(Originally published January 21, 2019)
“The swing of his nature took him from extreme languor to devouring energy; and as I knew well, he was never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him that afternoon so enwrapped in the music of St. James’s Hall I felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set himself to hunt down.”
Dr. John Watson, from “ The Red Headed League ”, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1891
It’s January 2019, and, lo, an evil time is coming upon those whom I have set myself to hunt down. As both you and they will discern just a bit further along in this missive.
You’re going to get to it in real time, but I’m guessing that the perpetrators that I mentioned have already grabbed advance copies from my drafts folder, and are currently passing them around, and shitting bricks about what to do about this new breakthrough in my scientific efforts at toppling their foul regime.
I did a lot of online research on fish to create it. I didn’t go to any fishing stores, or look at any fishing merchandise. As I was researching, I recieved an e-mail whose subject line read “This is the most durable fishing rod pen ever made!” Which shows as a sidebar how we’re all being relentlessly profiled through the things we look for and write about on the internet. The profiling for the pen is automated, while someone grabbing my draft e-mail is manual.
At this time, great, epochal positive changes are underway at every level of our reality. And one of those changes is that fish are growing to unprecedented size in widely varied geographies.
If, not even twenty years ago, someone had told you, or a fish expert, or me, that we’d be seeing fish records increasing by these epochal percentages at the current time, none of us would have believed it. And we’d have all laughed at the person saying it, because that is just not the way things work. Everybody knows that such records are usually broken by tiny margins, and that Poor Mother Gaia was and is dying, crushed by the virus-like burden of mankind.
But that prediction would have been true. To prove that statement, I have documented multiple historically-unprecedented increases in fish size, all recent, all geographically disparate, with weight increases averaging 6% per year across the study group. The highest annual growth rate, 22.5%, was that exhibited by the Texas sword fish from 2011 to 2013.
Highly significant growth rates are seen from 2011 to 2018, with those rates peaking from 2012 to 2013.
I derived those numbers from nine geographically-distinct examples of epochal increases in fish size, which I’ve listed below, and will keep adding to this document as I may.
First we’re going to discuss volume of change, increase in size.
Example number one is Wyoming’s current state record freshwater drum fish, caught in 2018, which is almost twice as large as (91% larger than) a previous record holder from 1993.
The second example is the Michigan state record black buffalo fish of 2018, which was 40% larger - almost half again as large – as the record fish from just over twenty years ago, in 2004.
Third: the current Georgia state record blue catfish increased in size by over a third (37%) from 1979 to 2018.
Fourth: the current world-record Northern Snakehead fish increased in size by 11% in the decate from 2004 to 2014, at an average rate of change of a bit less than one percent per year from 2004 to 2014. The largest rate of increase, an eye-popping 11%, being seen from 2014 to 2018.
The Texas state record sword fish from 2013 was 45% heavier than the previous record, set just two years earlier, in 2011. That’s an even more impressive annual rate of increase of 22.5%, in the two key years from 2011 to 2013…
The largest Bluefin tuna ever caught off North Carolina was in 2017 – it weighed 1,045 pounds. It was ruled ineligible for the state record because it was sold commercially, but it’s real and actual, and I’m using it. It was 40% larger than the fish that set the record in 1995. That’s an annual rate of increase of 1.7% during those 23 years.
Breaking it down: the record North Carolina Bluefin tuna increased in size by 8% from 1995 to 2011, for an annual rate of increase during those eleven years of .5%. The record then increased 29% from 2011 to 2017, for an annual rate of increase of 4.9% during those six years. Where the rate of increase from 1995 to 2011 was below the average, while the rate of growth from 2011 to 2017 was roughly ten times the average.
The Florida state record bass from 2015 weighed 19.2 pounds, or 11% percent larger than the previous record of 17.27 pounds, set in 1986. That’s an annual rate of growth of .37% during those 29 years.
The Texas state record hammerhead shark caught in 2017 was 17.7% larger than the previous record from 1980. That’s an annual rate of change of .47% in those 37 years.
And, ninth, the Texas state record dog snapper from 2018 was 58% larger than the previous state record from 2004. That’s an annual rate of change of 4.14% during those 14 years.
Now we’ll discuss and compare the rate of change of those nine geographically-disparate fish.
A breakdown of Michigan black buffalo records from 2004 to 2018 showed that the highest annual rate of growth (5.5%), occurred in the three years from 2012 to 2015.
While, in the case of the Wyoming freshwater drum showed that the highest annual rate of growth during the period from 1993 to 2018 (5.2%) occurred in the six years from 2012 to 2018.
The Georgia blue catfish showed its highest rate of annual growth (5.2%) from 2012 to 2018.
The Northern Snakehead fish showed its highest rate of annual growth (11%) from 2014 to 2018.
The Texas sword fish showed its highest growth (22.5%) from 2011 to 2013.
The North Carolina Bluefin tuna, from another new geography, showed it highest annual growth rate (4.9%) from 2011 to 2017.
The Florida state record bass grew at a rate of .38% a year from 1986 to 2015.
It saw an annual rate of increase of .78% during the 23 years from 1995 to 2017. The record fish increased 8% in size from 1995 to 2011, for an annual rate of increase during that time period of .5%. The record then increased 29% from 2011 to 2017, for an annual rate of increase of 4.9% during those six years. The increase from 1995 to 2011 was below the average, while the rate of growth from 2011 to 2017 was roughly ten times the average.
The Texas state record hammerhead shark caught in 2017 was 17.7% larger than the previous record from 1980. That’s an annual rate of change of .47% in those 37 years.
The Texas state record dog snapper from 2018 was 58% larger than the previous state record from 2004. That’s an annual rate of change of 4.14% during those 14 years.
“2012 to 2013” is present in all nine examples of highest growth rates. While “2012 to 2015” is present in eight of nine examples. “2012 to 2018” is present in six of the nine examples. “2011 to 2013” is present in five of the nine examples. This is where I need statistics people to say it. But 2012 to 2013 is obviously the peak of the change.
The highest annual growth rates are an identical 5.2% in two cases, 5.5% in the third, 11% in the fourth, 22.5% in the 5th, and 4.9% in the 6th, and .38% in the 7th, , .47% in the 8th, and 4.14% in the 9th.
The average of the highest growth rates of these nine fish is 6%.
And so, I have documented multiple historically-unprecedented increases in fish size, all recent, all geographically disparate, with weight increases averaging 6% per year across the study group. The highest annual growth rate, 22.5%, was that exhibited by the Texas sword fish from 2011 to 2013.
Highly significant growth rates are seen from 2011 to 2018, with those rates peaking from 2012 to 2013.
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