Tag Archives: extinction

Future Ancestors of Freshwater Fishes in California

By Peter B. Moyle The Challenge We are living in the Anthropocene, an era being defined by global mass extinctions caused by humanity. While on-going and impending extinctions of birds and other terrestrial vertebrates gain the most attention, the situation … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Facing the Dragon: California’s Nasty Ecological Debts

By Andrew L. Rypel “Every time you borrow money, you’re robbing your future self.” ~N. Morris When I was younger, a close friend of mine struggled with a crippling debt. It was during that unique period shortly before and after … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

White sturgeon: is an ancient survivor facing extinction in California?

by Andrea Schreier, Peter B. Moyle, Nicholas J. Demetras, Sarah Baird, Dennis Cocherell, Nann A. Fangue, Kirsten Sellheim, Jonathan Walter, Myfanwy Johnston, Scott Colborne, Levi S. Lewis, and Andrew L. Rypel Sturgeons belong to an ancient family of fishes that once … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Losing mussel mass – the silent extinction of freshwater mussels

by Andrew L. Rypel Note: this is a re-post from August 2020. Throughout my career I’ve spent some time studying the fascinating ecology and conservation issues of freshwater mussels (Fig. 1). For me, learning about mussels has fortified a recurring … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

An update on California fishes of ‘special concern’

By Peter Moyle Three-fourths of California’s native fishes are now officially designated as being in trouble, or potentially so. The good news is that not all of these species – 93 of the total 123 native fishes today – have … Continue reading

Posted in Fish | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Q & A on survival of California’s delta smelt 

Four years of severe drought and decades of huge water diversions appears to have pushed delta smelt to the point of no return. State biologists netted only a single smelt last month in trawl of 40 sites in San Francisco … Continue reading

Posted in Delta, Delta Smelt, Drought, Fish, reconciliation | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Prepare for extinction of delta smelt

By Peter Moyle I saw my first delta smelt in 1972, during my first fall as an assistant professor at UC Davis. I was on a California Department of Fish and Wildlife trawl survey to learn about the fishes of … Continue reading

Posted in Delta Smelt, Fish | Tagged , , | 23 Comments

Have our salmon and eat them too: Re-thinking Central Valley salmon hatcheries

By Jacob Katz and Peter Moyle In the previous blog, Jay Lund argued that wide-scale, integrated management of California’s water system will better balance water needs of the environment and water demands by humans.  Here we expand on the need … Continue reading

Posted in Biology, Conservation, Fish, Planning and Management, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Reconciliation or extinction—the future of California?

By Peter Moyle It is easy to be pessimistic about the future of familiar life on this planet, especially here in California. We face an ever-growing human population, the rise of consumerism, and the refusal of most Americans to recognize … Continue reading

Posted in reconciliation | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment