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