Sunday, February 2, 2014

What is a fish? Why care about fish?


After my presentation on Thursday, Dr. Bob asked me two important questions that I faltered to answer. With the Internet close at hand and a little more time to ponder, I’m writing this blog post in an attempt to answer the questions: What is a fish? And why do we care?

What is a fish?
I started where anyone would start – with a quick Google search. The initial results answered my “what is a fish” query with, “a limbless cold-blooded vertebrate animal with gills and fins and living wholly in water” and “any member of a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic craniate animals that lack limbs with digits.”


Let’s break it down a bit more to a few key characteristics of what it means to be a fish.
  1.  Fish are vertebrates. 
  2. Fish live in water.  
  3. Fish breathe with gills instead of lungs. 
  4.  Fish use paired limbs in the form of fins for movement. 
  5. Fish are unable to regulate their body temperature.  
  6. Fish have scales for protection.


There are, of course, exceptions. As one website puts it, “hagfish aren’t vertebrates and don’t have scales; mudskippers can live outside the water; lungfish use lungs to breathe; lampreys don’t have paired fins; and tuna are warm blooded!”

I hope that helped answer the “what is a fish” question.

Why care about fish?
Having grown up in coastal Alaskan commercial fishing towns for the majority of my life, I care about fish because I see the livelihood and culture fishing creates. Beyond that, fish are a resource used to feed the world on both subsistence and commercial scales. In 2005, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations noted that many of the world’s poorest people depend on fish. Fisheries and aquaculture are a matter of food security and we should not only care about how to feed but the world, but how to do so sustainably.


Sources:
"What is a fish?." Understanding Evolution. University of California Museum of Paleontology. Web. 2 Feb 2014.
"Many of the world's poorest people depend on fish." FAO Newsroom. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Web. 2 Feb 2014.



2 comments:

  1. I think it's so cool that you have this connection with fish through the industry in Alaska! I didn't realize how crucial fish were to food security. I know fishing as a sport is popular in the Pantanal (especially among tourists who come there for that reason), but I wonder how much the people who live there depend on it as a food source; is it their main source of sustenance?

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  2. Gwynn said pretty much exactly what I was thinking during your presentation. i think it's great that you are so passionate about fishing and how you've spent so much time working with fisheries. I was wondering how you see your role in fostering the sustainability since you mentioned you wanted to pursue a career related to fisheries. It would be great to talk about!

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