jim ervin

Fish in the Bay – Special Report: Green Water, 6-7 Aug 2022.

This is a Fish in the Bay special report to document observations of water color in Lower South San Francisco...

Fish in the Bay – Special Report, The Year of the Shark – 2022.

Schematic distribution of the 9-10 July shark catch: 20 Leopards + 2 Brown Smoothhounds. Our block-buster shark year continues.  By...

Fish in the Bay – Special Report, Color Change Experiment #7

Belated report:  This Clupeiform color change experiment was conducted in December but never reported.  This is part of my longstanding...

Fish in the Bay – July 2022, Palaemon Shrimp take over.

Record-breaking Palaemon Shrimp month: almost 13,000 were caught in July.  The previous record monthly catch was in November 2021 when...

Fish in the Bay – June 2022, Supplemental Report, Fishes & Other Critters.

By Luca Sartori, California State Maritime Academy Class of 2025.   https://www.csum.edu/ Editor’s note: Luca is spending his summer internship developing...

Fish in the Bay – June 2022, Record Anchovies and Gobies!

The fishes are now solidly in their summertime regime:  Anchovies, Gobies, baby Sharks, and Bat Rays.  Cool water fishes have...

Fish in the Bay – April 2022, Part 2: Supplemental Report – The Bestiary.

Random observations from April trawls in Lower South San Francisco Bay.  These were a series of Facebook posts that didn’t...

Fish in the Bay – April 2022, Part 1: Traditional Baby Fish Month?

Long-time readers will know that April is “Baby Fish Month” in Lower South SF Bay.  Larvae of gobies and a...

Fish in the Bay – March 2022: A Crazy & mixed up month!

March was an unusual month that we still have not completely figured out.  We are in the start of a...

Fish in the Bay – February/March 2022 Supplemental Report: Gobies, Shrimp, etc.

SF Bay fishes are very active in winter through spring.  Charismatic pelagic fishes like Longfin Smelt, Anchovies, Herring, Topsmelt, and...

Fish in the Bay – February 2022: Another Record Catch.

February was another great month if you like small pelagic bait fishes. … And, who doesn’t? The February Longfin Smelt...

Fish in the Bay – January 2022: Anchovies and Longfins, yes! But, no Crangon brooding.

Good News!  Our streak of phenomenal finfish production continues.  This time last year, we were marveling over the uncharacteristic boost...

Fish in the Bay – January 2022: Mud Shrimp Alert – Upogebia Explosion on New Year’s Day!

Happy New Year!  The new word for 2022 is “Upogebia,” aka Mud Shrimp. We caught our first Upogebia in Pond...

Fish in the Bay – December 2021: End of the first Dry La Nina Year.

2021 was a very good year in Lower South SF Bay (LSB) – for most fishes.  Many records were broken,...

Fish in the Bay – December 2021: Longfin Alert! Longfin Smelt have commenced Spawning in Lower South San Francisco Bay!

The first spawning-ready Longfin Smelt of the 2021/22 spawning season have been detected.  This typically happens in December, but only...

Fish in the Bay – October 2021: Longfins Returned. Non-native Silversides & Shimofuris were still out of control.

Trawl map. The results from October trawls were a mix of good and bad news on several levels.   Bay-side...

Fish in the Bay – September 2021: Operation Guadalupe, Part 3.

Operation Guadalupe trawl stations. Operation Guadalupe. Continued.  For this third and last installment, we surveyed the upstream tidal end of...

Fish in the Bay – September 2021: Operation Guadalupe, Part 2.

Operation Guadalupe trawl stations. Operation Guadalupe. Continued.  For this second installment, we examine some of the fishes in Alviso Slough...

Fish in the Bay – September 2021: Operation Guadalupe.

Hello folks.  From mid-August thru mid-September, the UC Davis OG Fish Lab did something very different.  With additional funding from...

Fish in the Bay – August 2021: Red Ceramium, Boogers, a Nudibranch, and other Summertime Oddities.

Trawl map. We are continuing to experience a very good Anchovy year.  The 2021 total is on track to possibly...

Fish in the Bay – July 2021: Anchovy & Goby Season – Crangon Disappeared!

Trawl map. Good News!  The summer 2021 Anchovy spawn continues.  And, we found more bryozoan reef and two new interesting...

Fish in the Bay – June 2021, Anchovy Alert! Spawning Anchovies have returned to Lower South San Francisco Bay.

Anchovies are Spawning again in San Francisco Bay!  Our monthly Anchovy count jumped from 22 in May (with 17 of...

Fish in the Bay – May 2021: Finishing off the La Nina spring.

Trawl map. May Trawls.  May is typically a low-fish transition month between “Baby Fish Month” of April and summertime Anchovies. ...

Fish in the Bay – April 2021: More baby fish.

Trawl map. April is “Baby Fish Month.”  We caught almost 1,900 unidentifiable baby fish.  Most of these tiny babies were...

Fish in the Bay – March 2021: La Nina Baby Fish Bomb.

Trawl map. We caught a lot of baby fish in March; more shrimp than normal as well.  The Pacific Ocean...

Fish in the Bay – February 2021: Tales from the Coral Reef and the Spawning Ground.

Trawl map. Good news, a new season of spawning fish arrived!  Read on.   Bay-side stations trawling results. Rare, odd-ball...

Fish in the Bay – January 2021, Part 2: La Nina Skies; shrimp, parasites, and more.

Sunrise near station Coy4 on January 30th, 2021 I had some odds-and-ends left to report from the January trawls.  Beautiful...

Fish in the Bay – January 2021, part 1: Winter Fishes = Longfin, Shad, Herring, & Anchovy(?).

Trawl map. Good news first:  1126 Anchovies! That is the biggest January catch of Anchovies since 2014.  465 Longfin Smelt...

Fish in the Bay – January 2020: The Longfin Chronicles, Part 3.

Longfin trawl results from January 2nd & 3rd. Operation “Save Our Smelt” 2020/21, week three.  By this point, over 100...

Fish in the Bay – December 2020: The Longfin Chronicles, Part 2.

Longfin trawl results from December 27th& 28th. Longfin Smelt Broodstock Collection. Operation “Save Our Smelt” 2020/21 continued through the last...

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