(In Edit: "Authorities Lying About Booming, Burgeoning Animal Populations - Updated up through page 28 of thread)
"And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. “Reality control,” they called it: in Newspeak, “doublethink.”
George Orwell, from " 1984 "
It’s May, 2017, and Nature has been booming and burgeoning to a level not seen in my lifetime for over five years, now.
Since that statement directly refutes our State Religion, which holds that " Poor Mother Gaia is Dying, Crushed by the Virus-Like Burden of Mankind ", I’ve appended multiple examples below to support it.
The folks in charge are not your friends, and are lying to you about basically everything, including the Anchovies, Bees, Clams, Cod, Crabs, Geese, Haddock, Herring, Horseshoe Crabs, Lobsters, Manatees, Moose, Otters, Owls, Oysters, Polar Bears, Red Snapper, Pelicans, Salmon, Sardines, Scallops, Seabirds, Seals, Sea Lions, Shad, Sharks, Sturgeon, Swordfish, Tuna, Walruses, Whales and Whitefish.
The words " mystery ", " baffled " and " puzzled " are memes, used, among numerous similar variants, whenever anyone in the wholly-controlled-and-coopted Political, Scientific, Academic and Media establishments wants to lie about, well, basically anything. Those variants include " flabbergasted ", " strange ", " surprised ", " unbelievable ", “unclear”, " unexpected ", " unexplained ", " unknown " and " unusual ".
But don’t take my word for it:
ANCHOVIES
JANUARY 4, 2014 - Like sardines, anchovies are schooling fish that provide important food for mammals and bigger fish. Like us, they mostly gather close the coast because they’re smaller than sardines and not big enough to migrate.
That was the case this fall, when millions of them schooled in Monterey Bay, fueling the frenzy of humpback whale and sea lion feeding so incredible it had to be seen to be believed .
Only a dearth of scientific attention accompanies the societal ignorance , making it hard for research fishery biologists like NOAA’s Kevin Hill – who authored the agency’s sardine stock assessment – to announce the anchovy is on the rise.
“At the moment, we know a lot more about the status of sardine than we do anchovy,” he writes in an email. “ So far there is no empirical evidence of an anchovy resurgence in California … I’ve heard reports of the anchovy fishery picking up in Monterey, but we’ve seen similar [even larger] upticks in the catch over the past 15 years.”
(Uptick: a small increase - ed)
MBARI’s Chavez adds a wrinkle , saying that a warmer world – one with elevated levels of CO2 in the ocean’s surface – favors anchovies over sardines
July 11, 2014 – Millions of anchovies descended on waters off San Diego on Tuesday, darkening the water and baffling scientists . No one knows why the anchovies came so close to shore, Checkley said. “A school this size and this immensity, i t 's rather difficult to know why .”
" I haven’t seen this in my 30-odd years here.”
July 28, 2014 – Mediterranean Anchovies Thriving
BEES
June 24, 2009 - Bees “restored to health” in Italy after this spring’s neonicotinoid-free maize sowing
During this year’s neonicotinoid-free maize sowing in Italy hardly a bee colony has been lost , bar a suspicious case where some leftover seed from last year may have been used. It does look like a resounding, spectacular success.
The ban on the insecticide-soaked seed coating enforced by the Italian government last year seems to have worked wonders, judging from the freshest data collected on the ground by researchers, beekeepers and regional authorities.
August 29, 2013 – ‘Beemageddon’ Delayed: Bumblebee Reemergence Puzzles Scientists. A disappearing North American bumblebee species has reemerged in Washington state, stunning scientists and conservationists who long feared that “Beemageddon” would cause the collapse of the agriculture industry. The Bombus occidentalis, also known as the Western Bumble Bee, has disappeared from half of its natural range, but was recently spotted among the flowers of a park north of Seattle.
2014 - It was almost exactly a year ago that I wrote about the distressing lack of bees in my wildlife garden . We had wasps and flies and beetles and wee little nameless beasties, but the bees—native and non-native alike—had gone missing. Honestly, it freaked me the hell out. It felt like the tramp of doom. Bees are important.
So I’m very pleased to report that this year, at least, we’re having a banner year for bees!
The native bumblebees are so numerous that the garden looks like it’s shivering in a very peculiar breeze , as they climb stems and pull flowers down under their weight. When I went to cut back the marvelous two-tone salvia “Hot Lips” and the catmint “Walker’s Low,” which were sprawling all over the walkway, I had to cut very carefully so as not to accidentally snip too close to a bee. I found a bee jamming itself into the orange trumpets of Agastache that I thought were for the hummingbirds. They swarm on the spiderwort, they climb in and out of the bells of the beardstongue, and they wallow inside the sundrops. Most are bumblebees, but a few big masons are out as well. They don’t bother with all that climb-into-the-flower silliness, preferring to nip a hole at the base of the flower and go directly inside.
It’s not just flowers, either. There is a stretch of pathway that becomes a mud flat in spring, and it is covered in bees. Our neighbors (on the other side of the trees!) took up beekeeping last summer, and their honeybees crawl all over the mud flat and the gravel edging the frog-pond, licking up minerals and picking up droplets of water to take back to the hive. (We were very relieved when we figured out where the honeybees were coming from—there was a bad stretch where we were afraid a hive had settled in the attic or something.) Being a responsible beekeeper, our neighbor puts out a great deal of water for them in summer, but he says that they ignore it. Apparently our mud is tastier. (Given that they come in and pollinate some of our vegetables that don’t much interest the native bees, I am perfectly happy with this arrangement. A rising tide lifts all pollinators, or something.)
Individual preferences aside, there are bees everywhere this year , and believe me, I could not be more relieved
May 19, 2014 - Colorado Seeing Large Bee Swarms
Beekeeper Gregg McMahan says that he is witnessing the largest swarm season in Colorado in memory.
June 25, 2014 - New tests find bee-killing pesticides in 51% of “bee-friendly” plants from garden centers across U.S. and Canada
July 23, 2014 - Wildlife Refuges To Phase Out Pesticide
GRANTS PASS, OR – Federal wildlife refuges in the Northwest and Hawaii will phase out a class of pesticides that are chemically similar to nicotine because they pose a threat to bees and other pollinators key to crop growth. The region covering Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Hawaii is the first in the agency to ban neonicotinoids. There is room for exemptions , but the goal is to phase out the pesticides by January 2016, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Miel Corbett said Monday.
The Center for Food Safety and Center for Biological Diversity had petitioned Fish and Wildlife to ban neonicotinoids on wildlife refuges nationwide, but agency spokeswoman Miel Corbett said the decision was made independently.
September 3, 2014 - Canadian beekeepers sue Bayer, Syngenta over neonicotinoid pesticides
Class action lawsuit seeks $400 million in damages
Canadian beekeepers are suing the makers of popular crop pesticides for more than $400 million in damages, alleging that their use is causing the deaths of bee colonies.
Studies have shown that bees exposed to the pesticides have smaller colonies, fail to return to their hives, and may have trouble navigating. The pesticides were also found in 70 per cent of dead bees tested by Health Canada in 2013.
The European Commission restricted the use of the pesticides for two years and Ontario has indicated it will move toward regulating them, due to concerns over bee health.
Bayer maintains that the risk to bees from the pesticide is low, and it has recommended ways that farmers can minimize bees’ exposure to the pesticide.
CLAMS
September 11, 2014 - Prospects are bright for another excellent razor clam season
“Based on our assessments, the razor clam populations on some beaches exceed the near record levels found in 2013,” said said Dan Ayres, coastal shellfish manager for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. “We expect the 2014-15 season to be just as good – if not better than last year.”
“From the start of the 2013-14 season, we knew that the number of razor clams had reached near record levels,” Ayres said. “The end result was a season that had the highest total effort and harvest for the Washington recreational razor clam fishery since 1982 , 32 years ago.”
Making it more remarkable, the successful season occurred while the Kalaloch beaches were closed the entire season. Biologists at Olympic National Park, which manages the Kalaloch beaches, kept them closed for the second season in a row because of low population numbers.
February 24, 2015 - Climate change is really bad news if you like oysters, scallops and clams
March 4, 2015 – Homer, Alaska - Cause of razor clam decline remains mystery.
COD
1992 – Forget about the cod shortage ; within a few years, the Norwegian quota will be 250,000 tons – and by the end of the decade, it should reach 350,000,
1999 – A year ago, the fishermen working in the Gulf of Maine and their regulators seemed to be looking at different oceans. Federal biologists, armed with evidence that the gulf’s cod population was collapsing after years of overfishing, called for a drastic cut in fishing in the gulf , which extends from Cape Cod to Canada. Angry fishermen cited only what they saw in their nets and said cod stocks were in the midst of a strong recovery. The gulf was so full of cod, the fishermen said, that even the lobster traps were full of the fish.
2004 – WWF, Worldwide Fund for Nature: “ WORLD’S COD STOCKS COULD BE GONE BY 2020, GROUP WARNS .”
2007 – Cod fish numbers remain stable in the south and have increased in the central to western parts of the North Sea ,
2008 – ScienceNOW: “after 15 years of little to no fishing, local populations show no sign of rebounding .”
2008 – Garden State bottom bouncers are seeing more cod numbers than in recent memory.
2009 – North Sea Cod Stocks See Big Improvement
2010 - the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization’s scientific council reported that the cod population in the Grand Banks, an underwater plateau southeast of Newfoundland, had grown 69 per cent since 2007 .
2011 – Grand Banks Cod Stocks Rebound After Thirty Years, Recovering Off Canada’s East Coast
2011 – The NOAA analysis, released last month, asserted that even if all fishing of Gulf of Maine cod was prohibited, it would be unlikely that the stock would be rebuilt by 2018 , some four years after NOAA had expected cod to rebound to healthy amounts.
2013 – The journal Science: “ Study: Cod stocks may never rebound ”
2013 - New England fishermen and their political allies rallied at a Boston fish pier Monday to make an urgent call for relief from deep and imminent cuts to their catch limits.
January 16, 2017 - Portland, ME - For years, fishermen and scientists have clashed over how to properly estimate fish populations and set the catch quotas that rule the livelihoods of Maine fishermen. Fishermen suggest that scientists are missing fish and setting the quotas too low , while scientists say fishermen are missing the big picture.
“It’s really perplexing that you’ve got a set of federal scientists who are sampling the ocean methodically and coming up with a very different picture than the fishermen about what’s going on out in the Gulf of Maine,” Jonathan Labaree of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute said.
The type of trawl net scientists use and the boat they pull it from, which is larger than many commercial fishing vessels, do a poor job catching certain species. Pearce claimed that the surveys happen in the wrong places and that because the ocean has warmed, cod cluster in deeper water than they used to.
Brown agreed that there are places where the larger science vessel can’t navigate and that their gear isn’t meant to “maximize the catch of cod or haddock or flounder” but added that their goals are different from those of commercial fishermen.
March 15, 2015 - Depoe Bay, Oregon - The Lingcod fishing remains very strong and as normal the rockfish catch is very close to limits as well.
CRABS
April 11, 2013 – The number of blue crabs in Chesapeake bay has reached 764 million, the most recorded since 1993. "The crab population is the highest it has been in the past 20 years , and to see this record production of juveniles is truly remarkable."
October 14, 2014 – Tampa Bay, FL - Stone crab season forecast upbeat, but prices could be high
GEESE
OCTOBER 20, 2014 - Scotland - Montrose goose migration record broken twice in a week
Volunteers counted a record 70,153 geese at the Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve last week. And a new survey as part of the Icelandic Breeding Goose Census has now recorded 78,970 birds at the site.
Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve manager Rab Potter said it was hard to know how long the geese would remain in the area in such large numbers.
He said: "The number of pink-footed geese at Montrose Basin this year has taken all of us by surprise.
HADDOCK
FEBRUARY 18, 2017 - Canadian haddock booming , New England haddock is a bust - yet fishing the same stock
Why can’t US fisheries managers accept solutions that fall into their lap? The haddock stock on George’s Bank is a glaring example of US government failure to address easily solvable fisheries problems.
We have been struck by the success of the recent Canadian winter haddock season. In January, in just a few ports in Nova Scotia, Canadian boats landed more than 2,000 tons of haddock (nearly 4.5 million pounds). The newspapers were filled with stories of overloaded harbors, full processing plants, and higher revenue based on great market prices.
Meanwhile, the fisheries disaster in New England keeps unfolding. According to a recent letter from the chair of the New England council to the head of the Dept. of Commerce, 2013 groundfish landings in New England will be around 43.4 million lbs, with revenue of only $55.8 million. This represents a 38% reduction in revenue since 2011. No wonder New England fishing businesses outside of the scallop industry are facing extinction.
For the US side, the situation is even worse - as the industry has sacrificed for years to rebuild stocks, and now is prevented from harvesting those stocks that have been rebuilt.
The New England council voted to open the closed areas, but was attacked for doing so despite the fact that the rationale for the closures no longer existed . As a result the openings were subject to a range of restrictions. The council did vote to allow a smaller mesh (6 inches rather than 6.5 inches) with separator trawls. NMFS came back with a requirement for 100% industry funded observer coverage, that made these changes uneconomical for an experimental fishery.
The Council had asked the closed areas be open for traditional haddock fishing areas, fully respecting all sensitive habitat areas. NMFS got 20,000 letters generated by environmental organizations opposing any opening of the closed areas, despite the fact that the rationale for closure - to manage effort - no longer exists under the IFQ sector scheme with hard TAC’s.
Instead of working with the council, NMFS came back with requirements for 100% observer coverage, no allowance for experimental fishing or finding where the most appropriate haddock fishing areas might be, and no flexibility . Trawler owners said okay, if we can’t agree on observer payments, why don’t you let us try to fish haddock in the new area on the 30% of the trips we are assigned an observer. NMFS refused.
HERRING
May 29, 2014 - Banner Year On The New England Coast?
One of the largest run of herring I have ever seen or heard of is in the Piscataqua River. Hundreds of thousands of herring are cruising the Eastern shoreline on the incoming tides, and they’re being chased by stripers. Haddock fishermen have been busy, as there are plenty to go around. Every time you drop your line overboard there will be at least 12 fish trying to grab your bait.
HORSESHOE CRABS
March 30, 2014 – Horseshoe crabs are now in danger - WTSP.com
August 1, 2014 – Maryland – If anything, ( Horseshoe Crab) numbers are just going steadily up ,” Doctor said, from 21,000 horseshoe crabs recorded in Maryland in 2012 to almost 32,000 last summer.
(a 52% increase in two years - ed)
LOBSTERS
August 25, 2013 – Lobster populations in Maine are booming like never before . Last year’s record haul of 126 million pounds (57 million kg) was double that of just a decade ago. The Maine lobster harvest, recently certified as sustainable by the nonprofit Marine Stewardship Council, has reached epic proportions. “This is a species that has been targeted (by fishermen) for 150 years or more and is doing better today than ever before,”
No one knows exactly why lobster populations have increased so quickly. The answer, says marine biologist Robert Steneck, is likely a combination of warming water temperatures, the overfishing of inshore predators like cod and a long history of forward-thinking conservation measures.
(2011 – Grand Banks Cod Stocks Rebound After Thirty Years , Recovering Off Canada’s East Coast)
(November 1, 2014 - An Anatomy of the Cooling of the North Atlantic Ocean - The largest cooling occurs in the North Atlantic subpolar gyre.)
MANATEES
February 3, 2015 - CRYSTAL RIVER, Fla., Feb. 3 (UPI) – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service closed Florida’s Three Sisters Springs to the public when nearly 300 manatees unexpectedly moved into the area.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge Complex announced Monday the Three Sisters Springs in Crystal River was temporarily closed to swimmers and boaters when 293 manatees were counted in the interior of the springs.
Laura Ruettiman, an environmental education guide at the springs, said the area has seen more manatees than usual this year.
“We have a record number this year,” Ruettiman told USA Today. "We have 150 more manatees here than have ever been recorded in the past. "
MOOSE
October 17, 2014 – Moose Die Off Not Seen In Yukon - Scientists across North America are warning of a moose decline or even a “die off.” But, in Yukon, the moose appear to be hearty and resilient, says Environment Yukon.
OTTERS
DECEMBER 14, 2013 - San Francisco Bay river otter sightings suggest comeback
In all, researchers have received 600 reported sightings throughout the San Francisco Bay region over the past two years in the first population study of the weasel-like creatures ever done here. Most of the sightings have been confirmed through photos and video taken by bystanders in an area where the species was nearly wiped out after decades of of hunting, development and pollution.
And while scientists say it’s too early to claim victory for the river otters’ recovery here , many are encouraged by the apparent bounce back.
The evidence of a recovery is promising, but still largely anecdotal , said Isodore, because there is no historic population study to compare against current sightings.
Still, it is not clear whether there is a boom in river otter populations as many believe , or if the ecology project’s study is influencing more people to pay attention.
OWLS
August 1, 2013 – Bird enthusiasts are reporting rising numbers of Snowy Owls winging into the lower 48 states this winter in a mass southern migration that a leading owl researcher calls “unbelievable.” Thousands of the snow-white birds have been spotted from coast to coast, feeding in farmlands in Idaho, roosting on rooftops in Montana, gliding over golf courses in Missouri and soaring over shorelines in Massachusetts. “What we’re seeing now - it’s unbelievable. This is the most significant wildlife event in decades.”
Holt said snowy owl populations are believed to be in an overall decline, possibly because a changing climate has lessened the abundance of vegetation like grasses that lemmings rely on. This winter’s snowy owl outbreak, with multiple sightings as far south as Oklahoma, remains largely a mystery of nature.
OYSTERS
May 7, 2014 - The Chesapeake Bay’s oyster population has more than doubled since 2010 , and has reached its highest point since monitoring began in 1985 .
August 3, 2014 - "As Oysters Die, Climate Policy Goes on the Stump"
February 23, 2015 – Acidifying Waters Are Endangering Your Oysters And Mussels … - NPR
February 24, 2015 - Climate change is really bad news if you like oysters, scallops and clams
PELICANS
May 27, 2014 – Are brown pelicans forecasting an El Niño?
“I was just sort of flabbergasted at seeing 3,500 brown pelicans resting in Malibu Lagoon,” Cooper said. “I checked my notes, and I have numbers in the hundreds, but I’ve never seen anything like that.”
June 27, 2014 – Brown Pelicans Failing to Breed - Malibu Times: News
July 19, 2014 - So Cal Oceans Dying - No Squid, Sardines…Pelicans …
January 3, 2015 – Pacific Coast Sea Bird Die-Off Puzzles Scientists
POLAR BEARS
July 28, 2011 - Just five years ago, Charles Monnett was one of the scientists whose observation that several polar bears had drowned in the Arctic Ocean helped galvanize the global warming movement . Now, the wildlife biologist is on administrative leave and facing accusations of scientific misconduct. The federal agency where he works told him he’s being investigated for “integrity issues,” but a watchdog group believes it has to do with the 2006 journal article about the bear.
June 13, 2013 - Despite being listed on the on the endangered species list , polar bear populations in certain areas have reached their “carrying capacity” — the maximum environmentally sustainable population size.
Dr. Susan J. Crockford, a zoologist with more than 35 years of experience, found numerous signs that the polar bear population was reaching its limit. “We have at least two reports in the peer-reviewed literature that state flat-out that the presumed negative effects of declining sea ice on a population’s size are indistinguishable from a population that is as large as it can get ,” Crockford wrote in a blog post.
“Rather than being proven victims of Arctic sea ice in a ‘death spiral’ due to global warming, when they finally present the data , biologists have to admit that they cannot actually tell the difference between a polar bear population that is so large that it can no longer increase and one that is suffering a population decline because of reduced sea ice,” Crockford added.
June 28, 2013 – Global hysteria ensued after former Vice President Al Gore posed a theory in his film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” that polar bears were on the edge of extinction. This piqued the interest of Zac Unger, who wanted to become “a hero of the environmental movement,” proving how man-made global warming is affecting the polar bear population. He packed up his wife and kids and headed for Churchill, Manitoba, an isolated piece of land on the Hudson Bay in northern Canada accessible only by train or plane. “I was going to write this mournful elegy for the polar bears, at which point I’d be hailed as the next coming of John Muir and borne aloft on the shoulders of my environmental compatriots,” he told NPR. However, the researcher came away with a much different story, which became the premise for his new book, “Never Look a Polar Bear in the Eye.”
“I started realizing polar bears were not in as bad a shape as the conventional wisdom had led me to believe .”
“ There are far more polar bears alive today than there were 40 years ago . In 1973, there was a global hunting ban. So once hunting was dramatically reduced, the population exploded.”
Currently, there are an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears worldwide, and that number has increased steadily in the past 40 years since Canada, Denmark, Greenland, Norway, the United States and the former U.S.S.R. signed the International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears in 1973.
2014 - " Help Decelerate Polar Bears’ Rapid Decline" - “Polar bears are not souvenirs. They are an iconic, beautiful species that is rapidly disappearing .” - NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
August 25, 2014 - Sierra Club & 350.org ditch polar bears as climate mascot, try ‘cat videos’ for climate change instead
RED SNAPPER
June 11, 2014 - With research indicating redfish populations continue at or near record highs in upper-coast bays, Texas’ saltwater anglers should enjoy another great summer of fishing for the popular inshore gamefish.
Gulf Coast charter captains say the feds are ruining their businesses by needlessly cutting their fishing season in response to complaints from commercial fishermen, and now their state lawmakers are stepping up to tackle the issue.
This year’s federal fishing season for red snapper was initially set at 40 days long, but then regulators slashed it to just 9 days . Recreational fishing captains say the federal policy is destroying their business for the year and has forced them to cancel hundreds of already-scheduled trips with customers who want to fish.
Now, t he gulf states are counteracting federal regulations by setting longer fishing seasons in their own state-controlled waters that extend 3 miles off the coast. Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas all have set longer seasons, and last week Mississippi also did.
Crabtree also noted that red snapper are doing very well and are now relatively plentiful despite being fished nearly to depletion in the 1990s.
“We have made remarkable progress in rebuilding the stock,” Crabtree said. “We have the healthiest population in 30 years.”
July 24, 2014 –Daytona Beach, FL - The local fishing community has gone completely bonkers over the red snapper season. “Man, they are all over the place,”
SALMON
12/31/2013 - 2013 Campbell River, west coast (Canada) fishing, in review
Around the inner south coast 2013 will go down in the history books as the first time in literally two decades that coho fishing resembled something of its former glory. In Campbell River they showed up in a wave over the course of several days in the second week of June and never left all summer long.
Elsewhere in the readership area of this newspaper there was much more productive chinook fishing in Nootka Sound than had been forecast pre-season , and the estimated landed catch in Area 25 was about 50% above the recent five-year running average.
Perhaps less important to anglers but still a very positive feature of 2013 were the exceptional returns of pink salmon to many south coast rivers. Locally the Quinsam River count went over a million fish for the first time ever, supporting a strong fishery in-river and along the approach beaches nearby. The pink return to the Squamish River was never quantified other than to say it was very large and easily the biggest in over 50 years , and the return to the Fraser River handily exceeded the pre-season forecast , and estimated to be about 26 million fish.
Easily the biggest disappointment in 2013 for me was the relentless erosion of DFO’s ability to do its job . In the name of fiscal rectitude and pro-business bias the Harper government seems determined to minimize protection of salmon habitat.
This past year saw a debasing of the Fisheries Act, pushed through parliament under cover of an omnibus budget bill , the reduction of habitat staff and associated resources and, as a final lump of coal for those who care about fish habitat, the government recently announced that the responsibility for “assessing potential impacts to fisheries from proposed pipeline and power line applications” has been moved from DFO to the National Energy Board. Who knew there was so much fish-related expertise at the NEB? Shameful.
2014 - Too Many Salmon in the Sea, Pacific Study Hints - National Geographic
Burgeoning numbers of pink salmon may threaten the food supply of young seabirds.
Too many fish in the sea? Surging pink salmon stocks in the Pacific Ocean pose a risk to other wildlife , suggests a seabird study released on Monday that points to climate change as a culprit.
January 20, 2014 - Alaska sets record with 2013 pink salmon harvest
Alaska recorded a total of 272 million salmon harvested in 2013, driven in large part by a record-setting 219 million pink salmon, according to the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI). The pink salmon harvest represented more than 80 percent of the total harvest, and was higher than the Alaska Department of Fish and game pre-season forecast for all five salmon species combined , according to ASMI.
August 8, 2014 - British Columbia - First Nations, environmentalists and just about everyone else are aghast at the severity of the toxic spill from a tailings pond.
On August 4 the tailings pond of the gold and copper open-pit Polley Mine, operated by Imperial Metals Corp., breached and sent billions of gallons of metals-laden silt and water into waterways awaiting the return of the salmon.
The mess has only just begun to wreak its environmental havoc, with campgrounds evacuated, a local emergency declared and a fishing ban imposed, among other immediate effects. Long-term damage is not yet known, and Imperial officials say they have no idea why it happened .
August 12, 2014 - British Columbia - Broughton teeming with salmon
A trip to an area of the British Columbia coast that was said to be devastated by the effects of salmon farming reveals its extraordinary biodiversity.
I would encourage anybody that might have a concern about the well-being of the ecosystem in the Broughton Archipelago to just go up there and take a look for themselves. There are salmon jumping everywhere - including in Echo Bay , where Ms Morton once lived, and where she started her tirade against one of the main sources of year-round employment in the region.
September 8, 2014 – Salmon are surging up Sweden’s rivers in record numbers - Baltic salmon may be more numerous than any time since the Second World War.
October 17, 2014 - Survival estimates for juvenile steelhead moving down through the Columbia-Snake river hydro system during the 2014 spring-summer outmigration were so high – nearly 10 percent higher than the next best in a data record that goes back to 1997 – that researchers from NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science say they need to review their statistical modeling methods and assumptions.
October 17, 2014 - Coho counts this year Lower Granite Dam fish ladders on the lower Snake River (15,503 through Thursday) are nearly eight times the 10-year average for that date (1,997) and more than triple the previous annual record count of 5,060 set in 2011.
November 19, 2014 - Biggest Bristol Bay Sockeye Run in 20 years forecast for 2015
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game last week forecast a Bristol Bay run of 54 million Sockeye. That’s up by more than 50% over the long term average of 32 Million.
The exciting prospect of a huge fishing season is tempered by the reality that it hasn’t happened yet.
December 27, 2014 -In 2014, more than 50,000 salmon and steelhead returned from the ocean to swim up the Yakima River, the most fish seen here in decades.
The major gains were largely from this year’s coho run, which came in near 23,000 fish. That’s about five times the normal run size, Bosch said.
“ I don’t know if we can really explain why this year was so exceptional (for coho) but other basins saw that as well,” he said.
January 7, 2015 – NY DEC Studying Mysterious Steelhead Deaths
March 5, 2015 – Northern California - Strong outlook for 2015 salmon fishing season. Forecasts suggest there are 652,000 adult Sacramento River fall Chinook salmon in the ocean this year, which is slightly higher than last year’s very strong numbers . The Klamath River fall run is also in good shape, with 423,800 adults expected to return
SARDINES
January 4, 2014 - But the locals who live and breathe the Monterey Bay fishery know a boom when they see one. “We’re seeing a lot of them,” says Pleschner-Steele. “A lot a lot a lot.”
“ It’s never been like this with sardines,” says Monterey Bay Whale Watch’s Nancy Black.
Government acoustical surveys don’t include the ocean’s surface, where the species resides . Industry surveys – using aerial spotting – put the number of sardines at 900,000 metric tons, more than double NOAA’s estimate
February 21, 2014 - How the demise of the shark has led to our oceans becoming packed with sardines . The world’s oceans are increasingly over-crowded with sardines, researchers say. In the last 100 years, the number of small fish - such as pilchards, herrings, anchovies, sprats and sardines - has more than doubled , according to a study.
May 1, 2014: Large schools of baitfish off the coast of Point Reyes, presenting a feast for birds and sea mammals and a strange sight for locals. Bolinas resident Burr Heneman wrote […] he had only seen such a massive baitfish [sardines] event in Bolinas a few times in the past 40 years , and never in the spring—only in July or August, and only with anchovies. […] Large sardines […] might not typically reach this area until June, said Russ Vetter, a senior scientist at NOAA […]
April 6, 2015 – Plummeting sardine numbers could prompt US West coast fishing ban
April 8, 2015 – Sardines hit hard by overfishing
February 17, 2017 - Drawn by an unusually abundant haul of sardines and anchovies , over a million penguins visited the peninsula during this years’ breeding season, a recent record number according to local officials.
March 24, 2017 - Sardine fishing could be banned for 3rd year in a row - numbers have plummeted 95% since 2006, according to estimates.
SCALLOPS
May 24, 2012 - Record number of young scallops in Mid-Atlantic – ScienceDaily
October 21, 2013 - A Slash in Quota Pushes US Scallop Prices to a Record High
August 10, 2014 – Surprising bounty of shellfish for many in South Florida. For some, last week was a delightful quinella of crustaceans and mollusks.
Bay scallops, which were difficult to find last season in the Big Bend burg of Steinhatchee owing to heavy rainfall and excessive run-off, are available in good numbers in lush grass flats three- to six-feet deep. The Steinhatchee scallop bounty comes as a pleasant surprise to some because preseason surveys conducted by scientists with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute showed lower-than-usual counts in the region .
“We may have proven that wrong,” Erdman said. “It’s been gangbusters since the 28th of June. We haven’t had a problem.”
February 9, 2015 – Maine’s scallop fishery rebounding , but there’s a catch
February 22, 2015 – This year’s bay scallop season has been amazingly abundant . Some say the best in 10 years, some say even longer than that. The scallops have been especially large , with delicate sweet flesh. Many baymen have been catching their limit in just a few hours , with some fish markets putting out a call for extra shuckers just to keep up.
February 24, 2015 - Climate change is really bad news if you like oysters, scallops and clams
SEABIRDS
January 16, 2015 - Record Numbers of Albatross Nest on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge
February 25, 2015 – birdlife.org “Many albatross species are in alarming slow decline”
February, 2015 - United States Fish and Wildlife Service: BREEDING STATUS AND POPULATION TRENDS OF SEABIRDS IN ALASKA, 2014. Statewide, productivity was above average in 35% of species, average in 59%, and below average in only 6%.
Statewide, kittiwakes, gulls, common murres, rhinoceros auklets, and tufted puffins exhibited high productivity, whereas success was low only for crested auklet in 2014.
March 5, 2015 – Seabird numbers: a surprising trend.
In a marine world where good news is often hard to find, an increase in winter seabirds is cause for celebration. Eighteen species along Puget Sound’s near coasts are on the rise, including loons, surf scoters, buffleheads and rhinoceros auklets.
Since October, Brown and Conolly have come to this stormy observation site to count seabirds, and they will continue to do so as part of a Seattle Audubon inspired “citizen science” study that runs through April each year. A joint collaboration with NOAA, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and others, the seven-year long project has tracked the visits of 18 seabird species and found an increased presence in 14 of them .
Positive trends in seabird sightings, caution Ward and Pearson, don’t always reflect increasing populations of seabirds in the area. Federally protected marbled murrelets, for instance, continue to decline across Washington. And many winter seabirds are migrants and do their nesting elsewhere. Nor is it clear just how much or how little traditional threats — such as contaminants, shoreline armoring, climate change or even derelict fishing gear — are having on winter seabirds.
But what seems clear from the rigorous data, says Seattle Audubon’s Toby Ross, is that 14 species along Puget Sound’s near shore are literally on the rise. “Seabirds are an intrinsic part of the ecosystem. So if there’s something happening with the seabirds there’s likely something else happening with their food, with water quality; it just goes on from there.”
SEALS
July 29, 2013 – Australia - Fur seals devastating marine eco-system. Furthermore, the rapid growth of fur seal populations in SA has been implicated in declines of little penguin colonies that sustain eco-tourism.
August 31, 2013 – Meanwhile, mystery surrounds the explosion in numbers of gray seals on Cape Cod and its islands — from a few Canadian strays in the 1990s to today’s 15,000-plus sleek creatures lolling mainly near Chatham.
January 6, 2014 – Politicians want to kill seals - News - The Copenhagen Post
February 24, 2014 – Now seals are being killed in record numbers i n a hunt justified by the bogus claim that seals are preventing cod stocks recover.
July 20, 2014 - Booming New England Gray Seal Population Prompts Some To Call For Hunt
September 22, 2014 - After a dramatic decline in the past, the endangered Hawaiian Monk seal population is showing positive signs of a turn around.
October 10, 2014 – Erebus Bay, Antarctica - The Weddell Seal population is doing so well, in fact, that five of the last seven years have witnessed record numbers of pups born at Erebus Bay. The record was set in 2010 with 603 pups, the first and only time the number has exceeded 600.
November 26, 2014 – Blakeney Point seal pup numbers may break records. More than 900 seal pups have been born on a north Norfolk nature reserve in the last three weeks giving experts hopes of another record breaking year . Seal wardens on the National Trust (NT) reserve at Blakeney Point have recorded 180 more grey seal pups compared to this time last year.
December 4, 2014 – Blakeny Point, UK – So today’s seal pup count is in & it is a record breaking 1756 pups! We have now smashed last years total of 1566, incredible!
January 15, 2015 – La Jolla Cove is becoming a sea lion cesspool. "Rose was shaken by the confrontation but was even more unnerved a couple of months later, when a sea lion attacked her injured, bandaged hand."
January 14, 2015 – Arctic ringed seals (as well as bearded seals) were designated as ‘threatened’ by the USA in 2012 under the Endangered Species Act, based on predicted ice and snow declines due to prophesied global warming. Threatened’ status for Arctic ringed seals under ESA makes no sense… ringed seals are in better condition and reproducing better than they were in the 1970s.
There are few precise data on ringed seal population sizes (and no indication that populations have gone down in recent years). This means the models used to predict ringed seal declines in the future, based on predicted sea ice declines, will have included no numbers
January 28, 2015 – Harbor Seals Making a Comeback in Sweden… numbers have increased 9% a year for the last ten years.
February 19, 2015 - A mix of seal species is appearing on N.C. beaches with more and more frequency, but no one knows why.
February 21, 2015 – Monomoy, Cape Cod - “We generally know the pup population, the gray seal population is increasing. …
February 25, 2015 – Delaware Seal Population Grows
March, 2015 - North Carolina - Seals’ Appearance Is a Puzzle
March, 2015 – The number of seals in the Baltic Sea has tripled since 2000
March 4, 2015 – Austalia, New Zealand Fur seal populations on the road to recovery
March 9, 2015 – Staten Island, NY - More common but still rare was the recent harbor seal sighting, also in Staten Island. The New York Police Department posted a picture to Twitter of about twelve seals chilling on some rocks. Another group was spotted back in April on the South Shore.
March 19, 2015 – San Simeon, CA - In 1990, just under two dozen elephant seals were seen on the beach that sits just south of the Piedras Blancas lighthouse. The next spring, more than 400 seals were counted. After that, the population continued to grow every year, which now means about 17,000 elephant seals call this beach their home.
SEA LIONS
January 22, 2015 – Sea Lions Washing Up On Shore With Brain Damage …
February 18, 2015 – Unprecedented California Sea Lion Strandings Linked To Warmer Pacific. The strandings of a record number of sea lion pups along the California coast this year are linked to a puzzling weather pattern that has warmed their Pacific Ocean habitat and likely impacted fish populations they rely on for food, federal scientists said on Wednesday.
(February 26, 2015 - Cold Pacific Ocean is offsetting global warming. Since the end of last El Niño warming event of 1997 to 1998, the tropical Pacific Ocean has been in a relatively cool phase—strong enough to offset the warming created by greenhouse gases.)
February 7, 2015 - Scientists bewildered by sick sea lion pups in California …
November 24, 2014 – Peru investigating 500 dead sea lions washed ashore - Circa
SHAD
October 20, 2014 - Hickory Shad are Making a Comeback in the Roanoke River
Hickory shad, harbingers of spring fishing, have made a remarkable comeback over the last decade and are now one of the most popular fisheries along the Roanoke River from late-February through March.
Kent Nelson, coastal region fishery supervisor for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission , said the reasons for hickory shad’s comeback are not entirely clear , but a number of factors are possible.
While specific reasons for their population explosion are elusive , early-bird anglers who have braved the cold winds of late February and March can attest that hickory shad are biting — and biting frequently on a variety of tackle.
SHARKS
January 26, 2014 – Great White Sharks Thriving in U.S. Waters
June 9, 2014 – Alabama beaches close as freakish number of sharks group together
June 18, 2014. In remote locations like Aldabra Atoll, sharks are abundant.June 21, 2014 - Great White Sharks Off Atlantic Coast Are Recovering
The number of great white sharks off the U.S. Atlantic Coast appears to have increased since the early 1990s after conservation measures were introduced to halt their decline, a U.S. government scientist said on Saturday.
In a separate paper also published in PLOS ONE this month, researchers found the great white shark population is likely growing in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.
The group, led by George Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research, pegged the entire population of white sharks along the California coast at more than 2,000 and likely rising.
The study’s authors challenged the conclusions of a 2011 Stanford University study that found alarming low numbers of the predators off the central California coast. Burgess also was involved in the study of shark abundance in the Atlantic Ocean.
June 20, 2014 – Great white shark numbers surging in Atlantic | New York Post
July 14, 2014 – Study Finds Pacific Great White Shark Population At Least Five Times Previous Estimates.
A recent study found that the number of sharks swimming in the Pacific roughly 2,400, about six times the number previously estimated.
Aug 10, 2014 - Humpbacks and great whites abundant off NY and NJ coast
February 24, 2015 - Sharks, apex predator of the Gulf, are dying by the millions.
(Expert): “In the Gulf of Mexico they catch literally millions of sharks a year that are released. But unfortunately, I think people would be appalled, many of them, probably most of the sharks end up dying from the stress.”
(Reporter): “Are populations holding steady?”
(Expert): “Sharks have declined. Many of them have declined by 90 percent over the past 30 or 40 years . Some of them are not, we’ve seen increases in some. But many of the larger oceanic sharks have declined in the Gulf and the Atlantic.”
STURGEON
2013 - Cape Fear sturgeon population rebounding quickly
Area populations of Atlantic sturgeon may be rebounding , leading state agencies to wonder if federal officials jumped the gun in declaring the fish an endangered species.
The National Marine Fisheries Service in February 2012 declared the Cape Fear River’s population of the large, bony-scaled fish an endangered species. The ruling also included the Delaware and Hudson rivers and the sturgeon stocks in the Carolinas, South Atlantic and Chesapeake Bay. In its listing proposal, the agency, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said that Atlantic sturgeon population numbers in the Carolina region had declined to less than 3 percent of historical levels . Data collected by state agencies seems to suggest otherwise.
July 24, 2014 – Atlantic sturgeon are spawning again in the Chesapeake Bay. In 1997, Dave Secor, like almost everyone else, believed that Atlantic sturgeon, a species that has survived since the age of the dinosaurs, had been long gone from the Chesapeake Bay. But that year a small number of juvenile sturgeon turned up, and they were too small to have immigrated from elsewhere. “That was a major surprise,” Secor said.
SWORDFISH
February 3, 2014 - An incredible 80% of the world’s fish stocks are now over-exploited or fished right up to their limit.
February 6, 2014 - Overfished in the 1980s and ’90s, the Atlantic swordfish stock has since been fully rebuilt.
TUNA
April 20, 2011 - In Spite of Widely Publicized Fears , Bluefin Tuna Populations Are Actually Rebounding
A study released on April 19 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) offers a dire prediction : More than 40 species of marine fish currently found in the Mediterranean could disappear in the next few years. According to the report, commercial species, including the Bluefin Tuna, are considered threatened or near threatened with extinction at the regional level, mainly due to overfishing.
“ The Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic population of the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (Thunnus thynnus) is of particular concern,” says Kent Carpenter, IUCN Global Marine Species Assessment Coordinator. “There has been an estimated 50% decline in this species’ reproduction potential over the past 40 years due to intensive overfishing. The lack of compliance with current quotas combined with widespread underreporting of the catch may have undermined conservation efforts for this species in the Mediterranean. ”
This statement is baffling given the best available information on the issues of the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic Bluefin stock. The “widespread underreporting” and “lack of compliance with current quotas” must refer to incidents before the 2008-2010 reform of ICCAT, as no reports of illegal fishing have been filed since 2009 , according to ICCAT’s illegal vessel list (http://www.iccat.int/en/IUU.asp), in spite of much strengthened policing of the waters and tighter control of the fishing.
The study also contradicts the result of ICCAT’s scientific body , SCRS, which published a report (http://www.iccat.int/Documents/Meetings … RS_eng.pdf) in autumn 2010, the most comprehensive assessment of the status of the stock ever made .
September 26, 2012: “ Scientists surprised at Atlantic bluefin tuna recovery – All the models used by the group show a clear recovery of the reproducer tuna biomass.”
August 6, 2014 - Offshore fishing is booming
The 2014 offshore fishing season continued red hot this week with excellent catches of yellowfin and bluefin tuna , yellowtail, some dorado and even a few striped marlin. The Freedom from 22nd St. Landing in San Pedro reported 105 yellowfin tuna, 8 bluefin tuna, 1 yellowtail and two dorado on Wednesday fishing about 60 miles from port. “Great fishing for our anglers today,” said Captain Jeff Jessop.
The Ultra, also from 22nd St. had a similar days fishing on Tuesday. Captain Jacob Moreno saw some birds picking baitfish off the surface of the ocean and headed over there in a hurry. Captains know that when they see birds feasting on bait on the surface, its because there are bigger fish below.
“The Captain told us to cast our lines out and as soon as we did, we were hooking up with yellowfin tuna, ” said Scott Buchert from Corona del Mar. “It really got crazy for everyone on board.” Recommended tackle for the offshore trips has been 25-pound test with a 2-O size hook and a quarter-ounce egg sinker. Most of the tuna have been from 15-25 pounds while the yellowtail have been 5-12 pounds.
The wild card here is that there have been occasions when bigger bluefin tuna to over 100 pounds have shown up . That’s when a 50 pound test and a two speed reel come in very handy. Catalina Island has also been producing some excellent fishing for 3/4 day boats from LA/OC-based landings. The Pursuit from 22nd St. Landing had 140 yellowtail for 47 anglers on Monday .
“We have been catching our yellowtail on sardines and the iron (lures),” said Captain John Woodrum. “ This is one of the best summers we have had in years, maybe a decade.”
Don Ashley from Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach agrees. “This is and has been the best fishing we have seen in 10-15 years , and I don’t think it’s over by a longshot,” he said.
The overnight boat Toronado has been catching lots of yellowfin tuna on a regualr basis, most of them within 60 miles from home.
“You usually have to travel to Mexico to experience this kind of fishing,” Ashley said. “It’s got everyone excited.”
Big barehanded catch
How about Malibu resident Diana Armstrong’s barehanded catch of a 37-pound bluefin tuna on the beach in front of her house? The Malibu Times reported that Armstrong saw birds diving and heard a fish flapping on the beach, so she went down, and what do you know: a sashimi party ensued. Armstrong got the fish up to her house, where it was carved up for an unexpected feast.
January 1, 2014 - Fins Up for Oregon’s Albacore Tuna Season
Trollers land second highest to-the-boat value in past decade . After another lackluster opening that spawned worries among commercial fishermen, the Oregon albacore tuna fishery went on a wild late season run to bring in 10,104,702 pounds of tuna that fetched to-the-boat revenue of $15,916,410. Those numbers easily bested the 10-year averages of 9.8 million pounds and $11.9 million.
January 6, 2014 – Price of Pacific Bluefin Tuna Plummets, but Iconic Fish Still in Trouble . Just why the auction price was 95 percent less than last year’s at a time when the fish is increasingly depleted isn’t clear .
January 10, 2014 - Pacific Bluefin Tuna Overfishing Has Led To 96 Percent Population Reduction, Study Says
March 24, 2014 – Skipjack Tuna Prices Plummet due to High Supply
April 29, 2014 – Masschusetts Fisherman Reels In 920 Pound Tuna Off Cape Cod
May 30, 2014 – Amazing bluefin tuna recovery detected - the six authorized Spanish vessels exhausted their quota for bluefin tuna in less than 24 hours, an unprecedented event. Overall, they captured nearly 2,300 tonnes in one day, three times what they had fished in 2011 (800 tonnes) for more than three weeks , MAGRAMA reported.”
July 11, 2014 – Pacific Bluefin Tuna Population at Brink of Collapse
September 11, 2014 – Catalina Island, California - fishing boats are posting catches of amazing numbers of tuna too .
September 23, 2014 – Prince Edward Island - Island’s tuna numbers climbing fast
November 22, 2014 – SAN JOSE DEL CABO BAJA, CALIFORNIA SUR, MEXICO - Yellowfin Tuna and Wahoo continue to Keep Anglers Busy
December 1, 2014 - Bluefin Stocks Rebound
March 10, 2015 – Good Numbers of Bluefin Tuna Showing
Southern Bluefin Tuna well managed and sustainable.
That is the headline, as Australia’s Southern Bluefin Tuna industry is set for its best season in more than two decades , with the total catch limit increased by almost 10 per cent for the 2014-15 season which starts today (December 1).
“A recent SBT stock assessment shows the stock size is increasing and has almost doubled in recent years . This is a great testament of our science based management of the fishery.”
But despite rebounding stocks, there’s been no commensurate increase in the allowance and bag limits for recreational anglers . In fact, the reverse is true and some academics are even calling for stricter recreational SBT tuna controls.
Earlier this year, the Department of Primary Industries in NSW called for submissions on a proposal to change the bag limit to just one fish per angler over 90cm, a two fish daily boat limit and a charterboat limit of six fish.
December 13, 2014 – Atlantic Beach, NC - Bluefin Tuna Season off to Promising Start. With an increase in the U.S. bluefin tuna quota and an early appearance of large tunas off the Carteret County coast, signs are out there this might be a good bluefin tuna season.
January 21, 2015 – Fisherman lands largest Bluefin ever off California Coast
February 1, 2015 - TV: “Animals basically dying on our beaches” along West Coast. “Maybe the fish have all left, and that’s why this is happening.”
February 11, 2015 – Southern California - We ended the trip with 232 yellowtail, a very respectful number for fishing in February .
WALRUSES
October 1, 2014 – Walrus mass in vast numbers on Alaska beach as sea ice retreats . Concern that warming climate is responsible for gathering of about 35,000 walrus in north-west Alaska
WHALES
August, 2014 - More than 50 sperm whales spotted off California
LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. (AP) – More than 50 sperm whales emerged off the Southern California coast in an extremely rare , hours-long sighting that had whale watchers and scientists giddy with excitement.
They later were spotted off San Diego and were heading south, said Jay Barlow, a sperm whale expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
It’s by far the largest group ever spotted so near to shore in Southern California , Barlow said Tuesday.
"I’ve been counting whales and been on the water for 35 years. We’ve never had a large group like this ever, " said Alisa Schulman-Janiger, director of the ACS/LA Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project.
The massive mammals were spread out over an area of up to 3 square miles and came within inches of boats as they poked their heads out of the waves, said David Anderson, who operates Captain Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Safari sightseeing tours.
Why the sperm whales showed up remains a mystery.
"The climate patterns have definitely been weird," Barlow said.
The whales also could simply have gotten confused by the complicated ocean terrain and "wandered in not intending to be here," he said.
September 8, 2014 – There are as many blue whales living off the coast of California as there were before humans started hunting them to near extinction 110 years ago. The current population is 97 percent as large as it was before 1905.
November 28, 2014 – Record Numbers of ‘Exotic’ Orcas Visit Pacific Northwest. Mark Malleson of the Victoria-based Prince of Whales Whale Watching says he has spotted the outer-coastal orcas five times - more than he’s ever in his 18 years in the business .
Experts don’t know for sure what’s driving their unique movements , but they suspect that a boom in seal and sea lion populations may be attracting these whales in unprecedented numbers.
March 20, 2015 – “Millions of Fish and massive numbers of whales and dolphins are washing ashore dead”
WHITEFISH
November 7, 2013 - A century later, whitefish are turning up in Wisconsin rivers
Marinette — The venerable Lake Michigan whitefish — a favorite of ice anglers and commercial fishermen — i s turning up on inland waters where it hasn’t been seen in a century.
It’s a surprising turn of events for a species that rebounded on Green Bay and Lake Michigan in the late 1980s despite the loss of its main food source due to the spread of invasive species.
The fish spend their lives in the lake, but a small number — scientists don’t know how many — are leaving Green Bay and swimming into the rivers to spawn during November and early December.
Now, the inland invasion is spreading: This month, DNR biologists confirmed evidence of spawning whitefish to the south in the Peshtigo and Oconto rivers.
And most surprising, spawning whitefish also were found on the Fox River in the city of Green Bay — home of the nation’s largest toxic cleanup project.
Scientists are still trying to understand why whitefish are returning.
