Sami Araya

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 – May 2025, WRMP Eden Landing Survey #2

The UC Davis OGFL crew performed their second fish assessment of the Eden Landing Ecological Reserve in early May.  They...

Fish in the Bay – April 2025, Part 2. Corbula Attack, Gobies, Bottom Fishes, & Tides!

Part 2 of the April report.   1. Corbula Clams. The main stem of Coyote Creek between UCoy2 and Coy1...

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-Feb 2025 – Pictures at an Exhibition, A Fish Opera.

This is a third and final report on 2025 Longfin Smelt Broodstock Trawls.  I was not present at most of...

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, Part 2. Bottom Fishes & Bugs in the Valley of the Heart’s Delight.

This is the rest of the February report – Fishes, bugs, plus a few other items that didn’t fit into...

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 – December 2024. Happy Longfin New Year!

Happy New Year!  This post mainly focuses on the latest return migration of spawning Longfin Smelt – a now an...

Fish in the Bay – Merry Fishmas, 2024!

Merry Fishmas everyone!  I fell horribly behind in my fish reporting, so I am combining Fishmas with the November blog. ...

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 – 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 – December 2023 – Merry Fishmas!

This is a pelagic fish holiday special. Longfin Smelt and Pacific Herring have arrived in preparation for mid-winter spawning.  Young...

Fish in the Bay – November 2023, Part 3 – Bat Rays to the Rescue?

We caught 36 Bat Rays in November.  It was unexpected to see so many this late in the year.  With...

Fish in the Bay – September 2023, Summer’s End.

A belated September fish report:  I missed September trawls, but Sami, Niko, and Janai sent me some photos. I got...

Fish in the Bay – July 2023, Record Starry Year

Record Starry Year!  As reported earlier, the year-to-date Starry count had already exceeded the previous record year as of June,...

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 – May 2023, Extra Baby Fish Month.

More baby fish showed up in May.  For want of a better term, this was an “Extra Baby Fish Month.”...

Fish in the Bay – January 2023, Part 1 – Atmospheric River Blowout.

Heavy cold rain drenched us on January 14th and 15th.  We were under at least the sixth Atmospheric River that...