Mackerels, Tunas & Billfishes of the United States.

Mackerels, Tunas & Billfishes of the United States, by Val Kells

This just in... Fresh off the presses! Top-notch quality, spot-on reproduction.
You can get one HERE.

Enjoy, share, and please care for pelagics :)

Work, Fate, Accomplishment...

Executive Editor, Vince Burke, and Bebby Bors, Senior Production Editor, JHUPress

I firmly believe that if you work hard, invest fully in your goal, keep your nose clean, and mix it up with like-minded and similarly-driven people, good things are bound to happen.

Yes, fate steps in now and again: a right turn here, a left turn there... luck, chance, stars aligning. However randomly paths seem to meander, paths DO cross. Paths can cross in wonderful ways and result in wonderful accomplishments. If you're lucky?

Above is a photo of my fantabulous executive editor, Vince Burke, and my equally fantabulous production editor, Debby Bors. They stand in the entry hall of the Johns Hopkins University Press holding our latest achievement: A Field Guide to Fishes of the Chesapeake Bay. Behind them are shelves and shelves of other note-worthy books and numerous awards our nation's oldest university press has amassed.

Some five years ago I had an idea: revamp the out-dated and out-of-print Fishes of Chesapeake Bay. I posed the idea to Vince not knowing that he ALREADY had plans to do the same. He made phone calls, set up meetings, and ba-da-bing, ba-da-bong: the team of Murdy, Musick, and Kells was assembled; the proposal was written; the contracts were signed. Soon thereafter we began work on a current, comprehensive, and much-needed guide to fishes of one the of the largest estuaries in North America. The paths of many determined people had crossed.

It's hard to describe how fulfilling it is to see years of past work come to fruition many months later and long after the project was put to bed. Every one had moved on to other projects, other work, new goals. Suddenly... surprise! It's in print! Look what we did!

It was no accident. Stars aligned for a reason.

Fish on.

New Species of Shark

This is cool, yet scary... A new species of shark has been identified as living off the east coast of the US. It is very similar to and easily confused with the Scalloped Hammerhead, Sphryna lewini. They differ in DNA and number of vertebrae, which makes initial identification challenging.
This is good news in that more information is available to correctly assess populations of these sharks. Bad news in that previous assessments of Scalloped Hammerhead were most likely inaccurate due to misidentifications. Even worse, Scalloped Hammerheads are probably more threatened than previously thought because their numbers were likely inflated.

(Side bar: The White Marlin and Roundscale Spearfish are almost identical as well, with ranges that overlap. Thus, population assessments of both are also difficult to determine.)

What I find fascinating about this is that these fishes are BIG. When one thinks about finding new species, one first thinks of small fishes in remote places. This is just the opposite.

CLICK HERE for article.

Mimic Mimics Mimic

The Mimic Octopus is well known for its spot-on imitations of numerous tropical fishes. Who would have guessed that a fish would join in its party?

Jawfishes are tiny, burrow-dwelling mouth-brooders that do not typically stray far from home. This is the first record of a fish mimicking a cephalopod. Dr. Rocha's hypothesis is that by mimicking the octopus, the small and vulnerable jawfish can venture to new places.

Interesting. My questions are: did this relationship happen by chance, or over eons of evolution?

If you'd like to read more... Click here!

Teaching at The Field School

Today was the last day of a six-week Science Illustration class I've been teaching at The Field School for Boys, in Charlottesville, VA. It was all at once amazing, exhausting, touching, and down right fun. I have a new-found appreciation for teachers. It is not easy keeping 60 boys on track and moving forward, especially when some of them find more joy in throwing erasers than creating art! That said, the vast majority of them flourished, and went from zero to a hundred in a very short amount of time. Some started out timid, tentative, and nervous. Others jumped out of the gate and drew and painted with abandon. Some I had to coax. Others, I just cut loose. There are a lot of artistic genes at this school!

We covered the basics, and followed a complex series of steps to create final black and white art, mixed media art, and finally, full color art. All were scientific in nature. The boys were not allowed to copy from other books or magazines, but drew from their own observations. I taught them to Look Look Look at their subjects. Don't make it up! This is science illustration, not science-fiction illustration!

As a professional illustrator, with a career that spans over 25 years, my work has been published in about 20 books and periodicals, and reproduced across the nation in 30 public facilities. On any given day, hundreds if not thousands of people see my illustrations in aquariums, nature centers, museums, and in books. But very rarely am I able to observe folks observing my work. I'm usually in my office producing more! But this experience allowed me to actually see the boys take what I've created, what I have to share, and learn and create their very own artwork. The gift went directly from me to them and back to me. At times, it was difficult to hold back the tears. I'm terribly proud of their accomplishments.

Above are just a few of their pieces. I'll put more on my FB page soon. Just great stuff!

New Species in Our Own Back Yard

Photo credit: P. Wirtz

This is amazing to me...

Carl Linnaeus established the cornerstone of taxonomy (the separation of plants and animals into separate taxa) some 350 years ago. The Linnaean method uses anatomy, appearance, and in some cases, behavior to describe plants and animals. Until the 1990s, scientists had to rely soley on the Linnaean method to group or separate species, and this method is still largely used today. But, the advent of DNA analysis has not only blurred the lines that separate species, it has also allowed for further separatation of species.

For example: Fish 1 and Fish 2 were long been thought to be the same species because they posess almost identical physical attributes; with new DNA analysis, Fish 1 and Fish 2 are found to be completely different on the genetic level; so, Fish 2 becomes a new species, or subspecies. Another example: Fish 3 and Fish 4 were thought to be separate species; DNA analysis proves they are one in the same; Fish 3 and 4 are then grouped under the same name.

We often hear about new species being discovered or described for the first time from far-flung locales such as Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, and from the darkest ocean depths. These are species that probably have been there for hundreds to thousands of years, but were only recently determined to be unique and separate from those around them. Sometimes these animals live in small, hard-to-reach pockets, thus explaining their recent discovery. Sometimes these animals were misidentified as a similar bretheren: they appear on the surface as identical, but in fact have minute attributes that separate them. Sometimes, these animals are so small, they go overlooked!

Seven new Labrisomid blennies from the Bahamas and Caribbean Sea were recently described using a complex combination of Linnaean taxonomy and DNA analysis. Not two, not three, SEVEN! Here's the deal: these guys are really small (just over an inch long), live cryptically on reefs, and could easily have been misidentified for eachother, meaning they all look somewhat alike. Some (if not all) of the blennies have male and female color patterns that serve to further confuse the issue. I don't know how long it took the researchers to conclude their study, but on the surface, it looks like a years-long project of collecting, analizing, untangling, and concluding.

The article is complex, and not for the faint of heart. I think it's pretty darned impressive. This is heavy science! Way over my head. But, it will make it much much easier for me to illustrate these fishes in the near future!

Click here to read more.

Nassau grouper eats Lionfish

Photo credit: Lyle Gremillion
Apparently, this is the first recording of predation of the Lionfish by native grouper. This is indeed good news - for both the ecology of the reefs, and for the Nassau grouper: Lionfish populations are exploding, as numbers of Nassau grouper dwindle. The IUCN lists the Nassau as endangered. Click here to read about the natural history of the Lionfish. It's interesting that the grouper is swallowing the lionfish tail-first. This is not an unusual form of feeding, but it is curious here because the lionfish spines are highly venomous...

Washington State to ban copper from car brake pads

I had no idea copper was so toxic to marine life... This is another small step in the right direction. Click here to read article

Newly Discovered Red Grouper Behavior

Fascinating. Apparently, Red grouper contruct cone-like holes in sandy bottoms, exposing rocks and rubble. According to the scientists: "By building complex, three-dimensional structures that expose the hard rock beneath the sand...red grouper create and environment in which seaweed, coral and sponges can thrive. These communities then attract everything..." Click here to read article.