Super excited to share our new paper out in Fisheries Magazine led by grad student Alex Ginez!! This study zeroes in on a simple but super important question: Are we managing native nongame fishes (sometimes called "rough fish") in ways that reflect their actual biology? We synthesized data from 301 studies, 105 freshwater fish species, and 1,364 populations and found that maximum lifespan is a really strong predictor of the biomass replacement rate for a species. And importantly, many fishes historically labeled as “rough fish” have replacement rates similar to, or much lower than, highly-managed game species. So, species like buffaloes, alligator gar, suckers, and drum can be extremely long-lived and slow to replace. Yet many of these same species still have unlimited harvest limits. Essentially, this paper offers a practical way forward: when detailed population data are lacking, longevity and P/B relationships of the same or similar species from elsewhere can provide a useful first order approximation of harvest vulnerability. That might help managers develop more defensible limits in the absence of better data. Really proud of Alex and the entire team for this thoughtful and potentially useful contribution to native fish conservation. We hope you enjoy it too! “Smoothing over ‘rough’ mismanagement: Establishing protective harvest limits for native nongame fishes” 👇 🐟 🎣 @SolomonRDavid @AmFisheriesSoc academic.oup.com/fisheries/a…

Today marks 112 years since Martha, the last passenger pigeon, died in the Cincinnati Zoo and the species went extinct. There were once 5 BILLION of these birds on our lands. Imagine how different our ecosystems must have been. It is a sad but important story and I learned a lot writing this one. Hope you enjoy it. 💚👇 tnature.substack.com/p/the-a…