150 Fishes to Celebrate 150 Years

This list is still in progress and being added to weekly. Check back again soon!

150 Fishes to Celebrate 150 Years

In 2020, the American Fisheries Society will celebrate its 150th Anniversary. As part of the celebration, the Society will be calling attention to 150 fishes. We solicited nominations of fishes for the list by the Society’s membership.

The 150 Fishes list is a celebration of the biodiversity of freshwater and marine fishes of North America. These fishes will help tell the story of fish and fisheries of the continent. They may illustrate unique life histories, beauty, conservation issues, and challenges of managing and conserving these animals and their habitats.  These fishes represent our native biodiversity, but also illustrates how invasives and our own human nature have had impacts on our aquatic resources. Hence, this list will primarily focus on native species but may include non-natives when they tell a compelling fisheries story. From the stories of these fishes, the Society and the public can learn to better appreciate these amazing natural resources and be challenged to ensure that future generations will be able to experience these fishes in their native settings.

Nomination Process

Fish nominations are now closed.

Circulation Process

The 150 Fishes list will reside at the 150th Anniversary Website, information about individual fish from the list will be circulated through various social media platforms throughout the year.

This list is meant to be a fun for members and informative for the public. It is unlikely we will be able to include all nominations. We acknowledge that every fish has a story. There may be opportunities to discuss all the nominated fishes in the future.


FULL LIST OF NOMINATED FISH

Catchy TitleGoing the distance
Common Name of FishGreen Sturgeon
Scientific Name of FishAcipenser medirostris
Image of FishImage of Fish
Image Caption and CreditCaption: A juvenile Green Sturgeon is tagged and released back into the Sacramento River by USFWS. Credit: Steve Martarano/USFWS
Description of Why This Fish Is Important/Interesting

The Green Sturgeon is the most marine of all sturgeon and makes an impressively exhausting migration. Adults from the threatened southern distinct population segment spawn around 400 km up the Sacramento River. They exit the river, dodge water diversions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta, and head under the Golden Gate Bridge sometime after spawning. They travel north along the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington. Then, they often head to foraging grounds off Vancouver Island, Canada. Most won't spawn every year and will instead hang out in estuaries in Washington like Willapa Bay or Grays Harbor. But, after a few years they will again journey south over 1000 km along the coast to make the upriver migration through the delta gauntlet again.

Website or Journal Article for More Informationhttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1577/T07-055.1
Your NameEmily Miller