Wanted: Fish for Science

Hi everyone! I'm Cristie, the grad student Allen has agreed to help get fish for, and I signed up for an account here in case anyone has questions to ask me directly. Thanks so much for all of your enthusiasm! I finally found the right guy to ask for help - he knows all sorts of useful people.

A couple things from what people have already said...

Sailfish: how old are the jacksmelt in your freezer? It's actually ideal to have fish from different seasons to look at fat content, so maybe I could take one of your older ones and a couple fresher ones to compare?

Sin Coast: yes, we get heaps of cabezon in the archaeological sites around here. Other really common species are surfperch, rockfish, lingcod, pricklebacks, flatfish (at least in estuary areas), sardine/herring, and plainfin midshipman. Then a few freshwater species, in certain areas.

Everyone: As Allen mentioned, I will acknowledge NCKA in my dissertation, as well as any articles that I write on fish nutritional content, since that's the part you all are helping me with. And I know it's a little bit of an odd topic, but if any of you want to know the details of fat and protein content of various species once I'm done, just let me know! Same goes for my overall dissertation topic - if you're interested in getting a summary version of Monterey Bay fish and fishing over the last 8000 years once I'm done, just let me know. I've already had some somewhat interesting finds, like some surfperch bones I showed Allen pictures of, that are HUGE compared to surfperch today (bigger than the biggest they're supposed to get)!

Thanks again, everybody!

-Cristie

Most of us have fishing journals that stretch back 5-10 even 20 years.......but 8,000 years!!   Oh man can you imagine?

Thanks for weighing in Christie!  Now I'm going to have to take you out kayak fishing to round out your NCKA experience.  Maybe we can scotch tape bunches of tule reeds on the side of the yaks for faux versimilitude.

Allen

Hi everyone! I'm Cristie, the grad student Allen has agreed to help get fish for, and I signed up for an account here in case anyone has questions to ask me directly. Thanks so much for all of your enthusiasm! I finally found the right guy to ask for help - he knows all sorts of useful people.

Sailfish: how old are the jacksmelt in your freezer? It's actually ideal to have fish from different seasons to look at fat content, so maybe I could take one of your older ones and a couple fresher ones to compare?

Thanks again,

-Cristie

Hi Cristie,

These Jacksmelts were caught last Summer.  I haven't catch any this year yet.  Do you want the frozen one now or wait til I caught fresh ones and send them altogether?

Sonny

Hi Cristie,

These Jacksmelts were caught last Summer.  I haven't catch any this year yet.  Do you want the frozen one now or wait til I caught fresh ones and send them altogether?

Sonny

Hi Sonny,

I might actually like the frozen one now, so I can send a jacksmelt in with my first batch of fish, but only if it's easy for me to get to you (or the fish to get to me ). Which end of the bay are you on? I'm up in Santa Cruz. If you're on the Monterey end, I think it will make more sense for me to just wait until I can get all of them together.

Thanks!

-Cristie

Allen, I would love to go kayak fishing - maybe I should go about getting a fishing license...   I've used a fishing rod I think twice in my life; never caught anything. That's why I had to bring in the experts.

Hi Cristie,

These Jacksmelts were caught last Summer.  I haven't catch any this year yet.  Do you want the frozen one now or wait til I caught fresh ones and send them altogether?

Sonny

Hi Sonny,

I might actually like the frozen one now, so I can send a jacksmelt in with my first batch of fish, but only if it's easy for me to get to you (or the fish to get to me ). Which end of the bay are you on? I'm up in Santa Cruz. If you're on the Monterey end, I think it will make more sense for me to just wait until I can get all of them together.

Thanks!

-Cristie

I live in North Bay (close to Napa) about 2 hours drive from SantaCruz.

I live in North Bay (close to Napa) about 2 hours drive from SantaCruz.

Oh of course, I was forgetting this was a forum with a wider geographic range! I will plan on getting them all at once then. I don't know if you ever come down this way, but I have friends and relatives in Berkeley/SF, so I go north sometimes!

-Cristie

I live in North Bay (close to Napa) about 2 hours drive from SantaCruz.

Oh of course, I was forgetting this was a forum with a wider geographic range! I will plan on getting them all at once then. I don't know if you ever come down this way, but I have friends and relatives in Berkeley/SF, so I go north sometimes!

-Cristie

I'm about 30 minutes from Berkeley.  Let me know when you plan to be there, I'll bring the fish to you.

Will do, Sonny - thanks!

Wow, it's really cool to see how this came together. Cristie, I would love to get a copy of your dissertation summary. I've always been interested in the history (ok, specifically the fishing aspect lol) of our local Ohlone/Costanoa, Essalen, and Salinian natives. So I'll try to get some samples for you. When you say Sacramento sucker, the first thing that comes to mind is the hoards of pikeminnow that take over sections of the Arroyo Seco River in South MoCo. It would give me great pleasure to reduce the number of pikeminnow in that particular watershed, due to the fact they compete with steelhead for resources. (the season for fishing most of the local rivers opens is from May to November, I think)
Thanks,
Pat

Hi Pat, thanks for your interest! When I get this silly dissertation done someday, I will make sure you are one of the people I get a summary to.

So, a Sac sucker isn't the same fish as a Sac pikeminnow, and I don't need the pikeminnow for this nutritional analysis (just not common enough in our archaeological sites for me to spend the money). However, I would still love to get a couple of different sizes for my comparative skeleton collection. I have to compare the archaeological bones to modern species that I know what they are, in order to figure out what species the archaeological bones are from. And right now, I don't have any pikeminnow!

I would therefore be happy to give you a reason to fish a couple more pikeminnow out of the Arroyo Seco, if you would.

-Cristie

Hi all! I can't edit Allen's original post, but I wanted to update the list, because I've gotten a few more fish, so I've copied his post and edited it below.


Cristie’s Fish Wish List

Flesh samples (I could use 2-3 of each species if you get them).  I only need the 2oz worth, and fishermen can keep the rest!  Leave skin on the flesh samples if possible.

Check mark  √   Means we have sufficient samples of this species:

Rainbow surfperch
Black surfperch      √
Walleye surfperch (just need one more)
Pile surfperch
Barred surfperch (just need one more)
Striped surfperch   √
Shiner surfperch
Calico Surfperch     √

Cabezon    √
California halibut (just one more sample)
Pacific sanddab


Flesh and skeleton (or in other words, I need the whole fish, and 2-3 of each would be great if possible):

Rubberlip surfperch
White surfperch

Plainfin midshipman
Topsmelt
Jacksmelt    √

Monkeyface prickleback
Rock prickleback
Black prickleback
(other prickleback?)

Threespine stickleback

Freshwater
Sacramento sucker
Sacramento perch


I'd also like to add that there are a few skeletons that I would particularly love (you could do your filleting, and I just take the leftover bones!):
 -- lingcod
 -- a rockfish over 16 inches
 -- a greenling (any kind)
 -- a kelpfish (any kind)

I've got an even longer list going down in priority, but these are the most important ones.

Thanks everyone for your help so far!

-Cristie