Fish of the Week!

This very cool fish uses its finger-like fins to locate prey on the seafloor and might bark at you if you catch it. It's also at the center of an amazing case study regarding a place-based approach to sustaining wild seafood. Our three guests are a fisherman (Jason Jarvis), chef (David Standridge), and Eating with the Ecosystem's Kate Masury. Calls to action? try something new, eat the whole fish,...

With a namesake that matches the vegetation found in marshes where it lives, this California native comes in three different forms and has a very impressive skill: females pack an unbelievable number of extremely large young in their enlarged vascularized ovaries and give live birth. Senior Research Scientist John Durand from the University of California, Davis Center for Watershed Sciences is our...

What good are they? "Well, what good are you?" goes the famous quote about this fish. Meet the Owens Pupfish: a small, blue, chubby, feisty, extreme, endangered fish that’s native to the Owens Valley in California and was recently celebrated in the newly-established Owens Pupfish Refuge within the Bishop Paiute Tribe’s Conservation Open Space Area. Brian Atkins, Environmental Director for the Bish...

Meet a big, beautiful, predatory fish that floats like a butterfly and whacks prey with its wings: the California Butterfly Ray! Scientist and Elasmobranch expert Joe Bizzarro from the National Marine Fisheries Service's Southwest Fisheries Science Center is our guest.

May we have your at-TENCH-ion please? Will the real Slime Shady please stand up? Folklore has it that Tench slime can cure any sick fish that rubs against it. Hence its other name: “Doctor Dre.” Oh wait, oops (checking notes). Hence its other name: "Doctor Fish." Guest Bryan Witte, a fisheries biologist with the Kalispel Tribe talks with us about ol' Tinca tinca including how and where to catch on...

The American Eel: very demure, very mindful. So demure, in fact, that nobody has ever seen them spawn! These wonderfully mysterious fish start and end life in the Sargasso Sea with an incredible freshwater migration in between. We continue to unravel some of the mystery around this migratory fish with guest Ámbar Torres Molinari. This episode is dedicated to her late advisor Dr. Thomas J. Kwak and...

Moooood: plodding, with deep thoughts. Meet the Cowcod. Special guest Milton Love shares how rockfish first captured his imagination as a kid and what he's learned about this particular deep-dwelling West Coast native. You'll enjoy lively conversation, deep-sea adventure, and lessons learned in rockfish conservation.

Solomon David (the "Gar Guy") is back and this time Katrina and Guy are talking with him about gars in the genus Lepisosteus. By the end of this episode, we GAR-antee you'll be a lot more familiar with the Longnose, Shortnose, Spotted and Florida Gars...and hope your curiosity about (and love for) these fish will be piqued even more.

Meet America's next top model...organism. Zebrafish (AKA Zebra Danios) are found all over the USA: in home aquariums, in medical facilities, and occasionally in the wild due to releases. This fish has some amazing qualities that are helping scientists answer much larger questions about human health. Our guests are Joshua Barber, Christine Archer, and Amber Chiodini - three friends who have all wor...

Refuge Information Technician Stanislaus Sheppard joins from Alaska to share his salmon fishing experiences from his fish camp on the Yukon River. Hear similar stories: Tribal Voices Bring Fish Values to the Surface https://www.fws.gov/story/tribal-voices-bring-fish-values-surface

Meet the spike-toothed salmon, a prehistoric Pacific salmon 8+ feet long. With similarities to modern-day sockeyes, this giant species in the genus Oncorhynchus used to spawn in the Pacific Northwest as recently as 4-5 million years ago. What were its spikes for? Why did it go extinct? And is there anything we can learn from past extinctions? Three guests to help us reflect on this prehistoric bra...

Meet a "bendy" shark with beautiful features. Learn what it's like to photograph this striking and shy species, what it takes to catch/tag it for science, and what it needs to thrive. Our guests are Kydd Pollock (fisheries science manager for The Nature Conservancy's Palmyra Program) and Jenn Caselle (research biologist with UC Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Institute). For more cool fish in this...

Get to know one of North America's big and awesome native suckers: the Smallmouth Buffalo! Follow along as we learn about population trends and demographics and also what it's like to prepare and eat this delicious fish! Our guests Levi Solomon and Kris Maxson join from the Illinois River Biological Station.

Guy gets all gussied up in his best brown trout ensemble (again) for some banter with Katrina about how these fish made their way to the to the USA and how they are perceived. Maria Dosal joins from her Agdaagux homelands on the Alaska Peninsula to talk about fish regalia and respecting the whole fish.

Get to know three West Coast pikeminnows! This compliments our Colorado Pikeminnow episode from season 3. Our guest, Stewart Reid, specializes in the biology and stewardship of Western fishes.

On this episode we explore Mountain Mullets (the fish) with guest biologist Bonnie Myers. Get to know this strong-swimming jumper and the important role they play in Puerto Rico's native fish community.

I have a face that resembles a horse, a prehensile tail like a monkey, a brood pouch like a kangaroo, and the ability to change color and move my eyes independently like a chameleon. I range from the size of a grain of rice to over a foot long. Get to know the genus Hippocampus: how they live, what threats they face, and how you can help. Our guests are Miguel Correia with Project Seahorse and Nan...

Meet the Smalltooth Sawfish! Learn all about its saw-like rostrum, the threats it faces, how NOT to take a photo with a sawfish, and what's being done to understand and conserve these incredibly cool critters. Our guest is John Carlson with NOAA Fisheries Service's Southeast Fisheries Science Center.

Get to know a huge, bendy, slow-moving shark that looks like a giant log, has cantaloupe-sized eyeballs, and loves a delicious whale fall. Our guests are Cindy Tribuzio and Beth Matta with NOAA. Beth is a research fisheries biologist in the Age and Growth Program at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center and Cindy is a research biologist with the Alaska Fisheries Science Center's Auke Bay Laboratorie...

You: running your hands through warm sand at the beach. Also you: finding out it might have passed through the anus of a fish. Meet the Bumphead Parrotfish: beach-making "bulldozer of the sea" and gargantuan coral-chomping champion. Our guests are Richard Hamilton with The Nature Conservancy and Alan Friedlander from the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology and National Geographic's Pristine Seas.

Get to know the Milkfish, a big, shiny, powerful fish known locally in Hawaii as Awa. Our guest, Keli'i Kotubetey (Assistant Executive Director of Paepae o He'eia on the island of O'ahu) takes us to an 800 year old site of ancient Hawaiian aquaculture where this fish is being cared for and grown for the future. Check out all the Hawaii episodes: S4:E43 Mullets with guests Andie Le Doux and Iokepa...

The Trispot Darter has a fascinating story of rediscovery, migration, and conservation teamwork. Three guests join the conversation: Fisheries Biologist Cal Johnson (Alabama Department of Environmental Management), Independent Researcher and author Pat O'Neil (formerly with the Geological Survey of Alabama); and biologist Lee Holt with our Alabama Ecological Services Office.

Meet the knifefishes! From the Clown Knifefish to the to the Electric Eel, Katrina and Guy take a broad brush look at this bizarre group of fascinating fishes.

Meet the Southern Flounder, a temperature-sensitive fish that's one-third of the "Texas Slam” with Redfish/Red Drum (S2:E25) and Speckled Trout. Learn about their transformation from regular fish with two matching sides to amazing flatfish, how they hunt tidal creeks and saltmarsh wetlands, and how to safely and sustainably catch and eat them. Texas A&M University at Galveston Marine Biology P...

Hear how Palisade High School in Colorado is helping a huge, cool Colorado native: the Razorback Sucker! Teacher Pat Steele and student Kiera Stephen share their connections to this fish, take us on a tour of the Palisade High School Fish Hatchery, and celebrate their 1000th Razorback Sucker released.