Discovery Channel’s Shark week and on National Geographic Channel, a Senior Fisheries Scientist at Massachusetts…

[oldhalloweentape]

🪨Venture (OW II) x (gn) reader ⛏️

(Marine Biologist Reader Edition!)

(Request here! Another unique one! You guys are so creative istg!)

- Very supportive and enthusiastic when it comes to your job, helping you whenever they can.

- They may not know as much as you but they do what they can for you, though their specialty is archeology they definitely dabble in paleontology and will talk extensively about the various ties to marine life to differing fossils.

- They gladly listen to you in the same way, may not remember every little thing but they record whatever they can alongside various notes about how cute you were as you got excited as you spoke.

- Happy to be your test audience when it comes to ways you can educate anglers and fisheries on better fishing strategies or putting emphasis on Marine conservation.

- If you become a part of Overwatch, they're over the moon about it, immediately introducing you to them, especially Mei due to your shared concerns over conservation.

- Makes so many puns about your occupation, the more they learn the more inventive the puns are.

- Thinks what you are doing is very noble, and tells you how proud they are of you for making the effort to make the life of our underwater friends more habitable.

- Helps you with research to do a degree, probably acting as a kind of editor, looking over various papers.

- The amount of Marine life-based items you get from them is insane, you have your side of various things and they have their own in your shared home— Which kind of melds in the middle for one reason or another.

- Your sense of leadership and management for projects and regulations is so fascinating to them, your proposals to get funding are always backed up by them via emotional support.

- They know fully well how demanding your job is, knowing the importance of making people aware of what humanity is doing to marine animals and their environment so when you’re too busy to do something with them they don’t mind postponing things.

- They know if the tables were turned (which they really can be when it comes to their occupation), you’d do the same for them.

- If you guys met before you got your degree, they eagerly encourage you to pursue the excessive amount of education when it comes to that line of work— Dependable whenever they can be.

- Much like archeology, both have a level of risk, marine biology even more so due to it requiring lots of physical exertion and the handling of heavy machinery, so they obviously always try to be as careful as they can for your sake and they hope you can be as well.

- They love knowing that you guys are side by side making an impact on the world with your shared interests and intelligence accumulated.

- Thinks you guys are a formidable duo, a team that helps one another to be as best you possibly can be.

- You both have very demanding jobs so hanging out with one another may be few and far between but whenever you two do it’s always something special.

- Makes a point to tell you to take care of yourself when things become too much, providing comfort when it is needed— Whether it be physical or verbal.

- Almost always asks for photos and videos of you venturing (ba dum tiss) under water, especially silly photos of your adventures being framed and put in the wall alongside your shared degrees and certificates.

- Despite how both of your jobs keep you both busy and apart, it bring you both together emotionally more than anything, the shared passion for both careers providing a sense of understanding.

(Here!! So so sorry making you guys wait this damn long! :(( Happy Friday the 13th!!!)

[follow-up-news]

A huge fish in the Mekong River thought to be extinct has been spotted three times in recent years. “The giant salmon carp is like a symbol of the Mekong region,” said Chheana Chhut, a researcher at the Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The predatory fish can grow up to 4 feet in length, and has a conspicuous knob at the tip of its lower jaw. A striking patch of yellow surrounds its large eyes. With the last confirmed sighting in 2005, “this species of fish seems to have disappeared from the Mekong region for decades,” said Chheana, who is a co-author of a study published online Monday in the journal Biological Conservation that documents the recent sightings. Since 2017, biologists tracking migratory fish species in Cambodia have developed relationships with local fishing communities, asking them to alert any unusual sightings. That’s how the three giant salmon carp found in the Mekong River and a tributary in Cambodia between 2020 and 2023 came to the attention of researchers.

[el-ffej]

Digression @freshgratednutmeg: If it comes to bear vs moose, I take moose.

Not that moose aren't dangerous -- they certainly can be -- but in general, if you can get a fair sized tree between them and you, you're OK

(That said, if I had encountered a moose on a run around a lake, I would have reversed course, too. (Gingerly.))

i am reminded, my coworkers were discussing "would you rather be alone in the woods with a man or a bear" and i was experiencing Complete Perplexment cause they were like "I would pick the bear" and then I learned this was a whole internet Thing, where women were saying they would rather be alone with a Bear than a random human man, and I was like okay first of all, the status of wildlife education in this country is truly pitiful.

but second, are you telling me that if you were stranded in the wilderness and you saw a bear and in the opposite direction you saw a man coming towards you, you would run from the human person and go TOWARDS the wild bear?

[finrays]

Playing Side Order as a fisheries biologist is a weird experience because I KNOW these Jelletons have in-game names, but I generally recognize their fishy inspirations before I do their actual labels.

Which leads to me yelling Very Normal Sentences like “GET FUCKED, HUMPHEAD WRASSE” at my Switch.

[cypherdecypher]

Animal of the Day!

Porbeagle (Lamna nasus)

(Photo by Doug Perrine)

Conservation Status- Vulnerable

Habitat- Atlantic Ocean; Indian Ocean; Pacific Ocean

Size (Weight/Length)- 230 kg; 3.5 m

Diet- Squid; Fish

Cool Facts- The porbeagle is one of the thickest sharks in relation to body length. These short lads are fast despite their chunkiness. Unlike some larger species of shark, porbeagles are all about chases in the open ocean. After finding a school of fish, the porbeagle rushes the school to separate individuals and swallow them whole. These sharks migrate alongside their food sources, following the schools from coasts to deep ocean. As a result of their small size, few humans have ever been bitten by a porbeagle and no one has been killed by one. Porbeagles are generally known for their curiosity towards people. Fishing is legalized for the porbeagle, with over 100 tons of shark being commercially caught annually. In combination with rapidly decreasing fisheries, the porbeagle is on the decline.

Rating- 13/10 (There are many benefits to being a marine biologist.)

[dandelionsresilience]

Good News - May 1-7

Like these weekly compilations? Support me on Ko-fi! Also, if you tip me on Ko-fi, at the end of the month I'll send you a link to all of the articles I found but didn't use each week - almost double the content!

1. New study says conservation works, providing hope for biodiversity efforts

“A new study published in Science reveals that conservation works, with conservation actions improving or slowing the decline of biodiversity in two-thirds of the cases analyzed.”

2. Monk Seal Pup Debuts in Waikīkī on Lei Day

“Endangered Hawaiian monk seal RK96 (Kaiwi) gave birth to her sixth pup on popular Kaimana Beach in Waikīkī, Oʻahu! […] Hawaiian monk seals are one of the most endangered seal species in the world, so each pup represents hope for the species’ recovery.”

3. West Coast Indigenous-led marine conservation area gets global spotlight

“A coastal First Nation is celebrating global recognition of its marine protected area after recently snagging a “blue park” designation that highlights exemplary ocean conservation efforts around the world. […] Kitasu Bay supports one of the last abundant herring spawns along the central coast, vital to the nation’s communal herring roe on kelp (ROK) fishery - which harvests the protein-rich eggs but leaves the fish alive to flourish and spawn again.”

4. The number of fish on US overfishing list reaches an all-time low. Mackerel and snapper recover

“The report states that 94% of fish stocks are not subject to overfishing, which is slightly better than a year ago. The U.S. was able to remove several important fish stocks from the overfishing list, NOAA said in a statement. […] The removal of species from the overfishing list shows the U.S. is making progress, said Rick Spinrad, NOAA’s administrator.”

5. Researchers Collaborate with the Shipping Industry to Cut Costs, Fuel Consumption and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Shipping

“Through coordinated ship scheduling and an optimisation of ship operations and port services, the objective is to achieve a substantial increase in energy efficiency and a 10-20% reduction in fuel consumption, consequently resulting in lowered greenhouse gas emissions [and] leading to substantial economic benefits for shipping and environmental advantages for society[….]”

6. The city flower farm that is changing lives

“Heart of BS13 Flowers in Hartcliffe is part of the wider Heart of BS13 charity which tackles food insecurity in south Bristol. Profits from the flower sales to run workshops, offer volunteer and trainee placements, and create education opportunities for people from Hartcliffe.”

7. Four falcon chicks hatch in Glasgow university tower

“Members of the [Glasgow Peregrine] project hope to […] fit [the chicks] with electronic tags that will enable monitoring of their movements. Mr Simpson added: "With the identification tags we can see where they have gone, how high they fly and other information that would be really useful." In recent years the group have held peregrine watches at the university, allowing people to see the birds in their nest.”

8. 'Banana pingers' are saving whales and dolphins around the world

“[T]he Kibel brothers, Pete (a fisheries biologist) and Ben (an engineer) […] have been utilising light to protect turtles, sound to protect porpoises and electro pulses to protect sharks. [… Trials] showed reduced average catch rates of blue shark by 91%, and catch rates of pelagic stingray by 71% […as well as] a fall in the number of sea turtles being trapped by 42%.”

9. New vaccine effective against coronaviruses that haven't even emerged yet

“Researchers have developed a new vaccine technology that has been shown in mice to provide protection against a broad range of coronaviruses with potential for future disease outbreaks -- including ones we don't even know about. […] The new vaccine works by training the body's immune system to recognise specific regions of eight different coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and several that are currently circulating in bats and have potential to jump to humans and cause a pandemic.”

10. Grassland birds, Forest birds and Other Migratory Birds to Benefit from More Than $22 Million in Funding Throughout the Americas

“This year, more than $4.87 million in federal funds will be matched by more than $17 million in partner contributions going to 30 collaborative conservation projects in 19 countries across the Americas. “These investments will [… protect] millions of acres of diverse habitats needed by grassland birds, forest birds and shorebirds for wintering, breeding and migration,” said Service Director Martha Williams.”

April 22-28 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[labete-du-gevaudan]

This map was compiled by Laney Hanzel who was a board member of Flathead Lakers (a conservation organization) and a former fisheries biologist. The map features over 100 sightings of strange encounters in the Montana lake. The Flathead Lake Monster, lovingly called Flossie by some, has been seen since 1889. While there are generally a couple sightings a year, the busiest year by far was 1993, where 13 sightings of the Flathead Lake Monster took place. Generally, the creature is 20 to 40 feet in length and described as "eel-like". Others claim that Flossie is just a large fish, usually 10 feet in length.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Indiginews:

For the first time in known recent history, a lone adult Okanagan summer chinook salmon successfully made its way home to kɬúsx̌nítkw (Okanagan Lake) from the ocean last week.

The fish’s roughly 1,000-kilometre migration marks a “big milestone” for the syilx Okanagan Nation’s efforts to restore the species to one of its former habitats, the Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) proclaimed in a Facebook post last Wednesday — a day after its scientists spotted the lone fish.

ONA fisheries biologist Elinor McGrath told IndigiNews that the five-year-old fish had been raised at the kł cp̓əlk̓ stim̓ hatchery before making its migration journey — from the Okanagan Basin to the Pacific Ocean and back.

She said the event has buoyed longstanding hopes to re-populate the area with chinook. For many years, she said, the vast majority of migrating fish could only reach just north of “Oliver” because of dams and other blockages. 

“You really do realize that you’re achieving something,” McGrath said. “Hopefully, this is just the start of many more things to come.”

The hatchery was built 10 years ago to help restore the historical range and population of salmon throughout the Okanagan watershed — including into the 135-kilometre-long kɬúsx̌nítkʷ — and parts of the Columbia River Basin.

The project is part of the Okanagan Chinook Restoration Program, which has released tens of thousands of juvenile chinook into local waterways since 2017. But ONA’s proposals to restore chinook to their historic habitats date back to 1997.

[pyrrhocorax]

my current hetalia wildlife/natural resources au thoughts i have from your resident wildlife biologist: sweden: i have lots of ideas for him but the idea of him being an entomologist is interesting b/c the contrast of "big scary giant guy, but he studies tiny butterflies" is really fun to me. he has a very entomologist personality to me too based on all the entomologists i know so lepidopterist is my current thought. finland: forester. all foresters i know are unhinged in the same exact way he is unhinged. potentially also a fire ecologist?? i think that would be interesting (give me an excuse to learn about fire ecology more) and i think he would enjoy using a flamethrower. iceland: thinking geologist, prob volcanologist? or he studies auks. norway: less sure of him. thinking mainly about fisheries (not sure if marine or freshwater, both are interesting), mycology, lichenology (this is the main one i am thinking about rn), oceanography, or mountain stream hydrology (yes that is a thing) for him. denmark: having the most trouble with him honestly. maybe meteorology, geography (GIS dude??), soil biology?? maybe even human dimensions (i can see him being a good intermediary between the public and natural resources, like park ranger-esque)?? idk if extension agents exist in europe but he'd be good at that i think. estonia: songbird biologist. bander (or ringer you're european). potentially studying migration trends? breeding output of at-risk species? potentially lab mates with austria b/c sharing same field site. he's uncannily good at mimicking bird calls. lithuania: large carnivore biologist that studies in canids (i.e. wolves), mainly does camera trapping but also darts/radio collars them. looking at habitat usage to hopefully boost populations??? latvia: shorebird/rail/stork biologist?? reminds me of a shorebird biologist i know and i think he'd vibe well with water/water adjacent bird work. i also think him studying beavers is fun because beavers are fun! and i think the riga beaver thing back in the day was hysterical lol OR i think him being an aquatic entomologist would be cool he could be a dragonfly guy austria: also a songbird biologist, but looking at vocalizations/song stuff, does a lot more lab work than field work analyzing vocalizations. maybe studying nocturnal vocalizations during migration of birds across different habitats??? potentially lab mates with estonia. america: ungulates. or maybe specifically cervids. respectfully, as an american, we are overly obsessed with deer. could also see him studying salamanders because they are a special kind of person too that fits the american personality well, and america is home to the most salamander diversity in the world so like. yeah. canada: ducks/loons/grebes, raptors (specifically thinking eagles/hawks), weasels (him being so understated but studying wolverines is funny to me), or fisheries? :/ could also see him being a habitat biologist in general, doing modeling stuff for wider scale land changes? i kind of want him to be a prairie conservationist too. england: botanist is my thought for now? he has a "plant research guy who is 3 years into his phd and kind of regretting his life choices" vibe to me. but he's also the world's crustiest birder outside of his work (b/c uk influenced a lot of the current world birding culture) germany: ngl environmental policy analyst seems up his alley and we need more of those who are good. romania: chiropterist. and before you are like "urg don't stereotype the vampire thing pyrr" it's not that. his personality is just very bat biologist. they are a special kind of people, and i say that with affection, as all the bat people i know are fantastic. specifically could see him being also an entomologist studying the interactions between bats/bugs on farmland to see how bat populations help crop production. still thinking on things though!!! welcome to my niche au.