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 | Long live the Queen |
|---|---|
| Common Name of Fish | Queen Parrotfish |
| Scientific Name of Fish | Scarus vetula |
| Description of Why This Fish Is Important/Interesting | The beautiful Queen Parrotfish is found on coral reefs throughout the Caribbean and tropical western Atlantic. The Queen Parrotfish gets its name from colorful markings on its head resembling a crown. All parrotfish are so named because their teeth are fused together to form a beak similar to that of a parrot. Parrotfish use their beak to scrape algae and other plants off hard surfaces of coral reefs. After ingesting certain types of algae or corals, Queen Parrotfish digest the soft parts, but pass the indigestible hard parts thereby contributing sand to the area around reefs. New corals are able to colonize bare surfaces after parrotfish have removed the algae. In these ways, the Queen Parrotfish helps maintain her “kingdom”. The Queen Parrotfish is a sequential hermaphrodite. This means all Queen Parrotfish begin life as a female. A few males in the population maintain harems of females. If a male dies, one of the females in the harem will change into a “terminal phase” male. |
| Website or Journal Article for More Information | https://oceana.org/marine-life/ocean-fishes/queen-parrotfish |
| Your Name | Steve Lochmann |