There is plenty of Fish in the Sea UR-Allie

  In preparation of my independent research project and a new found hobby, over the weekend I purchased my first fishing pole. This is exciting to me because I hope to learn a lot about marine life species- especially fish. On Sunday, after I stopped at the bait shop I went by the Tomoka River to see if I could possibly catch a fish or two.

   I did not come across any visibly dead fish and the few fishermen I had come in contact with said it was a very slow day and they didn't have any fish remnants. In an hour, I had two bites- one from a blue crab and one from a catfish (I did not have plans on eating them so I set them free). After I retrieve a fish scale I will be in business to catch/ collect more data involving my IRP. However, I still found the experience to be interesting and it also raised more questions concerning fish and microplastic consumption.

   I observed plenty of debris and trash everywhere surrounding the site. Within a 10 feet distance I recovered 23 large pieces of garbage! I also noted there to be a plethora of plastic water bottles and wrappers floating in the water. 

I used my fishing pole to pick up a large tangled net held down in the water around a large rock. Along with a water bottle, of course. 

    I wondered about fish's vision development and if that has any relationship to their tendencies to consume plastics. Each species of fish has different adaptations, habitats and ways of survival. This includes their senses. Overall, a fish's sense of scent and vibration detection is much more developed than their vision. Fish depend heavily on the senses of hearing/ smell everyday to catch food. I questioned if certain fish species couldn't detect the garbage because they simply couldn't see it. A large amount have developed eyes that pick up on usual colors of their environment. Since scientists are not yet able to see inside the mind of a fish, this raises the question of either or not certain colors attract or repel fish- and if color could influence the behavior of species.  

    It's known that trash has been recovered even in the deepest depths of the Ocean. If you think about it- the location of species habitat has a correlation to their vision. For example, fish that stay inshore and closer to shallow depths have better color vision. This can be explained by the many colors near shore water absorbs. Pelagic fish- whom venture offshore have less opportunity to color vision, because they travel farther away from shore where blue and green are the main environmental colors. The correlation to species habitat/ color vision, and trash consumption may be an interesting thought for further future studies.

 


In good news, Dr. Woodall caught a plastic free Pomano fish in New Smyrna Beach! Weighing 16.10 oz at 11.5" fork length. After dissected the stomach content, it became obvious this fish had a healthy belly full of shrimp and crab.