Peter Cranston, an entomology professor at UC Davis, is the world's foremost expert on chironomids, which most fly fishers know as "midges." He was recently surprised to discover a new species of midge in his own backyard, but even more surprised when with the help of other researchers he linked it to the health of salmon populations in the Sacramento Valley. As biologists argue over the reasons for the dramatic decline in salmon numbers that caused the state to close the fishery this year, Cranston notes that the discoveries like this may unlock the secret to saving a species. "'It's a web of interacting species, and the more species you pull out of that web, the more sensitive the rest of it is to any fluctuations,' he said. 'What are the salmon going to feed on if this fly goes extinct? It should make a person nervous.'"

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The BBC is often lauded for its nature cinematography, and David Attenborough's "Life in the Undergrowth" is a perfect example of why. Take a look at the detailed camera work in the segment in which they capture the life cycle of mayflies on video.

More information on "Life in the Undergrowth" can be found on the BBC Web site.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Near-real-time" data shows just how far species tagged by various researchers have swum, and the distances recorded for various turtles, whales, sharks and birds is simply extraordinary. This morning the travels of a young white shark are noted by Tom Stienstra in the San Francisco Chronicle: "The shark was released in February from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and in six weeks has already swum past the southern tip of Baja at Cabo San Lucas and is heading south to the Mexican mainland. That is a distance of roughly 1,200 miles covered in 44 days, according to electronic reports, an average of nearly 27 miles per day - and that's if the shark is swimming in a straight line, an unlikely event."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The truth is that 'bug Latin' is really a misnomer. The classification of insects by genus, family and species really has nothing to do with classical languages; it was just a convenience for scientists (particularly Carolus Linnaeus) who needed to make up a unique name for every living thing a few hundred years ago.

And that really is why scientific bug names are important. It's the only way to refer to one specific sulphur or blue-winged olive, for example, as being different from another. But as Rick Hafele points out in "Basic Bug ID, Part I: Mayflies," the minute differences between bugs are mostly impractical to learn. More important is knowing what a bug is likely to be, based where it is and what it is doing. Only then should you break out the hand lens, and if you do, this article will give you the details you need to impress your friends (and antagonize your enemies). New on MidCurrent.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As if there were any doubt that complex ecosystems, once disrupted, often do not recover, scientists have drawn a connection between the abundance of hard-shelled algae known as diatoms and the midges that feed upon them. As reported in The New York Times, they even have a plausible link between dredge-mining operations and the disappearance of fish from an Icelandic lake.

"Midges, baseball fans recall, are the gnat-like insects that rose from Lake Erie last October and descended upon Chamberlain in the bottom of the eighth inning of a playoff game against the Cleveland Indians, distracting him into throwing two wild pitches. Cleveland scored the tying run without a hit. The Yankees eventually lost the game and eventually the series." Article by Kenneth Chang. (Thanks to Tom Rosenbauer for this link.)

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you had any doubt that even fish-farm trout are capable of heroic feats of athleticism, check out this photo from the UK Telegraph illustrating an story on the fantastic efforts of brown trout to escape through a small metal pipe. What's next, motorcycles?

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope."

-- John Buchan

As fly fishers, we're always looking for a reason to hope, and here's some solid science to suggest we shouldn't give up until we've tried every fish in the pool. Researchers in Canada are exploring the varieties of behavior demonstrated by brook trout in an attempt to unlock another piece of the evolution puzzle. It turns out that not only do individual brook trout perceive their environment differently; they also develop personality traits that show up in feeding behavior. "University of Guelph scientists noticed the different personalities as they sat by the Credit River, west of Toronto, watching trout feed. Then they scooped out the fish and ran them through six days of personality tests in the lab, and even some swimming tests." Tom Spears of the CanWest News Service.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is beauty more enjoyable when it is there for a reason? "The fiery red hues that seem to set forest leaves ablaze in autumn are produced in part as a result of the soil that trees grow in and help protect the trees in the winter, a new study finds." Andrea Thompson of LiveScience.com. (Don't be surprised if "anthocyanins" show up in the next high-priced sunscreen on Walgreen shelves.)

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Boy, read about the life cycle and behavorial details of bluegills, and you start realizing that gender ain't all it's cracked up to be, especially in nature. Eric Sharp explains why "sneakers" turn into drag queens to get the job done in a bluegill pond. "Eventually they're as big as mature females and normally would draw attacks from bigger males. But then something amazing happens, says Brian Neff, a researcher at the University of Western Ontario in London. The sneaker's body produces a big jolt of estrogen, and it takes on the color of a mature female." In the Detroit Free Press.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There's some pretty interesting work being done on fish vision by Andrij Horodysky, a PhD. candidate at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Horodysky is studying not only the affects of different light conditions on fish's ability to see potential prey, but on how various combinations of color stimulate feeding behavior. For example, striped bass see and respond differently during bright daylight hours than they do at night. "His studies of striped bass found that during the day they need light and shallow, clear water. They can see blue, chartreuse (green-yellow) and even some red. At night, striped bass become 100 times more light sensitive and adjust their eyes to diminish the amount of red colors absorbed, which means they focus more on the blues and greens." Horodsky also happens to be a contract fly tier for Umpqua. Norm Wood in the Hampton Roads, Virginia Daily Press.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Maine naturalist R. J. Mere does an excellent job of explaining a phenomenon called "behavioral drift," in which nymphs intentionally release themselves into the current and spread out at key times of the day, often in the morning but particularly in the evening, two or three hours after sunset. "They crawl to the tops of these rocks and stones and allow the currents of the river to take them away. They drift for a few yards and then cling to a new rock and crawl to its underside and make it their new home." In the York County Coast Star.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Researchers at the University of Liverpool recently determined that trout have personalities and behave much like humans when it comes to playground fights: the losers tend to be more afraid, and the winners get more aggressive. Charlie Meyers has a hard time drawing conclusions, though: "Certain strategies might prove useful. If you fail to get the desired response with a certain fly or lure, try something smaller and less threatening. Should you occasion to find two fish battling for territory, make certain your first cast is aimed at the winner." In the Denver Post.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Matt Walker of the U.K.'s Independent Online reports a startling anthropomorphic behavior among brown trout: faked orgasms. "Female brown trout (Salmo trutta) fake orgasms to encourage males to ejaculate prematurely. By doing so, they dupe their partner into thinking it has successfully mated, before the female fish moves on to find a better male with which to do the real thing."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"'They were dive-bombing in the root beer floats,' said Gary Rudy, owner of Rudy's Drive-In, whose family has been slinging burgers and soft drinks since 1966." LaCrosse, Wisconsin residents who flipped on National Weather Service radar on June 30 saw a puzzling atmospheric phenomenon: billions of mayflies clouding the screen around the Mississippi River. Lee Berquist in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Researchers in New Zealand have discovered tiny crystals in the noses of trout that allow them to sense changes in magnetic fields, perhaps explaining how trout can tell direction. "The tiny crystals are made of magnetite, an oxide of iron that has magnetic properties. The crystals are linked to individual receptor cells in the brain, allowing the trout to sense changes in magnetic fields." Magnetic nymphs, anyone? Matt McGrath of the BBC. (Thanks to reader Robert Huber for this link.)

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Surprising scientists who work in bonefish tagging and research, a bonefish caught by Captain Joe Gonzalez in Biscayne Bay in February 2005 was re-caught 321 days later in southwestern Andros. It's an exciting revelation for bonefish researchers, because "this distance record is more than double the previous one of 75 miles (Key Largo to Big Pine Key). It also suggests that bonefish can migrate across the Gulf Stream and perhaps mix with the Bahamas bonefish population." Press release from the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. (Thanks to reader David Dalu for this link.)

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's no secret to those those who endorse entomology as a path to greater understanding of flies and fishing that genus and species reclassifications have become commonplace in the past few decades. One enterprising fly fisher in Washington state took up the challenge of listing, in a single table, all of the modern mispellings and reclassifications he could find at the U.S. government's Integrated Taxonomic Information System site. Here it is, provided by Pat Donoghue on his Nova Scotia fly fishing site. (Thanks to MoldyChum.com for digging this one up.)

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Otago Regional Council staff discovered the weed had spread upstream of the Albert Town bridge this week, covering rocks in the middle of the river at Dean's Bank and at the Clutha River outlet at Lake Wanaka." From New Zealand's Stuff.co.nz.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Wisconsin doctor figures that because fish see ultraviolet light, spraying flies with crystals that reflect UVA rays should enable trout to see flies better. "Treated with these flashing, iridescent crystals, baits and lures attract fish from great distances whenever the sun is above the horizon — even on dark and stormy days, as clouds are easily penetrated by UVA light."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The University of Miami and conservation group Bonefish & Tarpon Unlimited say that Florida Keys bonefish stocks are healthy after the second of their yearly counts. "The number is up slightly from last year's 300,000-count, but that is probably because more guides were involved this year. Sport-fishing for bonefish is a $1-billion-a-year business in South Florida." Don Wilson in The Orlando Sentinel.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As the news spreads on invasive algae in New Zealand rivers, locals worry that foreign anglers might lose their enthusiasm. "For Mike Molineux, the didymo invasion means spending one and a half hours cleaning his boat, then leaving it to dry for 48 hours before taking it to another river to help tourists fish for brown and rainbow trout. 'It's getting pretty difficult to find somewhere to take them' to fish, he said. `'This is a big concern for me.'" Jonathan Underhill on Bloomberg.com.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Testing for Didymo algae begins on the North Island rivers today. "The cotton wool-like algae makes waterways look grey and polluted, smothers insect food sources needed by fish and can ruin the aesthetic aspects of fishing by clumping on lines and lures." On Stuff.co.nz.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fly fishing Lake Erie tributaries for salmon kept research partners Chester Mathis and Dr. William Klunk on an even keel while they worked on developing an important dye for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease. "'In fishing, you don't get a lot of strikes. You have to cast a lot to be successful,' Mathis explained. Research also requires trying a lot of things that don't work to find the one thing that does. PIB is one of those things that works." Byron Spice in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In this audio piece on NPR.org, writer Scott Huler -- author of the newly released Defining the Wind: The Beaufort Scale, and How a 19th-Century Admiral Turned Science into Poetry -- talks about the poetry and specificity of hurricane warnings, the iambic tetrameter of the 19th-century Beaufort Scale: "wind felt on face, leaves rustle, ordinary vane moved by wind" (Level 2). (Thanks to reader David Dalu for this link.)

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Even with all the attention paid to food sources by authors of saltwater fly fishing books in recent years, no one really took a hard look at the near-shore marine environment until Dr. Aaron Adams wrote Fisherman's Coast: An Angler's Guide to Marine Warm-Water Gamefish and Their Habitats last year. This gem hasn't yet gotten the notice it deserves. Today MidCurrent gives readers a sneak peek at Dr. Adams's excellent work in the form of a chapter titled "Rubble Flats and Sand Flats of the Tropics."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"A few NASA satellites designed to study heights of Earth's ocean surfaces are now also coming in handy for tracking water levels of inland lakes and reservoirs." This announcement is particularly interesting because it a marks a trend away from depending on local water levels reports. The data is real-time and shows how technology can reach beyond accessible regions to see what is actually happening in remote parts of the world. Go here to see the actual maps and graphs presented by the USDA.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you doubt the power of hurricanes, take a look at this panoramic view of Upper Captiva Island off of southwest Florida's coast, before and after Charley made landfall there. The trees that are pushed into Pine Island Sound, by the way, will make excellent snook habitat for years to come. (Thanks to reader Jim Langley for this link.)

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New on MidCurrent, Dr. David Ross questions an old wives' tale and one of our favorite excuses for bad (and good) fishing in saltwater with his article "The Pressure Myth."

"A rise or fall in barometric pressure, such as with an approaching cold front, usually means a shift in the weather pattern. And it is the change in the weather, not any fluctuation in barometric pressure," Dr. Ross says, "that affects both the fish and the fishing. In fact, most saltwater species probably aren?t even aware of barometric variations."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's a very handy link to a nationwide survey of current drought conditions updated by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What you can't say about James R. Babb, thankfully, is that he writes "Me & Joe" stories. Beyond the irony of noisemakers being acceptable in saltwater but not in fresh, Babb addresses the concept of vibrating flies of all types and offers plenty of fresh humor in Gray's Sporting Journal. "The lateral line," he notes, "a kind of fish-length marshalling yard conveying vibrations from a receptive network of neuromasts to central data analysis quartered in the head, constantly monitors water for changes in pressure, telling fish not only where they are but also what's around them and what it's doing. A fish blinded by sadistic scientists can still find its prey through the lateral line. But leave the eyes alone and block off the lateral line, and the fish starves."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to this article by Henry Fountain in the New York Times, Pacific pink salmon adapt to the habit of spending more time in deeper water as adults by altering the type of pigment protein in their eyes. "The changes coincide with the fish's movement from near the surface, where ultraviolet light is prevalent, to deeper waters, where the light is mostly blue-green."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My brothers and I, while growing up in South Carolina, could hear the loud call of male cicadas on most warm summer mornings. Perhaps the species there were broods with short cycles, like the Tibicen or "dog day" cicada. Or there were lots of broods. Or both.

In any case, cicadas can be an important trout food source in places, particularly in places like the Green River in Utah. If you care to learn more about cicadas and their unique reproductive strategies, as well as whether your location is due for an emergence this year, there's a Web site called "Cicada Mania" that will probably scratch your itch.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's a very interesting look at the current status of our edible fish. The Monterey Bay Aquarium shows which fish are recommended eating, according to a variety of statistics.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)