morone saxatilis

Fish in the Bay – May 2025, WRMP San Pablo Bay Trawls, Part 3 – Gallinas Creek to Hamilton Wetlands.

This is part 3 of the San Pablo Bay series.  We continue our journey around San Pablo Bay. This time...

Fish in the Bay – May 2025, WRMP San Pablo Bay Trawls, Part 2 – Petaluma River.

This is part 2 of a 4-part San Pablo Bay series. The UC Davis Otolith Geochemistry & Fish Ecology Lab...

Fish in the Bay – May 2025, WRMP San Pablo Bay Trawls, Part 1.

New WRMP San Pablo Bay trawls.  The UC Davis OGFL crew performed fish assessments of restored marsh areas around San...

Fish in the Bay – May 2025, Extra Baby Fish Month

Extra Baby Fish Month!  It happened again.  Every once in a while, we see a bigger goby baby boom in...

Fish in the Bay – April 2025, Traditional Baby Fish Month.

Spring is here – technically it arrived on March 20th.  Returning warmth is slowly awakening the marshes … just in...

Fish in the Bay – April 2025: WRMP – Eden Landing Trawls.

The UC Davis OGFL lab was contracted by the Wetlands Regional Monitoring Program (WRMP) to perform fish monitoring surveys at...

Fish in the Bay – March 2025. Baby Fishes & Interesting Oddballs

The Shaduary Shad population explosion ended by early March.  Only a small remnant of stragglers remained in the area.  Unfortunately,...

Fish in the Bay – Special Report: Lower South Bay Broodstock Trawls, Jan 2025 – Return to Oz.

Longfin Smelt Broodstock trawls continued over numerous days through January, February, and even into the first weeks of March.  I...

Fish in the Bay – Special Report: Suisun Bay Broodstock Trawls, December 2024.

I accompanied the UC Davis crew on a “Longfin Smelt Broodstock” trawling expedition in north San Francisco Bay in December...

Fish in the Bay – February 2025. Shaduary Continues.

Good news? Or Bad News?  Shad population explosion has spilled over into February.  January counts broke previous records: 533 American...

Fish in the Bay – January 2025. Crappie Shaduary!

January 2025 was a very disappointing month for Longfin Smelt.  Longfin spawning season started well enough.  November and December numbers...

Fish in the Bay – October 2024, Hot October – Invasions Continue.

October was a hot weekend.  Air temperature was beastly.  Water temperatures in October were close to 2 degrees C warmer...

Fish in the Bay – September 2024. Upstream Invasions.

A belated September report … The overall raw fish count increased, but this was not good news.  Almost 50% of...

Fish in the Bay – July 2024, El Nino Summer Doldrums.

I suppose we could call this the “slow summer” or maybe the “warm summer.”  Fish counts remain low compared to...

Fish in the Bay – June 2024, El Nino Watch.

El Nino officially ended in May, but effects on fishes linger.    Overall fish totals remain low – with one...

Fish in the Bay – May 2024, El Nino?

Relatively few fish overall.  May totals were generally not the lowest ever, but these numbers were reminiscent of low fish...

Fish in the Bay – April 2024, Part 2, Every Fish has a Season.

This is part two of the April report.  Part one covered “Baby Fish Month” which mainly pertains to the April...

Fish in the Bay – April 2024, Traditional Baby Fish Month.

Once again, it is that time of year: Baby Fish Month!  Hundreds to thousands of tiny baby “unidentified” gobies traditionally...

Fish in the Bay – March 2024, Spring Flush Continues.

As of March, we were still experiencing a welcome extended rainy spring.  In theory, the additional rainwater flushing should be...

Fish in the Bay – February 2024, Part2. Freshwater Flush, continued.

This is part two of the February blog.  The February flush and the resulting salinity drop scattered most of our...

Fish in the Bay – October 2023, Fall Begins.

Several October spoilers were given in the previous post.  Much more remains to be reported. We will only cover a...

Fish in the Bay – July 2023, Special Report: Marsh Plants in the restored Garden of Eden.

Fish in the Bay – July 2023, Special Report: Marsh Plants in the restored Garden of Eden.

Summer is when the marsh turns greenest.  I have not blogged enough about plants.   1. Oasis & Bass Sanctuary at...

Fish in the Bay – June 2023, Is Summer here yet?

More baby fishes showed up in June!  This included 60 baby Longfin Smelt and 178 baby Starry Flounder which is...

Fish in the Bay – April 2023, Traditional Baby Fish Month

April is “Traditional Baby Fish Month.”  The tradition is fairly new in Lower South San Francisco Bay.  New for us,...

Fish in the Bay – March 2023, Freshwater Flushing & Spawning Fishes!

Atmospheric rivers and rainwater flushing continued through March.  This extended rainy season is a very welcome change after at least...

October Report – Big Bass & Guitarfish Month.

In response to concerns about fish kills from the July-September Red Tides in Central and South San Francisco Bay, I...

Fish in the Bay – September 2022, Red Tide Emergency Trawls.

As we are all now aware, single-celled phytoplankton called “Heterosigma akashiwo” bloomed into a dark reddish-brown stain across much of...

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 – May 2022: Big Baby Fish Month!

As reported last month, the early April trawls captured “Traditional Baby Fish Month.”  But with only 721 babies, it was...

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...

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