Ah, it’s mid-April in Wisconsin and, right on cue, snow popped back up in the forecast and temperatures this week are going to struggle to get above freezing. Spring, it seems, is on hold for us land-dwelling types. But, in our rivers and lakes and even roadside ditches, the water is just fine for our …
When it comes to fish food webs, the basic narrative is that the bigger the fish, the bigger its prey. In fact, one of the measurements scientists often use to determine a predator’s potential diet is “gape size” which calculates, quite literally, the biggest possible thing a fish can fit into its mouth. But such …
This Saturday, April 21st, is World Fish Migration Day – a day to celebrate the incredible journeys that fishes undertake each year to spawn and continue their species’ existence. World Fish Migration Day is “a one day global celebration to create awareness on the importance of open rivers and migratory fish.” Hundreds of events are planned all across …
Each spring, as birds take to the sky and head north, bringing bright colors and cheerful songs with them, an equally massive migration is taking place just beneath the surface of our inland waters. In the eight states and two provinces surrounding the five Great Lakes, many of these migrations are of fish heading from …
We thought we’d dig through the archives to see what we were up to in previous Novembers. Enjoy this look at “Limno in the Lab” from four years ago! Originally posted 11/13/12 – After the spring and summer field seasons, it’s time to return to the lab to work up all the specimens collected in …
If you live, well, pretty much anywhere in North America, you know that spring is springing early this year. And while that means ice-free lakes, blooming crocuses and the return of all sorts of birds, it also means that fish are getting ready to move. This spring, (starting next week, in fact) we’ll be bringing …
For many species of fish, spring spawning migrations are a crucial part of their life cycle. They swim upstream to habitat both more suitable for them to deposit eggs and where young fish that hatch from those eggs can avoid predators and grow. That’s why state agencies, environmental non-profits and anglers groups spend millions each …
While we’ve been spared (so far) by any sort of climate shenanigans like a polar vortex this winter, our lakes have had a nice thick cover of ice on for a month or more. And lots of people send in variations of the question – what’s life like for a fish under the ice? Well, the …
It’s official! Not even highs in the low 40’s and a couple of overnight snow showers could stop it – spring has arrived in Madison. According to the Wisconsin state climatologist, Lyle Anderson (sorry, John Young!), Lake Mendota was free of ice on April 12th, right on the heels of the thaw of other Madison …
Last spring, we featured UW grad student, Dan Oele’s work on northern pike in Green Bay. Dan was trying to answer the question, “Do pike return to the waters where they first emerged from eggs to spawn, or will any suitable stream do?” Now, it appears he has an answer. And his results are good …