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 Title | Piranha of the sea |
|---|---|
| Common Name of Fish | Bluefish |
| Scientific Name of Fish | Pomatomus saltatrix |
| Description of Why This Fish Is Important/Interesting | The bluefish is one of the few species with a global distribution. Along the east coast of North America it has supported a popular recreational fishery for over 200 years. The adults spawn offshore and the young move into coastal nurseries where they grow extremely rapidly and enter the fishery when they are only a few months old. One reason for this high growth is that they start feeding on other fish as they move inshore and are capable of eating 40% of their body weight daily as juveniles. They stay inshore until waters cool and then move south again for the winter. They occur in large schools and attack prey in groups; their specialized teeth allow them to take prey in pieces, much like piranha. They grow up to 1 m in length and can live 10 years. They are fished wherever they occur around the world and are called by various names, bluefish (N America), taylor (Australia), elf (South Africa), tassergal (NW Africa), lufar (Black Sea), anjora (Mediterranean), and enchova (S America) |
| Website or Journal Article for More Information | http://www.fao.org/fishery/species/3102/en |
| Your Name | Francis Juanes |