Time for reflection: Does stream restoration work?
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. For decades, we have tried to improve stream health, but rarely reflect on whether our efforts were successful! Looking back is a crucial step to...
Fish Habitat Section of the American Fisheries Society Blog
Watersheds as state infrastructure – California moves to recognizes natural freshwater resources as integral component of municipal water supplies
In Governor Brown’s Approval of bill AB2480, California took a major step in making its expansive water supply system even larger by including source watersheds within its water infrastructure management and funding scheme. In re-imagining...
A behavioural barrier to keep young fish out of risky environments
Rivers provide us with many important services, including hydroelectricity and irrigation. These services sometimes require physical alterations to the river, such as the implementation of dams or changes to water flow. These alterations can...
Impact of a dam removal on fish habitat
Dams can have a negative impact on fish habitat by altering fish passage and spawning sites. Compared to large high-profile dam removal, small run-of-river dam removals in small upland catchment areas are not well...
Does maintenance of agricultural ditches impact fish that live there?
Drainage ditches at the edges of farm fields are a common sight. We drive along side these ditches and cross them as they travel through culverts under the road. Most of the ditches look...
Fish habitat loss and future efforts towards habitat restoration
Native fish communities of large rivers are on declining due to increasing human interference and natural forces (eg. flood). The science of fish habitat restoration is began with a relatively limited cross section of...
Potential spawning habitat for endangered shortnose sturgeon
Catherine Johnston’s interest in ecology and fisheries research inspired her to pursue a Master of Science degree at the University of Maine studying how the recent removal of two dams might open up critical...
Finding the best model to predict fish distribution
Accurate knowledge of fish distribution and preferred habitat is crucial to managing fisheries using an ecosystem-based management approach. For many fisheries, however, it is difficult to obtain information regarding the spatial distribution of fish...
Warming Freshwaters: How could rising global mean temperatures affect North American fish populations?
Under the current climate change regime, mean global air temperatures are predicted to increase over the next hundred years, with some models estimating as much as a 6.4 oC increase worldwide. This warming trend is currently being...
How many Asian carp does it take to establish a reproductive population in the Laurentian Great Lakes?
There has been growing attention recently about a possible new threat to the Laurentian Great Lakes ecosystem: the invasive Asian carp. You may have even seen footage of these large fish, as video of...
