title: "Grand Canyon" content: the rim within the national park because of a late 1990s crash. The last aerial video footage from below the rim was filmed in 1984. However, some helicopter flights land on the Havasupai and Hualapai Indian Reservations within Grand Canyon (outside of the park boundaries). In 2007, the Hualapai Tribe opened the glass-bottomed Grand Canyon Skywalk on their property, Grand Canyon West. The Skywalk is about by road from Grand Canyon Village at the South Rim. The skywalk has attracted "thousands of visitors a year, most from Las Vegas". In 2016, skydiving at the Grand Canyon become possible with the


title: "Grand Canyon" content: first Grand Canyon Skydiving operation opening up at the Grand Canyon National Park Airport, on the South Rim. In 2014, a developer announced plans to build a multimedia complex on the canyon's rim called the Grand Canyon Escalade. On 420 acres there would be shops, an IMAX theater, hotels and an RV park. A gondola would enable easy visits to the canyon floor where a "riverwalk" of "connected walkways, an eatery, a tramway station, a seating area and a wastewater package plant" would be situated. Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly has indicated agreement; the tribe would have to invest $65


title: "Grand Canyon" content: million for road, water and communication facilities for the $1 billion complex. One of the developers is Navajo and has cited an 8 to 18 percent share of the gross revenue for the tribe as an incentive. Lipan Point is a promontory located on the South Rim. This point is located to the east of the Grand Canyon Village along the Desert View Drive. There is a parking lot for visitors who care to drive along with the canyon's bus service that routinely stops at the point. The trailhead to the Tanner Trail is located just before the parking lot.


title: "Grand Canyon" content: The view from Lipan Point shows a wide array of rock strata and the Unkar Creek area in the inner canyon. About 770 deaths have occurred between the mid 1800s and 2015. Of the fatalities that occurred from 1869 to 2001, some were as follows: 53 resulted from falls; 65 were attributable to environmental causes, including heat stroke, cardiac arrest, dehydration, and hypothermia; 7 were caught in flash floods; 79 were drowned in the Colorado River; 242 perished in airplane and helicopter crashes (128 of them in the 1956 disaster mentioned below); 25 died in freak errors and accidents, including


title: "Grand Canyon" content: lightning strikes and rock falls; and 23 were the victims of homicides. In 1956, the Grand Canyon was the site of the deadliest commercial aviation disaster in history at the time. On the morning of June 30, 1956, a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation and a United Airlines Douglas DC-7 departed Los Angeles International Airport within three minutes of one another on eastbound transcontinental flights. Approximately 90 minutes later, the two propeller-driven airliners collided above the canyon while both were flying in unmonitored airspace. The wreckage of both planes fell into the eastern portion of the canyon, on Temple and Chuar


title: "Grand Canyon" content: Buttes, near the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers. The disaster killed all 128 passengers and crew members aboard both planes. This accident led to the institution of high-altitude airways and direct radar observation of aircraft (known as positive control) by en route ground controllers. History Travel and sites Multimedia Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon (Hopi: "Ongtupqa"; , Navajo: "Tsékooh Hatsoh", Spanish: "Gran Cañón") is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mile (). The canyon and adjacent


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: Bryce Canyon National Park Bryce Canyon National Park () is an American national park located in southwestern Utah. The major feature of the park is Bryce Canyon, which despite its name, is not a canyon, but a collection of giant natural amphitheaters along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. Bryce is distinctive due to geological structures called hoodoos, formed by frost weathering and stream erosion of the river and lake bed sedimentary rocks. The red, orange, and white colors of the rocks provide spectacular views for park visitors. Bryce Canyon National Park is much smaller, and sits at a


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: much higher elevation than nearby Zion National Park. The rim at Bryce varies from . The Bryce Canyon area was settled by Mormon pioneers in the 1850s and was named after Ebenezer Bryce, who homesteaded in the area in 1874. The area around Bryce Canyon was originally designated as a national monument by President Warren G. Harding in 1923 and was redesignated as a national park by Congress in 1928. The park covers and receives substantially fewer visitors than Zion National Park (nearly 4.3 million in 2016) or Grand Canyon National Park (nearly 6 million in 2016), largely due to


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: Bryce's more remote location. In 2016, Bryce Canyon received 2,365,110 recreational visitors, representing an increase of 35% from the prior year. Bryce Canyon National Park is located in southwestern Utah about northeast of and higher than Zion National Park. The weather in Bryce Canyon is therefore cooler, and the park receives more precipitation: a total of per year. Yearly temperatures vary from an average minimum of in January to an average maximum of in July, but extreme temperatures can range from . The record high temperature in the park was on July 14, 2002. The record low temperature was on


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: December 10, 1972. The national park lies within the Colorado Plateau geographic province of North America and straddles the southeastern edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau west of the Paunsaugunt Fault ("Paunsaugunt" is Paiute for "home of the beaver"). Park visitors arrive from the plateau part of the park and look over the plateau's edge toward a valley containing the fault and the Paria River just beyond it ("Paria" is Paiute for "muddy or elk water"). The edge of the Kaiparowits Plateau bounds the opposite side of the valley. Bryce Canyon was not formed from erosion initiated from a central stream,


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: meaning it technically is not a canyon. Instead headward erosion has excavated large amphitheater-shaped features in the Cenozoic-aged rocks of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. This erosion exposed delicate and colorful pinnacles called hoodoos that are up to high. A series of amphitheaters extends more than north-to-south within the park. The largest is Bryce Amphitheater, which is long, wide and deep. A nearby example of amphitheaters with hoodoos in the same formation but at a higher elevation, is in Cedar Breaks National Monument, which is to the west on the Markagunt Plateau. Rainbow Point, the highest part of the park at ,


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: is at the end of the scenic drive. From there, Aquarius Plateau, Bryce Amphitheater, the Henry Mountains, the Vermilion Cliffs and the White Cliffs can be seen. Yellow Creek, where it exits the park in the north-east section, is the lowest part of the park at . Little is known about early human habitation in the Bryce Canyon area. Archaeological surveys of Bryce Canyon National Park and the Paunsaugunt Plateau show that people have been in the area for at least 10,000 years. Basketmaker Anasazi artifacts several thousand years old have been found south of the park. Other artifacts from


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: the Pueblo-period Anasazi and the Fremont culture (up to the mid-12th century) have also been found. The Paiute Indians moved into the surrounding valleys and plateaus in the area around the same time that the other cultures left. These Native Americans hunted and gathered for most of their food, but also supplemented their diet with some cultivated products. The Paiute in the area developed a mythology surrounding the hoodoos (pinnacles) in Bryce Canyon. They believed that hoodoos were the Legend People whom the trickster Coyote turned to stone. At least one older Paiute said his culture called the hoodoos "Anka-ku-was-a-wits",


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: which is Paiute for "red painted faces". It was not until the late 18th and the early 19th century that the first European Americans explored the remote and hard-to-reach area. Mormon scouts visited the area in the 1850s to gauge its potential for agricultural development, use for grazing, and settlement. The first major scientific expedition to the area was led by U.S. Army Major John Wesley Powell in 1872. Powell, along with a team of mapmakers and geologists, surveyed the Sevier and Virgin River area as part of a larger survey of the Colorado Plateaus. His mapmakers kept many of


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: the Paiute place names. Small groups of Mormon pioneers followed and attempted to settle east of Bryce Canyon along the Paria River. In 1873, the Kanarra Cattle Company started to use the area for cattle grazing. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent Scottish immigrant Ebenezer Bryce and his wife Mary to settle land in the Paria Valley because they thought his carpentry skills would be useful in the area. The Bryce family chose to live right below Bryce Amphitheater—the main collection of hoodoos in the park. Bryce grazed his cattle inside what are now park borders, and


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: reputedly thought that the amphitheaters were a "helluva place to lose a cow." He also built a road to the plateau to retrieve firewood and timber, and a canal to irrigate his crops and water his animals. Other settlers soon started to call the unusual place "Bryce's canyon", which was later formalized into Bryce Canyon. A combination of drought, overgrazing and flooding eventually drove the remaining Paiutes from the area and prompted the settlers to attempt construction of a water diversion channel from the Sevier River drainage. When that effort failed, most of the settlers, including the Bryce family, left


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: the area. Bryce moved his family to Arizona in 1880. The remaining settlers dug a ditch from the Sevier's east fork into Tropic Valley. These scenic areas were first described for the public in magazine articles published by Union Pacific and Santa Fe railroads in 1916. People like Forest Supervisor J. W. Humphrey promoted the scenic wonders of Bryce Canyon's amphitheaters, and by 1918 nationally distributed articles also helped to spark interest. However, poor access to the remote area and the lack of accommodations kept visitation to a bare minimum. Ruby Syrett, Harold Bowman and the Perry brothers later built


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: modest lodging, and set up "touring services" in the area. Syrett later served as the first postmaster of Bryce Canyon. Visitation steadily increased, and by the early 1920s the Union Pacific Railroad became interested in expanding rail service into southwestern Utah to accommodate more tourists. At the same time, conservationists became alarmed by the damage overgrazing, logging, and unregulated visitation were having on the fragile features of Bryce Canyon. A movement to have the area protected was soon started, and National Park Service Director Stephen Mather responded by proposing that Bryce Canyon be made into a state park. The governor


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: of Utah and the Utah State Legislature, however, lobbied for national protection of the area. Mather relented and sent his recommendation to President Warren G. Harding, who on June 8, 1923 declared Bryce Canyon a national monument. A road was built the same year on the plateau to provide easy access to outlooks over the amphitheaters. From 1924 to 1925, Bryce Canyon Lodge was built from local timber and stone. Members of the United States Congress started work in 1924 on upgrading Bryce Canyon's protection status from a national monument to a national park in order to establish Utah National


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: Park. A process led by the Utah Parks Company for transferring ownership of private and state-held land in the monument to the federal government started in 1923. The last of the land in the proposed park's borders was sold to the federal government four years later, and on February 25, 1928, the renamed Bryce Canyon National Park was established. In 1931, President Herbert Hoover annexed an adjoining area south of the park, and in 1942 an additional was added. This brought the park's total area to the current figure of . Rim Road, the scenic drive that is still used


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: today, was completed in 1934 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Administration of the park was conducted from neighboring Zion National Park until 1956, when Bryce Canyon's first superintendent started work. The USS "Bryce Canyon" was named for the park and served as a supply and repair ship in the U.S. Pacific Fleet from September 15, 1950, to June 30, 1981. Bryce Canyon Natural History Association (BCNHA) was established in 1961. It runs the bookstore inside the park visitor center and is a non-profit organization created to aid the interpretive, educational and scientific activities of the National Park Service at Bryce


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: Canyon National Park. A portion of the profits from all bookstore sales are donated to public land units. Responding to increased visitation and traffic congestion, the National Park Service implemented a voluntary, summer-only, in-park shuttle system in June 2000. In 2004, reconstruction began on the aging and inadequate road system in the park. The Bryce Canyon area shows a record of deposition that spans from the last part of the Cretaceous period and the first half of the Cenozoic era. The ancient depositional environment of the region around what is now the park varied. The Dakota Sandstone and the Tropic


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: Shale were deposited in the warm, shallow waters of the advancing and retreating Cretaceous Seaway (outcrops of these rocks are found just outside park borders). The colorful Claron Formation, from which the park's delicate hoodoos are carved, was laid down as sediments in a system of cool streams and lakes that existed from 63 to about 40 million years ago (from the Paleocene to the Eocene epochs). Different sediment types were laid down as the lakes deepened and became shallow and as the shoreline and river deltas migrated. Several other formations were also created but were mostly eroded away following


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: two major periods of uplift. The Laramide orogeny affected the entire western part of what would become North America starting about 70 million to 50 million years ago. This event helped to build the Rocky Mountains and in the process closed the Cretaceous Seaway. The Straight Cliffs, Wahweap, and Kaiparowits formations were victims of this uplift. The Colorado Plateaus were uplifted 16 million years ago and were segmented into different plateaus, each separated from its neighbors by faults and each having its own uplift rate. The Boat Mesa Conglomerate and the Sevier River Formation were removed by erosion following this


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: uplift. This uplift created vertical joints, which over time were preferentially eroded. The soft Pink Cliffs of the Claron Formation were eroded to form freestanding pinnacles in badlands called hoodoos, while the more resistant White Cliffs formed monoliths. The brown, pink and red colors are from hematite (iron oxide; ); the yellows from limonite ; and the purples are from pyrolusite (). Also created were arches, natural bridges, walls, and windows. Hoodoos are composed of soft sedimentary rock and are topped by a piece of harder, less easily eroded stone that protects the column from the elements. Bryce Canyon has


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: one of the highest concentrations of hoodoos of any place on Earth. The formations exposed in the area of the park are part of the Grand Staircase. The oldest members of this supersequence of rock units are exposed in the Grand Canyon, the intermediate ones in Zion National Park, and its youngest parts are laid bare in Bryce Canyon area. A small amount of overlap occurs in and around each park. More than 400 native plant species live in the park. There are three life zones in the park based on elevation: The lowest areas of the park are dominated


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: by dwarf forests of pinyon pine and juniper with manzanita, serviceberry, and antelope bitterbrush in between. aspen, cottonwood, water birch, and willow grow along streams. Ponderosa pine forests cover the mid-elevations with blue spruce and Douglas fir in water-rich areas and manzanita and bitterbrush as underbrush. Douglas fir and white fir, along with aspen and Engelmann spruce, make up the forests on the Paunsaugunt Plateau. The harshest areas have limber pine and ancient Great Basin bristlecone pine, some more than 1,600 years old, holding on. The forests and meadows of Bryce Canyon provide the habitat to support diverse animal life


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: including foxes, badgers, porcupines, elk, black bears, bobcats, and woodpeckers. Mule deer are the most common large mammals in the park. Elk and pronghorn, which have been reintroduced nearby, sometimes venture into the park. Bryce Canyon National Park forms part of the habitat of three wildlife species that are listed under the Endangered Species Act: the Utah prairie dog, the California condor, and the southwestern willow flycatcher. The Utah prairie dog is a threatened species that was reintroduced to the park for conservation, and the largest protected population is found within the park's boundaries. About 170 species of birds visit


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: the park each year, including swifts and swallows. Most species migrate to warmer regions in winter, although jays, ravens, nuthatches, eagles, and owls stay. In winter, the mule deer, cougars, and coyotes migrate to lower elevations. Ground squirrels and marmots pass the winter in hibernation. Eleven species of reptiles and four species of amphibians have been found in the park. Reptiles include the Great Basin rattlesnake, short-horned lizard, side-blotched lizard, striped whipsnake, and the tiger salamander. Also in the park are the black, lumpy, very slow-growing colonies of cryptobiotic soil, which are a mix of lichens, algae, fungi, and cyanobacteria.


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: Together these organisms slow erosion, add nitrogen to soil, and help it to retain moisture. Most park visitors sightsee using the scenic drive, which provides access to 13 viewpoints over the amphitheaters. Bryce Canyon has eight marked and maintained hiking trails that can be hiked in less than a day (round trip time, trailhead): Mossy Cave (one hour, State Route 12 northwest of Tropic), Rim Trail (5–6 hours, anywhere on rim), Bristlecone Loop (one hour, Rainbow Point), and Queens Garden (1–2 hours, Sunrise Point) are easy to moderate hikes. Navajo Loop (1–2 hours, Sunset Point) and Tower Bridge (2–3 hours,


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: north of Sunrise Point) are moderate hikes. Fairyland Loop (4–5 hours, Fairyland Point) and Peekaboo Loop (3–4 hours, Bryce Point) are strenuous hikes. Several of these trails intersect, allowing hikers to combine routes for more challenging hikes. The park also has two trails designated for overnight hiking: the Riggs Spring Loop Trail and the Under-the-Rim Trail. Both require a backcountry camping permit. In total there are of trails in the park. More than of marked but ungroomed skiing trails are available off of Fairyland, Paria, and Rim trails in the park. Twenty miles (32 km) of connecting groomed ski trails


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: are in nearby Dixie National Forest and Ruby's Inn. The air in the area is so clear that on most days from Yovimpa and Rainbow points, Navajo Mountain and the Kaibab Plateau can be seen away in Arizona. On extremely clear days, the Black Mesas of eastern Arizona and western New Mexico can be seen some away. The park also has a 7.4 magnitude night sky, making it one of the darkest in North America. Stargazers can, therefore, see 7,500 stars with the naked eye, while in most places fewer than 2,000 can be seen due to light pollution, and


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: in many large cities only a few dozen can be seen. Park rangers host public stargazing events and evening programs on astronomy, nocturnal animals, and night sky protection. The Bryce Canyon Astronomy Festival, typically held in June, attracts thousands of visitors. In honor of this astronomy festival, was named after the national park. There are two campgrounds in the park, North Campground and Sunset Campground. Loop A in North Campground is open year-round. Additional loops and Sunset Campground are open from late spring to early autumn. The 114-room Bryce Canyon Lodge is another way to stay overnight in the park.


title: "Bryce Canyon National Park" content: (image gallery)<br> Bryce Canyon National Park Bryce Canyon National Park () is an American national park located in southwestern Utah. The major feature of the park is Bryce Canyon, which despite its name, is not a canyon, but a collection of giant natural amphitheaters along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. Bryce is distinctive due to geological structures called hoodoos, formed by frost weathering and stream erosion of the river and lake bed sedimentary rocks. The red, orange, and white colors of the rocks provide spectacular views for park visitors. Bryce Canyon National Park is much smaller, and sits


title: "Mount Vesuvius" content: that same day the pumice and ash stopped falling and the sun shone weakly through the cloud, encouraging Pliny and his mother to return to their home and wait for news of Pliny the Elder. Pliny's uncle Pliny the Elder was in command of the Roman fleet at Misenum, and had meanwhile decided to investigate the phenomenon at close hand in a light vessel. As the ship was preparing to leave the area, a messenger came from his friend Rectina (wife of Tascius) living on the coast near the foot of the volcano explaining that her party could only get


title: "Kinder Surprise" content: Kinder Surprise Kinder Surprise, also known as Kinder Egg or Ovetto Kinder ("ovetto" means "small egg" in Italian) or Kinder Surprise Egg, is a candy manufactured by the Italian company Ferrero SpA since 1974. It was co-created by Michele Ferrero and William Salice, and is one of several candies sold under the Kinder brand. Each chocolate egg surrounds a plastic capsule that contains a small toy. Kinder Surprise was originally created with children in mind, replicating an Italian Easter family tradition in which adults give children large chocolate eggs with a toy inside. However, Kinder Surprise toys have become collectible


title: "Asymmetric warfare" content: to the government unable to engage symmetrically with the Syrian government and resorting instead to other asymmetric tactics such as suicide bombings and targeted assassinations. US organisations: Wars Documents: Asymmetric warfare Asymmetric warfare (or asymmetric engagement) is war between belligerents whose relative military power differs significantly, or whose strategy or tactics differ significantly. This is typically a war between a standing, professional army and an insurgency or resistance movement militias who often have status of unlawful combatants. "Asymmetric warfare" can describe a conflict in which the resources of two belligerents differ in essence and in the struggle, interact and attempt


title: Otter content: Otter Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic or marine, with diets based on fish and invertebrates. Lutrinae is a branch of the weasel family Mustelidae, which also includes badgers, honey badgers, martens, minks, polecats, and wolverines. The word "otter" derives from the Old English word "otor" or "oter". This, and cognate words in other Indo-European languages, ultimately stem from the Proto-Indo-European language root *wódr̥, which also gave rise to the English word "water". An otter's den is called a holt or couch. Male otters are called dogs or boars,


title: Otter content: females are called bitches or sows, and their offspring are called pups. The collective nouns for otters are bevy, family, lodge, romp (being descriptive of their often playful nature) or, when in water, raft. The feces of otters are typically identified by their distinctive aroma, the smell of which has been described as ranging from freshly mown hay to putrefied fish; these are known as spraints. The gestation period in otters is about 60 to 86 days. The newborn pup is cared for by the bitch, dog and older offspring. Bitch otters reach sexual maturity at approximately two years of


title: Otter content: age and males at approximately three years. The holt is built under tree roots or a rocky cairn, more common in Scotland. It is lined with moss and grass. After one month, the pup can leave the holt and after two months, it is able to swim. The pup lives with its family for approximately one year. Otters live up to 16 years; they are by nature playful, and frolic in the water with their pups. Its usual source of food is fish, and further downriver, eels, but it may sample frogs and birds. Otters have long, slim bodies and


title: Otter content: relatively short limbs. Their most striking anatomical features are the powerful webbed feet used to swim, and their seal-like abilities holding breath underwater. Most have sharp claws on their feet and all except the sea otter have long, muscular tails. The 13 species range in adult size from in length and in weight. The Asian small-clawed otter is the smallest otter species and the giant otter and sea otter are the largest. They have very soft, insulated underfur, which is protected by an outer layer of long guard hairs. This traps a layer of air which keeps them dry, warm,


title: Otter content: and somewhat buoyant under water. Several otter species live in cold waters and have high metabolic rates to help keep them warm. European otters must eat 15% of their body weight each day, and sea otters 20 to 25%, depending on the temperature. In water as warm as , an otter needs to catch of fish per hour to survive. Most species hunt for three to five hours each day and nursing mothers up to eight hours each day. For most otters, fish is the staple of their diet. This is often supplemented by frogs, crayfish and crabs. Some otters


title: Otter content: are experts at opening shellfish, and others will feed on available small mammals or birds. Prey-dependence leaves otters very vulnerable to prey depletion. Sea otters are hunters of clams, sea urchins and other shelled creatures. They are notable for their ability to use stones to break open shellfish on their stomachs. This skill must be learned by the young. Otters are active hunters, chasing prey in the water or searching the beds of rivers, lakes or the seas. Most species live beside water, but river otters usually enter it only to hunt or travel, otherwise spending much of their time


title: Otter content: on land to prevent their fur becoming waterlogged. Sea otters are considerably more aquatic and live in the ocean for most of their lives. Otters are playful animals and appear to engage in various behaviors for sheer enjoyment, such as making waterslides and then sliding on them into the water. They may also find and play with small stones. Different species vary in their social structure, with some being largely solitary, while others live in groups – in a few species these groups may be fairly large. Genus "Lutra " Genus "Hydrictis" Genus "Lutrogale" Genus "Lontra" Genus "Pteronura" Genus "Amblonyx"


title: Otter content: Genus "Aonyx" Genus "Enhydra" Genus †"Megalenhydris" Genus †"Sardolutra" Genus †"Algarolutra" Genus †"Cyrnaonyx" Genus †"Teruelictis" Genus †"Enhydriodon" Genus †"Enhydritherium" Genus †"Teruelictis" Genus †"Limnonyx" Genus †"Lutravus" Genus †"Sivaonyx" Genus †"Torolutra" Genus †"Tyrrhenolutra" Genus †"Vishnuonyx" Genus †"Siamogale" The European otter ("Lutra lutra"), also called the Eurasian otter, inhabits Europe, most of Asia and parts of North Africa. In the British Isles, they were common as recently as the 1950s, but became rare in many areas due to the use of chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides, habitat loss and water pollution (they remained relatively common in parts of Scotland and Ireland). Population levels reached a low


title: Otter content: point in the 1980s, but are now recovering strongly. The UK Biodiversity Action Plan envisages the re-establishment of otters by 2010 in all the UK rivers and coastal areas they inhabited in 1960. Roadkill deaths have become one of the significant threats to the success of their re-establishment. The North American river otter ("Lontra canadensis") became one of the major animals hunted and trapped for fur in North America after European contact. River otters eat a variety of fish and shellfish, as well as small land mammals and birds. They grow to one meter (3 to 4 ft) in length


title: Otter content: and weigh from five to 15 kilograms (10 to 30 lb). In some areas, this is a protected species, and some places have otter sanctuaries that help sick and injured otters to recover. Sea otters ("Enhydra lutris") are classified as marine mammals and live along the Pacific coast of North America. Their historic range included shallow waters of the Bering Strait and Kamchatka, and as far south as Japan. Sea otters have about 26,000 to 165,000 hairs per square centimeters of skin, a rich fur for which humans hunted them almost to extinction. By the time the 1911 Fur Seal


title: Otter content: Treaty gave them protection, so few sea otters remained that the fur trade had become unprofitable. Sea otters eat shellfish and other invertebrates (especially clams, abalone, and sea urchins). Otter populations are affected by the density of prey they hunt. Because the otter food source is easier to excavate from rocky-bottom habitats, as opposed to soft-bottom habitats, more otters tend to live in waters with rocky bottoms with access to shallow-burrowing prey. They frequently carry a rock in a pouch under their forearm and use this to smash open shells, making them one of the relatively small number of animals


title: Otter content: that use tools. They grow to in length and weigh . Although once near extinction, they have begun to spread again, from remnant populations in California and Alaska. Unlike most marine mammals (such as seals or whales), sea otters do not have a layer of insulating blubber. As with other species of otter, they rely on a layer of air trapped in their fur, which they keep topped up by blowing into the fur from their mouths. They spend most of their time in the water, whereas other otters spend much of their time on land. The giant otter ("Pteronura


title: Otter content: brasiliensis") inhabits South America, especially the Amazon river basin, but is becoming increasingly rare due to poaching, habitat loss, and the use of mercury and other toxins in illegal alluvial gold mining. This gregarious animal grows to a length of up to , and is more aquatic than most other otters. Otters have been hunted for their pelts from at least the 1700s, although it may have begun well before then. Early hunting methods included darts, arrows, nets and snares but later, traps were set on land and guns used. There has been a long history of otter pelts being


title: Otter content: worn around the world. In China it was standard for the royalty to wear robes made from them. People that were financially high in status also wore them. The tails of otters were often made into items for men to wear. These included hats and belts. Even some types of mittens for children have been made from the fur of otters. Otters have also been hunted using dogs, specifically the otterhound. From 1958 to 1963, the 11 otter hunts in England and Wales killed 1,065 otters between them. In such hunts, the hunters notched their poles after every kill. The


title: Otter content: prized trophy that hunters would take from the otters was the penis bone, which would be worn as a tie-pin. Traffic (the wildlife trade monitoring network) reported that otters are at serious risk in Southeast Asia and have disappeared from parts of their former range. This decline in populations is due to hunting to supply the demand for skins. For many generations, fishermen in southern Bangladesh have bred smooth-coated otters and used them to chase fish into their nets. Once a widespread practice, passed down from father to son throughout many communities in Asia, this traditional use of domesticated wild


title: Otter content: animals is still in practice in the district of Narail, Bangladesh. Norse mythology tells of the dwarf Ótr habitually taking the form of an otter. The myth of "Otter's Ransom" is the starting point of the Volsunga saga. In some Native American cultures, otters are considered totem animals. The otter is held to be a clean animal belonging to Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrian belief, and taboo to kill. In popular Korean mythology, it is told that people who see an otter ("soodal") will attract 'rain clouds' for the rest of their lives. In Japanese, otters are called "kawauso" (). In


title: Otter content: Japanese folklore, they fool humans in the same way as foxes (kitsune) and tanuki. In the Noto region, Ishikawa Prefecture, there are stories where they shapeshift into beautiful women or children wearing checker-patterned clothing. If a human attempts to speak to one, they will answer "oraya" and then answer "araya," and if anybody asks them anything, they say cryptic things like "kawai." There are darker stories, such as one from Kaga Province (now Ishikawa Prefecture) in which an otter that lives in the castle's moat shapeshifts into a woman, invites males, and then kills and eats them. In the kaidan,


title: Otter content: essays, and legends of the Edo period like the "Urami Kanawa" (), "Taihei Hyaku Monogatari" (), and the "Shifu Goroku" (), there are tales about strange occurrences like otters that shapeshift into beautiful women and kill men. In the town of Numatachi, Asa District, Hiroshima Prefecture (now Hiroshima), they are called "tomo no kawauso" () and "ato no kawauso" (). It is said that they shapeshift into bōzu (a kind of monk) and appear before passers-by, and if the passer-by tries to get close and look up, its height steadily increases until it becomes a large bōzu. In the Tsugaru


title: Otter content: region, Aomori Prefecture, they are said to possess humans. It is said that those possessed by otters lose their stamina as if their soul has been extracted. They are also said to shapeshift into severed heads and get caught in fishing nets. In the Kashima District and the Hakui District in Ishikawa Prefecture, they are seen as a yōkai under the name "kabuso" or "kawaso". They perform pranks like extinguishing the fire of the paper lanterns of people who walk on roads at night, shapeshifting into a beautiful woman of 18–19 years of age and fooling people, or tricking people


title: Otter content: and making them try to engage in sumo against a rock or a tree stump. It is said that they speak human words, and sometimes people are called and stopped while walking on roads. In the Ishikawa and Kochi Prefectures, they are said to be a type of kappa, and there are stories told about how they engage in sumo with otters. In places like the Hokuriku region, Kii, and Shikoku, the otters are seen as a type of kappa. In the Kagakushū, a dictionary from the Muromachi period, an otter that grew old becomes a kappa. In an Ainu


title: Otter content: folktale, in Urashibetsu (in Abashiri, Hokkaido), there are stories where monster otters shapeshift into humans, go into homes where there are beautiful girls, and try to kill the girl and make her its wife. In China, like in Japan, there are stories where otters shapeshift into beautiful women in old books like "In Search of the Supernatural" and the "Zhenyizhi" (). Otter Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic or marine, with diets based on fish and invertebrates. Lutrinae is a branch of the weasel family Mustelidae, which also includes


title: "4 Vesta" content: the asteroids were considered to be planets), he gave the honor of naming his new discovery to German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, whose orbital calculations had enabled astronomers to confirm the existence of Ceres, the first asteroid, and who had computed the orbit of the new planet in the remarkably short time of 10 hours. Gauss decided on the Roman virgin goddess of home and hearth, Vesta. Vesta was the fourth asteroid to be discovered, hence the number 4 in its formal designation. The name "Vesta", or national variants thereof, is in international use with two exceptions: Greece and China.


title: Perch content: Perch Perch is a common name for fish of the genus Perca, freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which there are three species in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Perciformes, from the Greek "perke", simply meaning "perch", and the Latin "forma" meaning "shape". Many species of freshwater gamefish more or less resemble perch, but belong to different genera. In fact, the exclusively saltwater-dwelling red drum is often referred to as a red perch, though by definition perch are freshwater fish. Though many fish are referred to as perch


title: Perch content: as a common name, to be considered a true perch, the fish must be of the family Percidae. The type species for this genus is the European perch, "Perca fluviatilis". Most authorities recognize three species within the perch genus: The general body type of a perch is somewhat long and rounded. True perch have "rough" or ctenoid scales. On the anterior side of the head are the maxilla and lower mandible for the mouth, a pair of nostrils, and two lidless eyes. On the posterior sides are the opercular series, which protect the gills, and the lateral line system, which


title: Perch content: is sensitive to vibrations in the water. The kidney of the perch runs along the backbone and forms a head, caudal to the gills. Perch have paired pectoral and pelvic fins, and two dorsal fins, the first one spiny and the second soft. These two fins can be separate or joined. Perch are carnivorous fish most commonly found in small ponds, lakes, streams, or rivers. These fish feed on smaller fish, shellfish, or insect larvae, but can be caught with nearly any bait. They commonly spawn during the spring, when the females lay strings of eggs in covered areas such


title: Perch content: as near branches or underwater plants. Perch have a wide distribution throughout the world, and are very plentiful in the Great Lakes, especially Lake Erie. Perch are popular sport fish species. They are known to put up a fight, and to be good eating. They can be caught with a variety of methods, including float fishing, lure fishing and legering. The best way is to use a small hook and cast into the weeds just before the drop off. When fishing with bait, the angler will want to have a disgorger; perch are notorious for swallowing the hook, and will


title: Perch content: need aid of a disgorger or forceps for unhooking. In many parts of the world, they are also a favourite species among ice fishermen. They will take a variety of baits, including minnows, worms, maggots, goldfish, pieces of raw bacon, prawn, and softshell crayfish, but seem to prefer shrimp (Caridina, Neocaridina, Palaemon), Krill, small fish, lobworms, ragworms, red maggots, and lures. Fly fishing for perch using patterns that imitate small fry or invertebrates can be successful. The record weight for this fish in Britain is 6 lb 3 oz (2.81 kg), and in America 6 lb 4 oz (2.83 kg).


title: Perch content: Perch grow to around 50 cm / or more, but the most common fish to be caught are around 30 cm (1 ft) / or less, and anything over 40 cm / is considered a prize catch. Perch have often formed a critical part of the total weight caught by an angler during a competition. In 2016 it was recorded that angler Ross Winfield failed to weigh a perch during a competition that cost him a top 5 place (often called 'framing' on the UK match fishing circuit). Unfortunately, he later found the perch in his keep net. Perch Perch


title: Bluefish content: Bluefish The bluefish ("Pomatomus saltatrix") is the only extant species of the family Pomatomidae. It is a marine pelagic fish found around the world in temperate and subtropical waters, except for the northern Pacific Ocean. Bluefish are known as tailor in Australia, elf in South Africa, and shad in Natal. Other common names are blue, chopper, and anchoa. It is a popular gamefish and food fish. The bluefish is a moderately proportioned fish, with a broad, forked tail. The spiny first dorsal fin is normally folded back in a groove, as are its pectoral fins. Coloration is a grayish blue-green


title: Bluefish content: dorsally, fading to white on the lower sides and belly. Its single row of teeth in each jaw is uniform in size, knife-edged, and sharp. Bluefish commonly range in size from seven-inch (18-cm) "snappers" to much larger, sometimes weighing as much as 40 lb (18 kg), though fish heavier than 20 lb (9 kg) are exceptional. Bluefish are widely distributed around the world in tropical and subtropical waters. They are found in pelagic waters on much of the continental shelves along eastern America (though not between south Florida and northern South America), Africa, the Mediterranean and Black Seas (and during


title: Bluefish content: migration in between), Southeast Asia, and Australia. They are found in a variety of coastal habitats: above the continental shelf, in energetic waters near surf beaches, or by rock headlands. They also enter estuaries and inhabit brackish waters. Periodically, they leave the coasts and migrate in schools through open waters. Along the U.S. East Coast, bluefish are found off Florida in the winter. By April, they have disappeared, heading north. By June, they may be found off Massachusetts; in years of high abundance, stragglers may be found as far north as Nova Scotia. By October, they leave the waters north


title: Bluefish content: of New York City, heading south (whereas some bluefish, perhaps less migratory, are present in the Gulf of Mexico throughout the year). In a similar pattern overall, the economically significant population that spawns in Europe's Black Sea migrates south through Istanbul (Bosphorus, Sea of Marmara, Dardanelles, Aegean Sea) and on toward Turkey's Mediterranean coast in the autumn for the cold season. Along the South African coast and environs, movement patterns are roughly in parallel. Adult bluefish are typically between 20 and 60 cm long, with a maximum reported size of 120 cm and 14 kg. They reproduce during spring and


title: Bluefish content: summer, and can live up to 9 years. Bluefish fry are zooplankton, and are largely at the mercy of currents. Spent bluefish have been found off east-central Florida, migrating north. As with most marine fish, their spawning habits are not well known. In the western side of the North Atlantic, at least two populations occur, separated by Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. The Gulf Stream can carry fry spawned to the south of Cape Hatteras to the north, and eddies can spin off, carrying them into populations found off the coast of the mid-Atlantic, and the New England states. Adult


title: Bluefish content: bluefish are strong and aggressive, and live in loose groups. They are fast swimmers which prey on schools of forage fish, and continue attacking them in feeding frenzies even after they appear to have eaten their fill. Depending on area and season, they favor menhaden and other sardine-like fish (Clupeidae), jacks (Scombridae), weakfish (Sciaenidae), grunts (Haemulidae), striped anchovies (Engraulidae), shrimp, and squid. They are cannibalistic and can destroy their own young. Bluefish sometimes chase bait through the surf zone, attacking schools in very shallow water, churning the water like a washing machine. This behavior is sometimes referred to as a


title: Bluefish content: "bluefish blitz". In turn, bluefish are preyed upon by larger predators at all stages of their lifecycle. As juveniles, they fall victim to a wide variety of oceanic predators, including striped bass, larger bluefish, fluke (summer flounder), weakfish, tuna, sharks, rays, and dolphins. As adults, bluefish are taken by tuna, sharks, billfish, seals, sea lions, dolphins, porpoises, and many other species. Bluefish are aggressive and have been known to inflict severe bites on fishermen. Wading or swimming among feeding bluefish schools can be dangerous. In July 2006, a seven-year-old girl was attacked on a beach, near the Spanish town of


title: Bluefish content: Alicante, allegedly by a bluefish. As other fish, bluefish harbour a number of parasites. One spectacular parasite is "Philometra saltatrix", a philometrid nematode in the ovaries. The females are brownish red and may be as long as 80 mm; the males are very small. In Australia Bluefish, called 'tailor', are caught on the west coast from Exmouth to Albany with the most productive fishing areas being in the west coast bioregion. The IGFA All Tackle World Record for Bluefish stands at 31 lb 12oz (14.4 kg) landed by James Hussey near Hatteras, North Carolina. In the U.S., bluefish are landed


title: Bluefish content: primarily in recreational fisheries, but important commercial fisheries also exist in temperate and subtropical waters. Bluefish population abundance is typically cyclical, with abundance varying widely over a span of 10 years or more. Bluefish is a popular sport and food fish, and has been widely overfished. Fisheries management has generally stabilized its population. In the middle Atlantic region of the U.S., bluefish were at heavily overfished in the late 1990s, but active management rebuilt the stock by 2007. Elsewhere, public awareness efforts, such as bluefish festivals, combined with catch limits, may be having positive effects in reducing the stress on


title: Bluefish content: the regional stocks. Some of these efforts are regionally controversial. Bluefish may be grilled, baked, poached, or smoked. Except for the very smallest ones ("snapper blues"), they are generally not fried as they are already very oily. Because of its fattiness, bluefish goes rancid rapidly, so it is generally not found far from its fisheries, but where it is available, it is often inexpensive. It must be refrigerated and consumed soon after purchase; some recipes call for keeping it in vinegar and wine before cooking, in "vina d'alhos" or "en escabeche". By the same token, it is high in omega-3


title: Bluefish content: fatty acids, but also in mercury and PCBs, containing the high level of about 0.4ppm of mercury on average, comparable to albacore tuna or Spanish mackerel. For that reason, the U.S. FDA recommends that young children and women of childbearing age consume no more than one serving per week (a serving size is about 4 ounces uncooked for an adult, 2 ounces for children ages 4–7 years, 3 ounces for children ages 8–10 years and 4 ounces for children 11 years and older). The bluefish is the only extant species now included in the family Pomatomidae. At one time, gnomefishes


title: Bluefish content: were included, but these are now grouped in a separate family, Scombropidae. One extinct relative of the bluefish is "Lophar miocaenius", from the Late Miocene of Southern California. The Bridgeport Bluefish were a team in America’s Atlantic League of Professional Baseball representing Bridgeport, Connecticut from 1997-2017. The teams mascot and logo is an anthropomorphic Bluefish named B.B. who was born off Cape Hatteras. Bluefish The bluefish ("Pomatomus saltatrix") is the only extant species of the family Pomatomidae. It is a marine pelagic fish found around the world in temperate and subtropical waters, except for the northern Pacific Ocean. Bluefish are


title: Catfish content: Catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia, the wels catfish of Eurasia and the piraíba of South America, to detritivores (species that eat dead material on the bottom), and even to a tiny parasitic species commonly called the candiru, "Vandellia cirrhosa". There are armour-plated types and there are also naked types, neither having scales. Despite their name, not all catfish have prominent barbels. Members


title: Catfish content: of the Siluriformes order are defined by features of the skull and swimbladder. Catfish are of considerable commercial importance; many of the larger species are farmed or fished for food. Many of the smaller species, particularly the genus "Corydoras", are important in the aquarium hobby. Many catfish are nocturnal, but others (many Auchenipteridae) are crepuscular or diurnal (most Loricariidae or Callichthyidae, for example). Extant catfish species live inland or in coastal waters of every continent except Antarctica. Catfish have inhabited all continents at one time or another. Catfish are most diverse in tropical South America, Asia and Africa with one


title: Catfish content: family native to North America and one family in Europe. More than half of all catfish species live in the Americas. They are the only ostariophysans that have entered freshwater habitats in Madagascar, Australia, and New Guinea. They are found in freshwater environments, though most inhabit shallow, running water. Representatives of at least eight families are hypogean (live underground) with three families that are also troglobitic (inhabiting caves). One such species is "Phreatobius cisternarum", known to live underground in phreatic habitats. Numerous species from the families Ariidae and Plotosidae, and a few species from among the Aspredinidae and Bagridae, are


title: Catfish content: found in salt water. In the Southern United States, catfish species may be known by a variety of slang names, such as "mud cat", "polliwogs", or "chuckleheads". These nicknames are not standardized, so one area may call a bullhead catfish by the nickname "chucklehead", while in another state or region, that nickname refers to the blue catfish. Representatives of the genus "Ictalurus" have been introduced into European waters in the hope of obtaining a sporting and food resource. However, the European stock of American catfishes has not achieved the dimensions of these fish in their native waters, and have only


title: Catfish content: increased the ecological pressure on native European fauna. Walking catfish have also been introduced in the freshwaters of Florida, with the voracious catfish becoming a major alien pest there. Flathead catfish, "Pylodictis olivaris", is also a North American pest on Atlantic slope drainages. "Pterygoplichthys" species, released by aquarium fishkeepers, have also established feral populations in many warm waters around the world. Most catfish are bottom feeders. In general, they are negatively buoyant, which means that they will usually sink rather than float due to a reduced gas bladder and a heavy, bony head. Catfish have a variety of body shapes,


title: Catfish content: though most have a cylindrical body with a flattened ventrum to allow for benthic feeding. A flattened head allows for digging through the substrate as well as perhaps serving as a hydrofoil. Some have a mouth that can expand to a large size and contains no incisiform teeth; catfish generally feed through suction or gulping rather than biting and cutting prey. However, some families, notably Loricariidae and Astroblepidae, have a suckermouth that allows them to fasten themselves to objects in fast-moving water. Catfish also have a maxilla reduced to a support for barbels; this means that they are unable to


title: Catfish content: protrude their mouths as other fish such as carp. Catfish may have up to four pairs of barbels: nasal, maxillary (on each side of mouth), and two pairs of chin barbels, even though pairs of barbels may be absent depending on the species. Catfish barbels always come as pairs. Many larger catfish also have chemoreceptors across their entire bodies, which means they "taste" anything they touch and "smell" any chemicals in the water. "In catfish, gustation plays a primary role in the orientation and location of food". Because their barbels and chemoreception are more important in detecting food, the eyes


title: Catfish content: on catfish are generally small. Like other ostariophysans, they are characterized by the presence of a Weberian apparatus. Their well-developed Weberian apparatus and reduced gas bladder allow for improved hearing as well as sound production. Catfish do not have scales; their bodies are often naked. In some species, the mucus-covered skin is used in cutaneous respiration, where the fish breathes through its skin. In some catfish, the skin is covered in bony plates called scutes; some form of body armor appears in various ways within the order. In loricarioids and in the Asian genus "Sisor", the armor is primarily made


title: Catfish content: up of one or more rows of free dermal plates. Similar plates are found in large specimens of "Lithodoras". These plates may be supported by vertebral processes, as in scoloplacids and in "Sisor", but the processes never fuse to the plates or form any external armor. By contrast, in the subfamily Doumeinae (family Amphiliidae) and in hoplomyzontines (Aspredinidae), the armor is formed solely by expanded vertebral processes that form plates. Finally, the lateral armor of doradids, "Sisor", and hoplomyzontines consists of hypertrophied lateral line ossicles with dorsal and ventral lamina. All catfish, except members of Malapteruridae (electric catfish), possess a


title: Catfish content: strong, hollow, bony leading spine-like ray on their dorsal and pectoral fins. As a defense, these spines may be locked into place so that they stick outwards, which can inflict severe wounds. In several species catfish can use these fin rays to deliver a stinging protein if the fish is irritated. This venom is produced by glandular cells in the epidermal tissue covering the spines. In members of the family Plotosidae, and of the genus "Heteropneustes", this protein is so strong it may hospitalize humans who are unfortunate enough to receive a sting; in "Plotosus lineatus", the stings may result


title: Catfish content: in death. Juvenile catfish, like most fish, have relatively large heads, eyes and posterior median fins in comparison to larger, more mature individuals. These juveniles can be readily placed in their families, particularly those with highly derived fin or body shapes; in some cases identification of the genus is possible. As far as known for most catfish, features that are often characteristic of species such as mouth and fin positions, fin shapes, and barbel lengths show little difference between juveniles and adults. For many species, pigmentation pattern is also similar in juveniles and adults. Thus, juvenile catfishes generally resemble and


title: Catfish content: develop smoothly into their adult form without distinct juvenile specializations. Exceptions to this are the ariid catfishes, where the young retain yolk sacs late into juvenile stages, and many pimelodids, which may have elongated barbels and fin filaments or coloration patterns. Sexual dimorphism is reported in about half of all families of catfish. The modification of the anal fin into an intromittent organ (in internal fertilizers) as well as accessory structures of the reproductive apparatus (in both internal and external fertilizers) have been described in species belonging to 11 different families. Catfish have one of the greatest ranges in size


title: Catfish content: within a single order of bony fish. Many catfish have a maximum length of under 12 cm. Some of the smallest species of Aspredinidae and Trichomycteridae reach sexual maturity at only . The wels catfish, "Silurus glanis", and the much smaller related Aristotle's catfish are the only catfish indigenous to Europe: the former ranging throughout Europe, and the latter restricted to Greece. Mythology and literature record wels catfish of astounding proportions, yet to be proven scientifically. The average size of the species is about 1.2–1.6 m (3.9–5.2 ft), and fish more than are rare. However, they are known to exceed


title: Catfish content: in length and in weight. In July 2009, a catfish weighing was caught in the River Ebro, Spain, by an 11-year-old British schoolgirl. In North America the largest "Ictalurus furcatus" (Blue catfish) caught in the Missouri River on 20 July 2010, weighed . The largest flathead catfish, "Pylodictis olivaris", ever caught was in Independence, Kansas, weighing . These records pale in comparison to a giant Mekong catfish caught in northern Thailand on 1 May 2005 and reported to the press almost 2 months later that weighed . This is the largest giant Mekong catfish caught since Thai officials started keeping


title: Catfish content: records in 1981. This species is not well studied since it lives in developing countries and it is quite possible it can grow even larger. Also in Asia, Jeremy Wade caught a Goonch following three fatal attacks on humans in the Kali River on the India-Nepal border. Wade was of the opinion that the offending fish must have been significantly larger than this to have taken an 18-year-old boy as well as a water buffalo. Piraíba "(Brachyplatystoma filamentosum)" can grow exceptionally large and are native to the Amazon basin. They can occasionally grow to 400 lbs, as evidenced by numerous


title: Catfish content: catches. There are also reports in the region of deaths from being swallowed by these fish. In many catfish, the "humeral process" is a bony process extending backward from the pectoral girdle immediately above the base of the pectoral fin. It lies beneath the skin where its outline may be determined by dissecting the skin or probing with a needle. The retina of catfish are composed of single cones and large rods. Many catfish have a tapetum lucidum which may help enhance photon capture and increase low-light sensitivity. Double cones, though present in most teleosts, are absent from catfish. The


title: Catfish content: anatomical organization of the testis in catfish is variable among the families of catfish, but the majority of them present fringed testis: Ictaluridae, Claridae, Auchenipteridae, Doradidae, Pimelodidae, and Pseudopimelodidae. In the testes of some species of Siluriformes, organs and structures such as a spermatogenic cranial region and a secretory caudal region are observed, in addition to the presence of seminal vesicles in the caudal region. The total number of fringes and their length are different in the caudal and cranial portions between species. Fringes of the caudal region may present tubules, in which the lumen is filled by secretion and


title: Catfish content: spermatozoa. Spermatocysts are formed from cytoplasmic extensions of Sertoli cells; the release of spermatozoa is allowed by breaking of the cyst walls. The occurrence of seminal vesicles, in spite of their interspecific variability in size, gross morphology and function, has not been related to the mode of fertilization. They are typically paired, multi-chambered, and connected with the sperm duct, and have been reported to play a glandular and a storage function. Seminal vesicle secretion may include steroids and steroid glucuronides, with hormonal and pheromonal functions, but it appears to be primarily constituted of mucoproteins, acid mucopolysaccharides, and phospholipids. Fish ovaries


title: Catfish content: may be of two types: gymnovarian or cystovarian. In the first type, the oocytes are released directly into the coelomic cavity and then eliminated. In the second type, the oocytes are conveyed to the exterior through the oviduct. Many catfish are cystovarian in type, including "Pseudoplatystoma corruscans", "P. fasciatum", "Lophiosilurus alexandri", and "Loricaria lentiginosa". Catfish can produce different types of sounds and also have well-developed auditory reception used to discriminate between sounds with different pitches and velocities. They are also able to determine the distance of the sound's origin and from what direction it originated. This is a very important


title: Catfish content: fish communication mechanism, especially during agonistic and distress behaviors. Catfish are able to produce a variety of sounds for communication that can be classified into two groups: drumming sounds and stridulation sounds. The variability in catfish sound signals differs due to a few factors: the mechanism by which the sound is produced, the function of the resulting sound, and physiological differences such as size, sex, and age. To create a drumming sound, catfish use an indirect vibration mechanism using a swimbladder. In these fishes, sonic muscles insert on the ramus Mulleri, also known as the elastic spring. The sonic muscles


title: Catfish content: pull the elastic spring forward and extend the swimbladder. When the muscles relax, the tension in the spring quickly returns the swimbladder to its original position, which produces the sound. Catfish also have a sound-generating mechanism in their pectoral fins. Many species in the catfish family possess an enhanced first pectoral fin ray, called the spine, which can be moved by large abductor and adductor muscles. The base of the catfishes' spines has a sequence of ridges, and the spine normally slides within a groove on the fish's pelvic girdle during routine movement; but, pressing the ridges on the spine


title: Catfish content: against the pelvic girdle groove creates a series of short pulses. The movement is analogous to a finger moving down the teeth of a comb, and consequently a series of sharp taps is produced. Sound-generating mechanisms are often different between genders. In some catfishes, pectoral fins are longer in males than in females of similar length, and differences in the characteristic of the sounds produced were also observed. Comparison between families of the same order of catfish demonstrated family and species-specific patterns of vocalization, according to a study by Maria Clara Amorim. During courtship behavior in three species of "Corydoras"


title: Catfish content: catfishes, all males actively produced stridulation sounds before egg fertilization, and the species' songs were different in pulse number and sound duration. Sound production in catfish may also be correlated with fighting and alarm calls. According to a study by Kaatz, sounds for disturbance (e.g. alarm) and agonistic behavior were not significantly different, which suggests distress sounds can be used to sample variation in agonistic sound production. However, in a comparison of a few different species of tropical catfish, some fish put under distress conditions produced a higher intensity of stridulatory sounds than drumming sounds. Differences in the proportion of


title: Catfish content: drumming versus stridulation sounds depend on morphological constraints, such as different sizes of drumming muscles and pectoral spines. Due to these constraints, some fish may not even be able to produce a specific sound. In several different species of catfish, aggressive sound production occurs during cover site defense or during threats from other fish. More specifically, in long-whiskered catfishes, drumming sounds are used as a threatening signal and stridulations are used as a defense signal. Kaatz investigated 83 species from 14 families of catfish, and determined that catfishes produce more stridulatory sounds in disturbance situations and more swimbladder sounds in


title: Catfish content: intraspecific conflicts. Catfish are easy to farm in warm climates, leading to inexpensive and safe food at local grocers. About 60% of U.S. farm-raised catfish are grown within a 65-mile (100-km) radius of Belzoni, Mississippi. Channel catfish ("Ictalurus punctatus") supports a $450 million/yr aquaculture industry. The largest producers are located in the Southern United States, including Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas. Catfish raised in inland tanks or channels are considered safe for the environment, since their waste and disease should be contained and not spread to the wild. In Asia, many catfish species are important as food. Several walking catfish (Clariidae)


title: Catfish content: and shark catfish (Pangasiidae) species are heavily cultured in Africa and Asia. Exports of one particular shark catfish species from Vietnam, "Pangasius bocourti", has met with pressures from the U.S. catfish industry. In 2003, The United States Congress passed a law preventing the imported fish from being labeled as catfish. As a result, the Vietnamese exporters of this fish now label their products sold in the U.S. as "basa fish." Trader Joe's has labeled frozen fillets of Vietnamese "Pangasius hypophthalmus" as "striper." There is a large and growing ornamental fish trade, with hundreds of species of catfish, such as "Corydoras"


title: Catfish content: and armored suckermouth catfish (often called plecos), being a popular component of many aquaria. Other catfish commonly found in the aquarium trade are banjo catfish, talking catfish, and long-whiskered catfish. Catfish have widely been caught and farmed for food for hundreds of years in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Judgments as to the quality and flavor vary, with some food critics considering catfish excellent to eat, while others dismiss them as watery and lacking in flavor. Catfish is high in vitamin D. Farm-raised catfish contains low levels of omega-3 fatty acids and a much higher proportion of omega-6 fatty


title: Catfish content: acids. In Central Europe, catfish were often viewed as a delicacy to be enjoyed on feast days and holidays. Migrants from Europe and Africa to the United States brought along this tradition, and in the Southern United States, catfish is an extremely popular food. The most commonly eaten species in the United States are the channel catfish and the blue catfish, both of which are common in the wild and increasingly widely farmed. Farm-raised catfish became such a staple of the diet of the United States that on 25 June 1987, President Ronald Reagan established National Catfish Day to recognize


title: Catfish content: "the value of farm-raised catfish." Catfish is eaten in a variety of ways. In Europe it is often cooked in similar ways to carp, but in the United States it is popularly crumbed with cornmeal and fried. In Indonesia, catfish is usually served fried or grilled in street stalls called "warung" and eaten with vegetables and sambal; the dish is called "pecel lele" or "pecak lele". The same dish can also be called as "lele penyet" (squashed catfish) if the fish is lightly squashed along with sambal in the stone mortar. The pecel/pecak version present the fish in separate plate


title: Catfish content: while the stone mortar is solely for sambal ("Lele" is the Indonesian word for catfish.) In Malaysia catfish, called "ikan keli", is fried with spices or grilled and eaten with tamarind and Thai chillies gravy and also is often eaten with steamed rice. In Bangladesh and the Indian states of Odisha, West Bengal and Assam catfish (locally known as Magur) is eaten as a favored delicacy during the monsoons. Catfish, locally known as "thedu or "etta in Malayalam, is popular in the Indian state Kerala. In Hungary catfish is often cooked in paprika sauce (Harcsapaprikás) typical of Hungarian cuisine. It


title: Catfish content: is traditionally served with pasta smothered with curd cheese (túrós csusza). In Myanmar (formally Burma), catfish is usually used in Mohinga, a traditional noodle fish soup cooked with lemon grass, ginger, garlic, pepper, banana steam, onions, and other local ingredients. Vietnamese catfish (Pangasius) cannot be legally marketed as catfish in the United States, and so is referred to as "swai" or "basa" Only fish of the family Ictaluridae may be marketed as catfish in the United States. In the UK, Vietnamese catfish is sold as "Vietnamese river cobbler". In Nigeria, catfish is often cooked in a variety of stews. It


title: Catfish content: is particularly cooked in a delicacy popularly known as "Catfish Pepper Soup" which is enjoyed throughout the nation. Fish must have fins and scales to be kosher. Since catfish lacks scales, they are not kosher. While the vast majority of catfish are harmless to humans, a few species are known to present some risk. Many catfish species have “stings” (actually non-venomous in most cases) embedded behind their fins; thus precautions must be taken when handling them. The catfish are a monophyletic group. This is supported by molecular evidence. Catfish belong to a superorder called the Ostariophysi, which also includes the


title: Catfish content: Cypriniformes, Characiformes, Gonorynchiformes and Gymnotiformes, a superorder characterized by the Weberian apparatus. Some place Gymnotiformes as a sub-order of Siluriformes, however this is not as widely accepted. Currently, the Siluriformes are said to be the sister group to the Gymnotiformes, though this has been debated due to more recent molecular evidence. there are about 36 extant catfish families, and about 3,093 extant species have been described. This makes the catfish order the second or third most diverse vertebrate order; in fact, 1 out of every 20 vertebrate species is a catfish. The taxonomy of catfish is quickly changing. In a


title: Catfish content: 2007 and 2008 paper, "Horabagrus", "Phreatobius", and "Conorhynchos" were not classified under any current catfish families. There is disagreement on the family status of certain groups; for example, Nelson (2006) lists Auchenoglanididae and Heteropneustidae as separate families, while the All Catfish Species Inventory (ACSI) includes them under other families. Also, FishBase and the Integrated Taxonomic Information System lists Parakysidae as a separate family, while this group is included under Akysidae by both Nelson (2006) and ACSI. Many sources do not list the recently revised family Anchariidae. The family Horabagridae, including "Horabagrus", "Pseudeutropius", and "Platytropius", is also not shown by some


title: Catfish content: authors but presented by others as a true group. Thus, the actual number of families differs between authors. The species count is in constant flux due to taxonomic work as well as description of new species. On the other hand, our understanding of catfish should increase in the next few years due to work by the ACSI. The rate of description of new catfish is at an all-time high. Between 2003 and 2005, over 100 species have been named, a rate three times faster than that of the past century. In June 2005, researchers named the newest family of catfish,


title: Catfish content: Lacantuniidae, only the third new family of fish distinguished in the last 70 years (others being the coelacanth in 1938 and the megamouth shark in 1983). The new species in Lacantuniidae, "Lacantunia enigmatica", was found in the Lacantun river in the Mexican state of Chiapas. The higher-level phylogeny of Siluriformes has gone through several recent changes, mainly due to molecular phylogenetic studies. While most studies, both morphological and molecular, agree that catfishes are arranged into three main lineages, the relationship among these lineages has been a contentious point in which morphological and molecular phylogenetic studies differ. The three main lineages


title: Catfish content: in Siluriformes are the family Diplomystidae, the denticulate catfish suborder Loricarioidei (which includes the families Nematogenyidae, Trichomycteridae, Callichthyidae, Scoloplacidae, Astroblepidae, and Loricariidae, which is sometimes referred to as the superfamily Loricarioidea), and the suborder Siluroidei, which contains the remaining families of the order. According to morphological data, Diplomystidae is usually considered to be the earliest branching catfish lineage and the sister group to the other two lineages, Loricarioidei and Siluroidei. Molecular evidence usually contrasts with this hypothesis, and shows the suborder Loricarioidei as the earliest branching catfish lineage, and sister to a clade that includes the Diplomystidae and Siluroidei. While


title: Catfish content: in the first study this relationship was proposed the "morphological" hypothesis could not be rejected, the new, "molecular" phylogenetic hypothesis was later obtained in numerous other phylogenetic studies based on genetic data. However, a recent study based on molecular data argued that the previous "molecular" hypothesis is the result of phylogenetic artifacts due to a strong heterogeneity in evolutionary rates among siluriform lineages. In that study it was suggested that the fast evolution of the Loricarioidei suborder was attracting this clade to the outgroups through long branch attraction, incorrectly placing it as the earliest-branching catfish lineage. When a data filtering


title: Catfish content: method was used to reduce lineage rate heterogeneity (the potential source of bias) on their dataset, a final phylogeny was recovered which showed the Diplomystidae are the earliest-branching catfish, followed by Loricarioidei and Siluroidei as sister lineages. Thus, there is currently both morphological "and" molecular evidence for a higher-level phylogenetic arrangement of Siluriformes in which Diplomystidae is the earliest branching catfish, sister to a clade including the Loricarioidei and Siluroidei suborders. Below is a list of family relationships by different authors. Lacantuniidae is included in the Sullivan scheme based on recent evidence that places it sister to Claroteidae. Phylogeny of


title: Catfish content: living Siluriformes based on 2017 and extinct families based on Nelson, Grande & Wilson 2016. Unassigned families: By information from International Game Fish Association IGFA the most outstanding record: Catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia, the wels catfish of Eurasia and the piraíba of South America, to detritivores (species that eat dead material on the bottom), and even to a tiny parasitic species


title: "Fishing reel" content: fish being targeted. Often it is a matter of "feel" and knowing the setup to get the drag right. With spinning reels, closed-face reels and conventional reels with star drags, a good starting point is to set the drag to about one-third to one-half the breaking strength of the line. For example, if the line is rated at test, a drag setting that requires of force on the line to move the spool would be appropriate. This is only a rule of thumb. For lever drag reels with a strike position, most anglers start by setting the drag at the


title: Micropterus content: Micropterus Micropterus is a genus of freshwater fish in the sunfish family (family Centrarchidae) of order Perciformes. The species of this genus are known as the black bass. The black bass are sometimes erroneously called black trout, but the name trout more correctly refers to certain members of the salmon family. The black bass are distributed throughout a large area east of the Rocky Mountains in North America, from the Hudson Bay basin in Canada to northeastern Mexico. Several species, notably the largemouth and smallmouth basses, have been very widely introduced throughout the world, and are now considered cosmopolitan. Black


title: Micropterus content: bass of all species are highly sought-after game fish, and bass fishing is an extremely popular sport throughout the bass's native range. These fish are well known as strong fighters, and their meat is eaten, being quite edible and firm. All "Micropterus" species have a dull-green base coloring with dark patterns on the sides. Most reach a maximum overall length of 40–60 cm (16–24 in), but some strains of the largemouth bass have been reported to grow to almost a full meter (just over three feet) in length. The male builds a "bed" (nest) in which a female is induced


title: Micropterus content: to deposit her eggs and then fertilizes them. The male continues to guard the eggs and fry until they disperse from the nest. Various species have been introduced into freshwater bodies in Japan, where they have been declared nuisance fish, and subjected to numerous attempts at eradicating them from local ecosystems. There are currently 14 recognized species in this genus: Micropterus Micropterus is a genus of freshwater fish in the sunfish family (family Centrarchidae) of order Perciformes. The species of this genus are known as the black bass. The black bass are sometimes erroneously called black trout, but the name


title: Brooklyn content: Scotland; Brooklyn became a part of the new English and later British colony, the Province of New York. The English reorganized the six old Dutch towns on southwestern Long Island as "Kings County" on November 1, 1683, one of the "original twelve counties" then established in New York Province. This tract of land was recognized as a political entity for the first time, and the municipal groundwork was laid for a later expansive idea of Brooklyn identity. Lacking the patroon and tenant farmer system established along the Hudson River Valley, this agricultural county unusually came to have one of the


title: "Daylight saving time" content: of prescribing outdated usage (and therefore also list the newer form), still list the older form first. This is because the older form is still very common in print and preferred by many editors. ("Although "daylight saving time" is considered correct, "daylight savings time" (with an "s") is commonly used.") The first two words are sometimes hyphenated ("daylight-saving(s) time"). Merriam-Webster's also lists the forms daylight saving (without "time"), daylight savings (without "time"), and daylight time. The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style explains the development and current situation as follows: "Although the singular form "daylight saving time" is the


title: Weakfish content: Weakfish The weakfish, "Cynoscion regalis", is a marine fish of the drum family Sciaenidae. A medium-large, slender, marine fish, it is found along the east coast of North America. The head and back of this fish are dark brown in color with a greenish tinge. The sides have a faint silvery hue with dusky specks, and the belly is white. The origin of its name is based on the weakness of the mouth muscles, which often cause a hook to tear free, allowing the fish to escape. The weakfish grows to 1 m (3 feet) in length and 9 kg


title: Weakfish content: (20 pounds) in weight. It is found along the eastern coast of North America from Nova Scotia, Canada to northern Florida, where it is fished both commercially and recreationally. Weakfish are also known by the American Indian name Squeteague. In the mid-Atlantic states, the fish is sometimes referred to by the name sea trout, though it is not related to the fishes properly called trout, which are in the family Salmonidae. The weakfish is the state fish of Delaware. Weakfish stocks have been generally low in recent years due to fishing and natural mortality increasing. Management of the species includes


title: Weakfish content: gear regulations, seasonal fishing, bycatch limitations, minimum size limits, commercial creel limits, and bycatch reduction gear. It is hoped that these regulations incorporated with others will help weakfish populations come back to a sustainable point. The weakfish ("Cynoscion regalis") is a salt-water fish native to the mid Atlantic region of the east coast of the United States. Ranging from 12-18 inches once fully matured, with some adults reaching well above this range at up to 3 feet and 18 lbs. The weakfish can live up to 17 years but have an average lifespan of 9 to 12 years (Chesapeake). The


title: Weakfish content: weakfish prey on a wide variety of species, including, small schooling fish like anchovies and Atlantic Menhaden, assorted crabs, shrimp, mollusks, and even large zooplankton. Weakfish move toward their prey slowly and once upon them they attack aggressively with an open jaw (Chesapeake). Although being a predatory fish and on a higher trophic level the weakfish are also a food source for other larger fish. Some examples of fish that prey on the weakfish include the bluefish, the striped bass, and the dusky shark (Chesapeake). These fish mainly spawn from April to August. This spawning takes place in the shallow


title: Weakfish content: waters of estuaries. Their young are in the form of zooplankton, floating freely with the tidal current. They flow with these currents until reaching their nursery area of low salinity rivers. Once these fish grow large enough in these areas, they begin to migrate back to the saltier waters to which they were spawned. They stay in these intertidal bay zone until winter, then join the schooling fish towards deeper offshore waters. The males have the ability to perform a deep croaking sound as shown by the Chesapeake Bay field guide (Chesapeake). The reason why these fish have the capability


title: Weakfish content: to do this is because they are a part of the drum family. This trait is very common in species that belong to the drum family and is commonly used for mating purposes. It is believed that weakfish also use this to attract other females as stated in a study done at the University of Michigan, "There is some evidence that the male weakfish croaking sound may be used in attracting a mate and playing a role in the spawning behavior. This is because the male's sonic muscles, which are used to produce ‘drumming' and ‘croaking' sounds, increases three times


title: Weakfish content: its usual mass during spawning season" (Gillum). This study shows that weakfish make use of their drum sound more frequently during the mating season, suggesting that it is used as a process for males to attract females. Weakfish are schooling fish, meaning that they spend a large majority of their time swimming together either trying to evade larger predators, or trying to feed more efficiently on prey. Studies done by the university of Michigan state that these schooling patterns tend to become much tighter in signs of stress as they state, "weakfish have a acute chemosensory response mechanism. In times


title: Weakfish content: of stress, weakfish gather into tighter schools, this was seen in lab studies when higher temperatures were used. The weakfish under these conditions showed a 35% decrease in their distance to the other fish in the school. Also the frequency of school formation increased in response to stress" (Gillum). Weakfish school closer together when in situations of high stress in this study done by the university of Michigan. Theorizing that they use schooling as a form of protection. Weakfish are excellent table fare; they can be used as a food source. The weakfish are recreationally fished and provide tackle shops


title: Weakfish content: with business. Weakfish are finicky. They are very shy and prey selective; making them a harder fish to target recreationally, this provides a good challenge for anglers. They prefer a water temperature ranging from 50 degree F to 65 degrees F. This is the best time to target weakfish, as they are most actively breeding within these temperatures. They can be found feeding in temperatures exclusive to these numbers, but they may be much more finicky and hard to hook. The weakfish also have a very fragile mouth, making it hard for anglers to keep them from spitting the hook.


title: Weakfish content: The main breeding grounds of the weakfish are in the near shore estuaries of the Chesapeake Bay. "The most important habitat for the weakfish is the brackish waters of the Chesapeake bay" (Gillum). This is where the vast majority of weakfish breed, to maintain a healthy population of weakfish these areas must be preserved. The weakfish experienced a crash that was recognized in 2009 as stated by John McMurray in the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, "A 2009 stock assessment found that weakfish were badly depleted. The stock had reached an all-time low of 2.9 million pounds, far below the "biomass


title: Weakfish content: threshold" of 22.4 million pounds, which is what scientists would consider a healthy stock. This is an astonishing drop, since the East Coast harvest in 1980 was 80 million pounds" (McMurray). McMurray is stating how the weakfish stock went way below the biomass threshold in 2009. This data that came in 2009 was finally enough to change some of the regulations on weakfish as a hope to try and recover the species back well above the biomass threshold. The weakfish have shown signs of recovery today but are nowhere near the high levels that they used to be. For the


title: Weakfish content: recreational angler, each individual state has its own size limit, possession limit, and season for targeting and collecting weakfish. For example, in the state of New Jersey, recreational anglers are allowed 1 fish that is greater than 13 inches at any time of the year as shown by the New Jersey Department of Environmental protection (NJ wildlife). Weakfish The weakfish, "Cynoscion regalis", is a marine fish of the drum family Sciaenidae. A medium-large, slender, marine fish, it is found along the east coast of North America. The head and back of this fish are dark brown in color with a


title: "Striped bass" content: Striped bass The striped bass ("Morone saxatilis"), also called Atlantic striped bass, striper, linesider, rock or rockfish, is an anadromous Perciforme fish of the family Moronidae found primarily along the Atlantic coast of North America. It has also been widely introduced into inland recreational fisheries across the United States. Striped bass found in the Gulf of Mexico are a separate strain referred to as Gulf Coast striped bass. The striped bass is the state fish of Maryland, Rhode Island, and South Carolina, and the state saltwater (marine) fish of New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and New Hampshire. The history of


title: "Striped bass" content: the striped bass fishery in North America dates back to the Colonial period. Many written accounts by some of the first European settlers describe the immense abundance of striped bass, along with alewives, traveling and spawning up most rivers in the coastal Northeast. The striped bass is a typical member of the Moronidae family in shape, having a streamlined, silvery body marked with longitudinal dark stripes running from behind the gills to the base of the tail. Common mature size is 8 to 40 pounds. The largest specimen recorded was 124 pounds, netted in 1896. Striped bass are believed to


title: "Striped bass" content: live for up to 30 years. The maximum length is . The average size is about . Striped bass are native to the Atlantic coastline of North America from the St. Lawrence River into the Gulf of Mexico to approximately Louisiana. They are anadromous fish that migrate between fresh and salt water. Spawning takes place in fresh water. Striped bass have been introduced to the Pacific Coast of North America and into many of the large reservoir impoundments across the United States by state game and fish commissions for the purposes of recreational fishing and as a predator to control


title: "Striped bass" content: populations of gizzard shad. These include: Elephant Butte Lake in New Mexico; Lake Ouachita, Lake Norman in North Carolina; Lake Norfork, Beaver Lake and Lake Hamilton in Arkansas; Lake Thunderbird in Illinois; Lake Pleasant, and Lake Havasu in Arizona; Lake Powell along the Arizona/Utah border; Castaic Lake, Pyramid Lake, Silverwood Lake, Diamond Valley Lake, and San Francisco Bay-Delta in California; Lewis Smith Lake in Alabama; Lake Cumberland in Kentucky; Lake George in Florida; Lake Murray in South Carolina; Lake Lanier in Georgia; Watts Bar Lake, in Tennessee; Lake Mead, Nevada; Lake Texoma, Lake Tawakoni, Lake Whitney, Possum Kingdom Lake, and


title: "Striped bass" content: Lake Buchanan in Texas; Raystown Lake in Pennsylvania; Umpqua River in Oregon and in Virginia's Smith Mountain Lake and Leesville Lake. Striped bass have also been introduced into waters in Ecuador, Iran, Latvia, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and Turkey, primarily for sport fishing and aquaculture. The spawning success of striped bass has been studied in the San Francisco Bay-Delta water system, with a finding that high total dissolved solids (TDS) reduce spawning. At levels as low as 200 mg/l TDS, an observable diminution of spawning productivity occurs. They can be found in lakes, ponds, streams, and wetlands. Though the population


title: "Striped bass" content: of striped bass was growing and repopulating in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, a study executed by the Wildlife and Fisheries Program at West Virginia University found that the rapid growth of the striped bass population was exerting a tremendous pressure on its prey (river herring, shad, and blueback herring). This pressure on their food source was putting their own population at risk due to the population of prey naturally not coming back to the same spawning areas. In the United States, the striped bass was designated as a protected game fish in 2007, and executive agencies were


title: "Striped bass" content: directed to use existing legal authorities to prohibit the sale of striped bass caught in federal waters in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. In Canada, the province of Quebec designated the striped bass population of the Saint Lawrence as extirpated in 1996. Analysis of available data implicated overfishing and dredging in the disappearance. In 2002, a reintroduction program was successful. Striped bass spawn in fresh water, and although they have been successfully adapted to freshwater habitat, they naturally spend their adult lives in saltwater (i.e., they are anadromous). Four important bodies of water with breeding stocks of striped


title: "Striped bass" content: bass are: Chesapeake Bay, Massachusetts Bay/Cape Cod, Hudson River, and Delaware River. Many of the rivers and tributaries that emptied into the Atlantic, had at one time, bred stock of striped bass. This occurred until the 1860s. One of the largest breeding areas is the Chesapeake Bay, where populations from Chesapeake and Delaware bays have intermingled. The very few successful spawning populations of freshwater striped bass include Lake Texoma, Lake Weiss (Coosa River), the Colorado River and its reservoirs downstream from and including Lake Powell, and the Arkansas River, as well as Lake Marion (South Carolina) that retained a landlocked


title: "Striped bass" content: breeding population when the dam was built; other freshwater fisheries must be restocked with hatchery-produced fish annually. Stocking of striped bass was discontinued at Lake Mead in 1973 once natural reproduction was verified. Striped bass have also been hybridized with white bass to produce hybrid striped bass also known as wiper, whiterock bass, sunshine bass, palmetto bass, and Cherokee bass. These hybrids have been stocked in many freshwater areas across the US. Striped bass are of significant value for sport fishing, and have been introduced to many waterways outside their natural range. A variety of angling methods are used, including


title: "Striped bass" content: trolling and surf casting with topwater lures a good pick for surf casting, as well as bait casting with live and dead bait. Striped bass will take a number of live and fresh baits, including bunker, clams, eels, sandworms, herring, bloodworms, mackerel, and shad, bluegills, worms, crayfish, bucktails jigs, silver spoons, and sassy shad baits with the last being an excellent bait for freshwater fishing. The largest striped bass ever taken by angling was an 81.88-lb (37.14-kg) specimen taken from a boat in Long Island Sound, near the Outer Southwest Reef, off the coast of Westbrook, Connecticut. The all-tackle world


title: "Striped bass" content: record fish was taken by Gregory Myerson on the night of August 4, 2011. The fish took a drifted live eel bait, and fought for 20 minutes before being boated by Myerson. A second hook and leader was discovered in the fish's mouth when it was boated, indicating it had been previously hooked by another angler. The fish measured 54 in length and had a girth of 36 in. The International Game Fish Association declared Myerson's catch the new all-tackle world record striped bass on October 19, 2011. In addition to now holding the All-Tackle record, Meyerson's catch also landed


title: "Striped bass" content: him the new IGFA men’s 37-kg (80-lb) line class record for striped bass, which previously stood at 70 lb. The previous all-tackle world record fish was a 78.5-lb (35.6-kg) specimen taken in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 21, 1982 by Albert McReynolds, who fought the fish from the beach for 1:20 after it took his Rebel artificial lure. Recreational bag limits vary by state and province. Striped bass are an anadromous fish, so their upriver spawning migrations led some individuals to become "landlocked" during lake dam constructions. The first area where this was documented was at the Santee-Cooper River


title: "Striped bass" content: during the construction of the two dams that impounded Lakes Moultrie and Marion, and because of this, the state game fish of South Carolina is the striped bass. Recently, biologists came to believe that striped bass stayed in rivers for long periods of time, with some not returning to sea unless temperature changes forced migration. Once fishermen and biologists caught on to rising striped bass populations, many state natural resources departments started stocking striped bass in local lakes. Striped bass still continue to exhibit upstream migrations from freshwater lakes during the spawning period. Landlocked stripers have a hard time reproducing


title: "Striped bass" content: naturally, and one of the few and most successful rivers they have been documented reproducing successfully is the Coosa River in Alabama and Georgia. A 70.6-lb (32.0-kg) landlocked bass was caught in February 2013 by James Bramlett on the Warrior River in Alabama, a current world record. This fish had a length of and a girth of . In Canada there are no landlocked Striped Bass, but a large number of bass overwinter in Grand Lake, Nova Scotia. They migrate out in early April into the Shubenacadie River to spawn. These bass also spawn in the Stewiacke River (a tributary


title: "Striped bass" content: of the Shubenacadie). The Shubenacadie River system is one of five known spawning areas in Canada for striped bass, with the others being the St. Lawerence River, Miramichi River, Saint John River, Annapolis River and Shubenacadie/Stewiacke Rivers. The striped bass population declined to less than 5 million by 1982, but efforts by fishermen with throw back lengths for smaller striped bass and management programs to rebuild the stock proved successful, and in 2007, there were nearly 56 million fish, including all ages. Recreational anglers and commercial fisherman caught an unprecedented 3.8 million fish in 2006. The management of the species


title: "Striped bass" content: includes size limits, commercial quotas, and biological reference points for the health of the species. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission states that striped bass are "not overfished and overfishing is not occurring." Another way to replenish and help repopulate the striped bass population is to reintroduce the species back to original spawning grounds in coastal rivers and estuaries in the Northeast. Striped bass has white meat with a mild flavor and a medium texture. It is extremely versatile in that it can be pan-seared, grilled, steamed, poached, roasted, broiled, sautéed, and deep fried (including batter-frying). The flesh can also


title: "Striped bass" content: be eaten raw or pickled. The primary market forms for fresh bass include headed and gutted (with the head and organs removed) and filets; the primary market forms for frozen bass include headed and gutted and loins. It can also be found in steaks, chunks, or whole. Fresh striped bass is available year-round, and is typically sold in sizes from two to fifteen pounds, and can be sold up to fifty pounds. Striped bass has firm and flavorful flesh with a large flake. The hybrid striped bass yields more meat, has a more fragile texture, and a blander flavor than


title: "Striped bass" content: wild striped bass. The fish has a mild and distinctive flavor. In recipes, it can be substituted for milder fish like cod, as well as for stronger fish like bluefish. Other fish can substitute it, including weakfish, tilefish, blackfish, small bluefish, catfish, salmon, swordfish, and shark. Striped bass is easily grilled in fillets, and is therefore popular in beach communities. Striped bass The striped bass ("Morone saxatilis"), also called Atlantic striped bass, striper, linesider, rock or rockfish, is an anadromous Perciforme fish of the family Moronidae found primarily along the Atlantic coast of North America. It has also been widely


title: "Archosargus probatocephalus" content: Archosargus probatocephalus Archosargus probatocephalus, the sheepshead, is a marine fish that grows to , but commonly reaches . It is deep and compressed in body shape, with five or six dark bars on the side of the body over a gray background. It has sharp dorsal spines. Its diet consists of oysters, clams, and other bivalves, and barnacles, fiddler crabs, and other crustaceans. It has a hard mouth, with several rows of stubby teeth – the frontal ones closely resembling human teeth – which help crush the shells of prey. The sheepshead is found in coastal waters along the western