From Hagfishes to Halibuts, Thanks for All the Fishes. by Don Orth

More than one-half of the world’s living vertebrates are fishes.  With more than 69,000 vertebrate species, one must ask how we know that these facts are true (IUCN 2018).  Scientists around the world are continually adding to our knowledge and the names and numbers keep changing. It’s hard to check facts in news reports on the fishes. When I took Ichthyology as a student I learned that there were 18,818 species of fishes in the world. That's no longer true. The most up-to-date inventory indicates that there are 35,025 valid species of fishes in the world and 4,109 new species were added in the last ten years (Fricke et al. 2018).  That averages 411 species per year or more than 1 species per day!

In 1976, Joseph S. Nelson  published the first edition of Fishes of the World.  It was the definitive source of information on fish classification and a must-have reference for serious Ichthyologists.  New editions were published in 1984, 1994, 2006, and 2016.   The Catalog of Fishes maintained by the California Academy of Science  provides online information for all fish species and other web-based databases, such as FishBase  make ichthyological fact checking easier (Froese and Pauly 2018).  

Number of valid fish species, families, and orders recognized in Fishes of the World by publication year.  Data for 2019 from Catalog of Fishes.

Year	Species	Families	Orders
1976	18,818	450	46
1984	21,450	445	50
1994	24,618	482	57
2006	27,977	515	62
2018	32,000	536	85
2019	35,025	584	77

The most recent edition of Fishes of the World captures the explosion of published research on fishes and the emergency of 3D scanning, Next-Gen sequencing, molecular systematics, and large collaborative projects, such as the NSF All Catfish Species Inventory and Cypriniform, Euteleost, and Chondrichthyan Tree of Life projects.  From the most recent Catalog of Fishes, the three largest fish families are the Gobiidae, Cichlidae, and Cyprinidae.  Some familiar families of fish are monotypic, which means there is only one species.   Monotypic families include the familiar Whale Shark Rhincodontidae, Megamouth shark Megachasmidae, Bowfin Amiidae, Milkfish Chanidae, Salamanderfish Lepidogalaxiidae, Pirate Perch Aphredoderidae, Swordfish Xiphiidae, and Louvar Luvaridae. 

Top thirteen fish families (based on number of valid species) and number of species added in last ten years (Fricke et al. 2019)

Rank	Family Name	Common Name	Species	New Species
1	Gobiidae	Gobies	1,894	332
2	Cichlidae	Cichlids	1,720	189
3	Cyprinidae	Minnows and Carps	1,695	212
4	Characidae	Tetras	1,180	245
5	Loracariidae	Suckermouth Armored Catfishes	983	231
6	Nemacheilidae	Stone Loaches	724	192
7	Leuciscidae	True Minnows	674	75
8	Serranidae	Sea Basses and Groupers	570	53
9	Labridae	Wrasses	556	52
10	Cynolebiidae	Killifishes	457	128
11	Liparidae	Snailfishes	556	52
12	Pomacentridae	Damselfishes	416	33
13	Blenniidae	Blennies	404	11

The changes in numbers are due to discovery, lumping, splitting, and changes in classification.   The snailfishes Liparidae are deepwater fishes and pioneering video technology is responsible for discovery of many new snailfish species.   In other cases, reexamination of collected specimens may result in splitting species into several new species (e.g., Collins et al. 2017).  In other cases, the rarity of the species can explain how it was overlooked until recently.   In other cases, changes in numbers is due to a wholesale revision of the systematics (e.g., Cypriniformes Tan and Armbruster 2018).

 

Pseudolithoxus nicoi is an armored catfish endemic to Columbia and Venezula was recently split into two species (Collins et al. 2017.  Photo by PlanetCatfish.com

Among the new species discovered in 2018, are the Sailfin Fairy Wrasse and the Sunset Perchlet found during a survey of the deep reefs of Easter Island (Rowlett 2019).   

Sailfin Fairy Wrasse, AKA Blue Thorat Fairy Wrasse (Cirrhlabrus cyanogularis) Credit: Y.K. Tea / Tea et al. 2018

Sunset Perchlet Plectranthias ahiahiata, holotype, 39.95mm. Credit: Luiz Rocha / Shepherd et al. 2018

It’s not common for scientists to discover a new family of fishes.   However, in 2018 a new family was discovered from the Amazon (de Pinna et al. 2017).   This new species Tarumania was collected in isolated pools of tributaries of the Rio Negro where it is capable of burrowing in decomposing leaf litter and gulping air.  Why a new family?   There is no family in which to place this strange new fish with a curiously shaped swimbladder, eel shaped body, and scales on the head that face forward. 

 

Tarumania walkerae holotype. Credit: De Pinna et al. 2017

Novice and experienced Ichthyologists often struggle with the names of fishes because the precise meaning of many names is poorly known.  There is no definitive reference for the latinized names given.  The local endemic Bigmouth Chub Nocomis platyrhynchus was named from the Greek platurrhunkhos meaning “broad snouted” In the species description Lachner and Jenkins (1971, p. 39) wrote "the specific names, platyrhynchus, and the vernacular name, bigmouth chub, is in reference to the large gape width." The genus name Nocomis was given by Charles Frédéric Girard apparently because he liked the sound of the native American word, Nokomis which means grandmother.  Fish names are researched by The ETYFish project  and archived in the  Fish Name Etymology Database developed by Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. In the North America, a group of fish taxonomist meet periodically and published the Common and Scientific Namesof Fishes form United States, Canada, and Mexico.   In the 2013 edition, they report on 3,875 species and 260 families.

Knowledge of fish numbers is essential for estimating extinction rates and providing a baseline for protection of rare and common fishes.  Fish taxonomy is an often overlooked specialty and the lack of support for taxonomy is a threat to biodiversity conservation.  For example, almost half of the nineteen species of popular black basses Micropterus spp., have been identified in the last twenty years (Taylor et al. 2019).  New fish species discoveries are a testament to the perseverance of dedicated taxonomists.  But the rate is slow and many cryptic fish species remain hidden or lumped with similar forms due to lack of analysis 

References

Collins, R.A.,  et al. 2017.  Biogeography and species delimitation of the rheophilic suckermouth catfish genus Pseudolithoxus (Siluriformes: Loricariidae), with the description of a new species from the Brazilian Amazon.  Systematics and Biodiversity 16:538-550. 

De Pinna, M.,  J. Zuanon, L. R. Py-Daniel, and P. Petry. 2018. A new family of neotropical freshwater fishes from deep fossorial Amazonian habitat, with a reappraisal of morphological characiform phylogeny (Teleostei: Ostariophysi). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, zlx028, https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlx028

Fricke, R., W.N. Eschmeyer, and R. van der Laan, editors.  2019. CATALOG OF FISHES:

GENERA, SPECIES, REFERENCES. (http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatmain.asp). Electronic version accessed 9 January 2019.

Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2018. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication.

www.fishbase.org, version (06/2018).

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, Table 1: Numbers of threatened species by major groups of organisms (1996–2018) Source

Lachner, E.A., and R.E. Jenkins,. 1971.  Systematics, distribution, and evolution of the chub genus Nocomis Girard (Pisces, Cyprindae) of eastern United States, with descriptions of new species.  Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, Number 85.   97 pp.  

Rowlett, J. 2019.  Top ten new fish species from 2018.  World Wide Web. https://reefs.com/2018/12/27/top-ten-new-fish-species-from-2018/   accessed 9 January.

Tan, M. and J. W. Armbruster.  2018. Phylogenetic classification of extant genera of fishes of the order Cypriniformes (Teleostei: Ostariophysi). Zootaxa 4476 (no. 1): 6-39.

Taylor, A.T., J.M. Long, M.D. Tringali, and B.L. Barthel. 2019.  Conservation of black bass diversity: An emerging management paradigm.  Fisheries  43

 

Fluvial Fishes Lab Year in Review

New Year’s Day… now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”  Mark Twain

 
Many of my good intentions were realized in 2018.  The year ended with the delivery of the completed layout for the Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes of Virginia to Johns Hopkins University Press.  Six coauthors (Paul E. Bugas, Jr., Corbin D. Hilling, Val Kells, Michael J. Pinder, Derek A. Wheaton, and Donald J. Orth) developed this up-to-date field guide to all the freshwater fishes of Virginia.  The guide contains in introduction to the study of Virginia's freshwater fishes, a key to the families, 175 color illustrations, 29 color photos, illustrations of diagnostic characteristics, range maps, descriptions of the 225 species of freshwater fishes, glossary, and index.  If you need to know what fish is also called the "Gaspergou," you can find the answer in this guide.  Many fish facts are included in the species accounts and species newly discovered are included.   Other publications are listed below along with several favorite blog posts and photos from Ichthyology class.

Poster presentation on Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes of Virginia.  Click for link.

Publications for 2018

Bugas, P.E., Jr., C.D. Hilling, V. Kells, M.J. Pinder, D.A. Wheaton, and D.J. Orth. In press. Field Guide to the Freshwater Fishes of Virginia. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland.  expected Sept. 2019.

Carey, C.S., D.J. Orth, and V. Emrick. 2018. Biological Surveys for Fries Hydroelectric Project in the upper New River, Grayson County, Virginia. Final Report to TRC Solutions, Reston, Virginia.  Conservation Management Institute, Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, College of Natural Resources and Environment, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VTCMI-04-2018.  65 pp. 

Fries Dam, Fries, Virginia, at low flow.  Photo by D.J. Orth.

Dickinson, B.D., S.L. McMullin, D.J. Orth, and J.R. Copeland. 2018. Trotline catch rates vary by hook and bait type in the New River, Virginia. Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.  5:46-52.
 
Hilling, C.D., S.L.Wolfe, J.R. Copeland, D.J. Orth, E. M. Hallerman. 2018.   Occurrence of two non-indigenous catostomid fishes in the New River, Virginia. Northeastern Naturalist 25(2):215-221.  DOI: 10.1656/045.025.0204     Link to DNA Barcoding video.

Hilling, C.D., A.J. Bunch, R.S. Greenlee, D.J. Orth and Y. Jiao.  2018. Natural mortality and size structure of introduced Blue Catfish in Virginia tidal rivers. Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies 5:30-38.

Moore, M.J., and D.J. Orth. 2018. Stories worth sharing.  Fisheries  43(12):575-576. https://doi.org/10.1002/fsh.10169   Link to Michael J. Moore video story My Dog Ate My Lab Notebook. 

Moore, M.J., D.J. Orth, and E.M. Hallerman. 2018. Multi-metric conservation assessment for the imperiled Clinch Dace. Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings 58:31-56.

Orth, D.J.  2018.  Social media may empower fisheries students via learning networks.  Fisheries  43(3):130-138.   https://doi.org/10.1002/fsh.10034

Orth, D. 2018. Learning lessons about Lampreys.  American Currents 43(3):11-16.

Orth, D.J. In press.  Socrates opens a Pandora’s box of Northern Snakehead issues. Pages 000-000 in D. Chapman and J. Odenkirk, editors.  First International Snakehead Symposium, American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, Maryland.

Schmitt, J.D., B.K. Peoples, L. Castello, and D.J. Orth. 2018. Feeding ecology of generalist consumers: a case study of invasive blue catfish Ictalurus furcatus in Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, USA. Environmental Biology of Fishes DOI: 10.1007/s10641-018-0783-6

Stang, S.A., C.D. Hilling, and D.J. Orth. In press.  Lessons learned from 35 years of students organizing the Mudbass Classic. Fisheries  44  https://doi.org/10.1002/fsh.10203

Outreach for 2018 

Joseph Schmitt defended his dissertation and moved on to a position as Fisheries Research Biologist with the USGS investigating Lake Erie fisheries.  Corbin Hilling was awarded a 2-year Virginia Sea Grant Fellowship to further his studies of the nonnative Blue Catfish in tidal rivers.    See news release.

Corbin Hilling, doctoral student, received Virginia Sea Grant Fellowship in 2018.

There are new writings and activities on the outreach front. Stories about the non-native catfish appear regularly in a blog, managed by PhD student, Corbin Hilling, and Joseph Schmitt, PhD.  The most recent was an interview with Captain John a recreational fishing guide for Blue Catfish on the James River.  See ChesapeakeCatfish.   Corbin Hilling recently taught a group of young 4-H students about fishes (see below) and Don Orth taught Master Naturalists in the Southwest Piedmont chapter about the fishes of Virginia.   With Dan Goetz and Aaron Bunch of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, we organized and presented a Continuing Education session on Field Sampling Design and Statistical Power. 

My lab coat was decorated with Gyotaku by a group of young students. Photo by D.J. Orth.

Illustration of the Atlantic cutlassfish, or ribbonfish, Trichiurus lepturus (above) and student's model (below).  Photo by Corbin Hilling. 

Favorite Blog Posts of 2018

• Read to Me Grandpa Don 
• Will Social Media Empower Fisheries Students?
• Ten Things You Must Know About Stream Restoration
• The Rise of Carp and Fall of Game Fish
• Fishing License Sales and Public Trust Thinking
• Sargassum: Essential Habitat or Beach Nuisance
• Why Alligator Gar Need Floodwaters
• Let's Write More Engaging Stories

Don Orth after presenting paper at Virginia Chapter AFS meeting in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Photo by Valerie Orth

The #25daysofFishmas hashtag on Twitter celebrated Great Lakes Fishes, thanks to Katie O'Reilly, who organized daily tweets since 2016. The Virginia Tech Ichthyology Facebook group joined in for 2018.  You may follow the fishes highlighted for each of the 25 days of Fishmas, starting with the Mahi Mahi.   

Photos from Ichthyology 2018 

Species of Petromyzontidae in Virginia.  Photo and illustrations by Hanna Infanti.

Students dissect a Walleye collected from New River. Photo by D.J. Orth.

Learning to distinguish the Moxostoma is given more than lip service.  Photo by Taylor Comer

Pharyngeal arch removed from a minnow. Photo by Jared Rodenas.

Fish memes help us remember scientific names. Photo by D.J. Orth.

Cheers to 2019!  If interested, follow our blog,  join Virginia Tech Ichthyology on Facebook and/or follow Fluvial Fishes Lab on Twitter @donaldorth

Are Your Sardines Seabird Safe? by Don Orth

Seabirds are the most threatened group of birds (IUCN 2018). Major threats relate to fisheries bycatch and competition. Fishing occurs on more than 55% of ocean area and has a spatial extent more than four times that of agriculture (Kroodsma et al. 2018). This fisheries footprint estimate is made possible by the automatic identification system required on marine vessels for tracking.  Long line (45%), purse seines (17%), and trawls (9.4%) are the three most widespread forms of ocean fishing. Impacts of fishing go well beyond the species targeted for harvest. Bycatch effects are obvious, but industrial fisheries are also implicated in starving seabirds (Grémillet et al. 2016). Recent evidence shows that fisheries compete with seabirds by taking the same fishes, a limited resource, and the take has fitness consequences for seabirds. There is no such thing as a free lunch, or a tuna sandwich that does not have seabird consequences.  

 

Global footprint of fishing coverage.  From Kroodsma et al. (2018).

Gremillett et al (2018) reconstructed global fisheries catches since 1970 to compare with seabird diets. Global harvesting reduced abundance of fish eaten by many seabirds and competition was identified in 48% of all areas, notably the Southern Ocean, Asian shelves, Mediterranean Sea, Norwegian Sea, and Californian coast.  The decrease primarily occurred in the Southern Ocean and in the North Atlantic and was most marked in diving petrels (−66%), terns (−48%), and frigatebirds (−47%).

Competition with fisheries significantly constrains a vanishing seabird community. from Grémillett et al. 2018.

Calls for changes in fisheries management goals began over 40 years ago. Larkin wrote this epitaph for the Maximum Sustained Yield concept (MSY) in 1976 and  OSY, or optimum sustained yield, was the logical successor.  OSY is the deliberate melding of social, economic and biological benefits. Among these many benefits, we seek a unique management goal exists for each fishery that balances the many conflicting goals.  One of the benefits relates to seabirds.  And herein lies the challenge. 

M.S.Y.
1930s-1970s

Here lies the concept, MSY.

It advocated yields too high,

And didn’t spell out how to slice the pie.

We bury it with the best of wishes,

Especially on behalf of fishes.

We don’t know yet what will take its place,

But hope it’s as good for the human race.

R.I.P.

M.S.Y. is still alive and kicking.  However, major databases such as the Data Seabird Information Network, launched by the World Seabird Union, and Tracking Ocean Wanderers database, maintained by BirdLife International can assist in detecting decreasing seabird population trends. We need to get beyond observations, such as this Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) eating a sandeel and apply ecosystem-based fisheries management models that consider data on abundance of non-target ecosystem components, including pinnipeds, orcas, seagrasses, cownose rays, whales, cephalopods, and more (Pikitch et al. 2014).  In the mid-Atlantic region we might manage Atlantic Menhaden harvests and protect some menhaden for consumption by Striped Bass, Humpback Whales, and Bluefin Tuna. Black Skimmer, which have declined, also eat Atlantic Menhaden (Gordon et al. 2000) - but how much?  However, the trophic models used for these analyses (Pikitch et al. 2014) make assumptions that need to be tested. Evidence that harvesting forage species competes with other top predators in well-studied US fisheries is equivocal (Hilborn et al. 2017).  

Black-footed Penguin (Spheniscus demersus) pair hunting sardines, Cape Town, South Africa. Photo by Peter Verhoog.

Globally, competition with fisheries should be assessed as one of the numerous stressors acting upon the fitness of individual seabirds, and population trajectories (Grémillett et al. 2016; Lescroël et al. 2016).  It won't be easy to do.  To assess seabird-fisheries competition, we can design and implement localized prey depletion experiments and work to improve the trophic models of intermediate complexity (Sydeman et al. 2017).  No one wants to hear that a lot more research will be needed.

Gannet eats a mackerel.  Photo by Rob Ellis. Flickr

For more sustainable food systems, we should eat less livestock and more seafood low on the food chain (Hilborn et al. 2018).  However, not all fisheries operate in a sustainable manner. To convince consumers to eat sustainable seafood, we need reliable means for evaluating and labeling marine products.  You won’t find a 'seabird safe' label at your seafood market. But how does one know?   That’s the subject for another post.

References

Amélineau F. Fort J. Mathewson P.D. Speirs D.C. Courbin N. Perret S. Porter W.P. Wilson R.J. Grémillet D. 2018. Energyscapes and prey fields shape a North Atlantic seabird wintering hotspot under climate change. Royal Society Open Science 5: 171883

Gordon, C.A., D.A. Cristol, and R.A. Beck. 2000.  Low reproductive success of black skimmers associated with low food availability.  Waterbirds: The International Journal of Waterbird Biology 23:468-474.

 Grémillet D. Péron C. Kato A. Amélineau F. Ropert-Coudert Y. Ryan P.G. Pichegru et al. 2016. Starving seabirds: unprofitable foraging and its fitness consequences in Cape gannets competing with fisheries in the Benguela upwelling ecosystem. Marine Biology 163: 35

 Grémillett,D.,  A. Ponchon, M. Paleczny, M-L. D. Palomares, V Karpouzi and D. Pauly. 2018. Persisting worldwide seabird-fishery competition despite seabird community decline. Current Biology 28:1-5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.10.051.

 Hilborn, R., R.O. Amorosa, E. Bogazzi, O.P. Jensen, A.M. Parma, C. Szuwalski, and C.J. Walters.  2017.  When does fishing forage species affect their predators?  Fisheries Research 191:211-221.

Hilborn, R., J. Bonobi, S.J. Hall, T. Pucylowski, and T.E. Walsworth.   2018. The environmental cost of animal source foods. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 16(6):329-335.

IUCN 2018. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, Version 2018-2. http://www.iucnredlist.org.

Kroodsma, D.A., et al. 2018. Tracking the global footprint of fisheries. Science 359:904-908.

Larkin, P.A. 1977. An epitaph for the concept of maximum sustained yield. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 106:1-11.

Lescroël, A., R. Mathevet, C. Peron, M. Authier, P. Provost, A. Takahashi, and D. Grémillet, D. 2016. Seeing the ocean through the eyes of seabirds: A new path for marine conservation? Marine Policy 68:212–220.

Pikitch, E.K., and nineteen coauthors. 2014. The global contribution of forage fish to marine fisheries and ecosystems. Fish and Fisheries 15(1):43-64. doi:10.1111/faf.12004

Sydeman, W.J., S.A. Thompson. T. Anker-Nilssen, M. Arimitsu, A. Bennison, S. Bertrand, P. Boersch-Supan, C. Boyd, N.C. Bransome, R.J. Crawford et al. 2017.  Best practices for assessing forage fish fisheries-seabird resource competition. Fisheries Research 194:209-221

Let's Write More Engaging Stories, by Don Orth

When students ask for my advice or tips for success, I provide a long list of technical skills and certifications that will help them stand out in the crowd of young scientists – scientific diving, electrofishing, safe boating, engine repair, OSHA, R, Illustrator, JAGS, Python, microscopy, and sensor calibration. “These things will look great on your C.V.” I tell them. But no matter your specialty, we all will need superb communication skills, a network, and relationships to make sure you realize your dream.  Here I highlight some favorite ideas for communicating science and nurturing a network. When Voltaire penned “The perfect is the enemy of the good,” he may have been speaking to why we are inhibited from writing for a public audience.   Building communication skills requires many attempts to communicate and frequent reactions, such as “What do you mean?”

In the Department of Fish and Wildlife Communication, we have long required graduate students to translate their thesis findings to a form for a non-scientific audience. My first graduate students shared aspects of their studies in Virginia Wildlife (Leonard and Orth 1985; Graham and Orth 1986; Austen and Orth 1988).

Scientists in fisheries management and conservation sciences must be capable of communicating with non-scientists. Our poor communications training is a long-standing issue and affects many professions.  Physician and author, Michael Crichton, authored an article in 1975 entitled “Medical Obfuscation: Structure and Function” in The New England Journal of Medicine.  In this article he lamented the impenetrable writing skills of most physicians.  

Start with your message, develop convincing prose, and adapt it to your specific audience.  Many resources are available to assist you.  Begin with the Compass website. The message box is a simple tool to help you distill your message.  Like others, I tend to write too many details when communicating with a non-scientific audience.  If I am empathetic to their needs, I must make meaning in the fewest and simplest words possible.   

Randy Olson, author of Houston We Have a Narrative, provided a template for creating engaging stories.  The acronym, ABT, reminds one that "AND" sets up the background, "BUT" identifies the problem and conflict, and "THEREFORE" describes one solution to the conflict.  Listen to sciencecommunicator, Tullio Rossi, explain how to turn your science into a captivating story.

 

Comic designed to contrast the typical science presentation with a more engaging story that uses the And, But, Therefore template.

Consider these simple steps for making your message more shareworthy (from Moore and Orth 2018).

·      Trust your story and adapt the ABT framework.

·      Avoid getting sidetracked by unnecessary details. Place difficult to understand concepts in terms the audience understands with analogies.

·      Relay the human element of the story that includes your emotions and the sensory details that can help the reader engage.

·      Be self-deprecating and find the humor in your mistakes. Your audience is more likely to see you as relatable and trustworthy, rather than depressing and whiny.

·      Use a variety of media. Alternatives to journal impact factors for gauging research influence now account for the power of social media to communicate science with services, such as Plum Analytics and Altmetrics.

·      Bolster your stories with photos, music, video, or art. Turn it into a children’s picture book.

·      Take advantage of free or inexpensive platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, blogging platforms, and YouTube.

Contrasting presentations for scientific and public audiences.

At a recent plenary talk at the AFS  meeting in Atlantic City, Dr. Christine O’Connell (Alan Alda Center, Stony Brook University) emphasize three messages for making your voice matter and making your science count.    

Takeaway 1. SHIFT YOUR FOCUS: It’s not about you, the listener must catch the message. Pay attention to your audience

Takeaway 2. FOSTER EMPATHY: We must deal with the curse of knowledge and avoid jargon.

Takeaway 3. TELL A STORY:   Stress the meaning and not the details in a way that makes the listener care.  

There are many stories we need to tell and our pre-occupation with statistical significance often stifles our creative storytelling.  Ditching the jargon is a most common recommendation from experienced science communicators (Helmuth 2012; AGU 2018; Merkle 2018; Quinlan 2018).

You should share the lessons learned from the non-significant findings of your investigations (adapted from Moore and Orth 2018).

It’s never too early to begin teaching basics of communication, whether in elementary middle or high school or college.   It takes practice and instructors should dispense with multiple choice exams and require authentic forms of communication.  Students needs guided practice with video, photography, sound, text and social media for messaging across multiple platforms.  I have converted some essays in exams to infographics or digital video essays.   Adolescents today spend more time composing unique genre restricted to 280 characters on Twitter via their mobile phones (2017).  My students write blog posts in addition to scientific articles, for example, check out Chesapeakecatfish, ClinchChronicles, VT Ichthyology, and The Troutlook.  Saunders et al. (2017) suggest that blogging can have broad benefits in developing professional networks, collaborations, and sharing the essential scientific papers.  

Storytelling is sometimes great for conveying your less successful moments as a scientist.  Lessons learned from mistakes are popular ways to engage non-scientists in the nitty-gritty aspects of our work.  Consider, for example, the success of Jim Jourdane’s Fieldwork Fail: The Messy Side of Science! So write more, and when you do make your writing more engaging.

References

American Geophysical Union (AGU). 2018. Jargon and how to avoid it.  Accessed November 16, 2018 from  https://sharingscience.agu.org/jargon-and-how-to-avoid-it/

Austen, D. J., and D. J. Orth.  1988.  Sampling of waters with electricity.  Virginia Wildlife 49(4):24-27.

Crichton, M. 1975.  Medication obfuscation:  structure and function.  The New England Journal of Medicine 293:1257-1259.  Accessed November 16, 2018 from http://www.bumc.bu.edu/facdev-medicine/files/2012/03/Crichton_M_nejm1975_293_1257_medical-obfuscation_structure-function.pdf

Graham, R. J., and D. J. Orth.  1986.  Living in the danger zone.  How do smallmouth bass survive?  Virginia Wildlife 47(4):22-25.

Helmuth, L.  2012.  Pitching Errors: How Not to Pitch. The Open Notebook.  Accessed November 16, 2018 from https://www.theopennotebook.com/2012/01/04/how-not-to-pitch/

Leonard, P. M., and D. J. Orth.  1985.  Are your streams healthy?  Ask the fish!  Virginia Wildlife 46(4):14-17.

Quinlan, C. 2018. Ditch the Jargon, Change the World? Science 37 Trial Mix website.  Accessed November 16, 2018 from https://www.science37.com/blog/improving-science-communication-listening-empathy-storytelling/

Merkle, B. G. 2018 Tips for Communicating Your Science with the Press: Approaching Journalists.  Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 99(4):e01430. https://doi.org/10.1002/bes2.1430

Moore, M.J., and D.J. Orth. 2018. Stories worth sharing.  Fisheries.    https://bit.ly/2Dm8xt8  

Saunders, M.E., M. A. Duffy, S. B. Heard, M. Kosmala, S. R. Leather, T. P. McGlynn, J. Ollerton, A. L. Parachnowitsch. 2017. Bringing ecology blogging into the scientific fold: measuring reach and impact of science community blogs. Royal Society Open Science   4: 170957. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170957

Warner, J. 2017. Adolescents’ New Literacies with and through Mobile Phones. Peter Lang International Academic Publishers. New York. 198 pp.

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