Why study fish?This is a question I posed, and answered, in my ichthyology class today. They have, a

Why study fish?

This is a question I posed, and answered, in my ichthyology class today. They have, after all, spent the last few weeks identifying smelly, preserved fish specimens and blurry underwater photos.

I told them about the current state of the world’s fisheries. I told them about how declines in global fish catch, increases in collapsed fisheries, and decreases in fish catch per unit effort have been happening over time, despite the global fleet fishing harder, farther, and deeper in all the oceans of our planet.

Then, I told them that that’s where fish knowledge and identification comes in. Through scientific monitoring, we have a way of keeping track of (and managing) our ocean’s supply of fish–which is not an infinite resource.

I talk more about this in a longer blog post over here, so do check it out of you are interested.