Hemiramphidae is a family of fishes that are commonly called halfbeaks, spipe fish or spipefish. They are a geographically widespread and numerically abundant family of epipelagic fish inhabiting warm waters around the world. The halfbeaks are named for their distinctive jaws, in which the lower jaws are significantly longer than the upper jaws. The similar viviparous halfbeaks have often been included in this family.
The eulachon, or the candlefish, is a small anadromous species of smelt that spawns in some of the major river systems along the Pacific coast of North America from northern California to Alaska.
Humboldt Bay is a natural bay and a multi-basin, bar-built coastal lagoon located on the rugged North Coast of California, entirely within Humboldt County, United States. It is the largest protected body of water on the West Coast between San Francisco Bay and Puget Sound, the second-largest enclosed bay in California, and the largest port between San Francisco and Coos Bay, Oregon. The largest city adjoining the bay is Eureka, the regional center and county seat of Humboldt County, followed by the city of Arcata. These primary cities, together with adjoining unincorporated communities and several small towns, comprise a Humboldt Bay Area with a total population of nearly 80,000 people. This comprises nearly 60% of the population of Humboldt County. The bay is home to more than 100 plant species, 300 invertebrate species, 100 fish species, and 200 bird species. In addition, the bay and its complex system of marshes and grasses support hundreds of thousands of migrating and local shore birds. Commercially, this second-largest estuary in California is the site of the largest oyster production operations on the West Coast, producing more than half of all oysters farmed in California.
The delta smelt is an endangered slender-bodied smelt, about 5 to 7 cm long, in the family Osmeridae. Endemic to the upper Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary of California, it mainly inhabits the freshwater-saltwater mixing zone of the estuary, except during its spawning season, when it migrates upstream to fresh water following winter "first flush" flow events. It functions as an indicator species for the overall health of the Delta's ecosystem.Delta Smelt are usually found at temperatures of less than 25°C and prefer temperatures of around 20°C. They are euryhaline but occur mostly at salinities of 0–7 practical salinity units.
Ridgway's rail is a species of bird found principally along the Pacific coast of North America from the San Francisco Bay Area to southern Baja California, as well as in some regions of the Gulf of California. A member of the rail family, Rallidae, it is a chicken-sized bird that lives brackish tidal marshes and rarely flies. Its name commemorates American ornithologist Robert Ridgway.
The leopard shark is a species of houndshark, in the family Triakidae. It is found along the Pacific coast of North America, from the U.S. state of Oregon to Mazatlán in Mexico. Typically measuring 1.2–1.5 m (3.9–4.9 ft) long, this slender-bodied shark is immediately identifiable by the striking pattern of black saddle-like markings and large spots over its back, from which it derives its common name. Large schools of leopard sharks are a common sight in bays and estuaries, swimming over sandy or muddy flats or rock-strewn areas near kelp beds and reefs. They are most common near the coast, in water less than 4 m (13 ft) deep.
The splittail, also called Sacramento splittail, is a cyprinid fish native to the low-elevation waters of the Central Valley in California. It was first described by William O. Ayres in 1854. It is the sole living member of its genus, the Clear Lake splittail P. ciscoides having become extinct in the 1970s.
The longjaw mudsucker is a species of goby found along the Pacific coast of California and Baja California. Known for its distinctive elongated jaws and robust body, this species can reach up to 21 cm in length, making it one of the larger gobies in its habitat. Adapted to estuarine environments, the longjaw mudsucker has evolved to survive short periods out of water, utilizing tidal mudflats and sloughs as its primary habitat.
The Mad River is a river in upper Northern California. It flows for 113 miles (182 km) in a roughly northwest direction through Trinity County and then Humboldt County, draining a 497-square-mile (1,290 km2) watershed into the Pacific Ocean north of the town of Arcata near [California Redwood Coast-Humboldt County Airport] in McKinleyville. The river's headwaters are in the Coast Range near South Kelsey Ridge.
The Big River is a 41.7-mile-long (67.1 km) river in Mendocino County, California, that flows from the northern California Coast Range to the Pacific Ocean at Mendocino, Mendocino County, California. From the mouth, brackish waters extend 8 miles (13 km) upstream, forming the longest undeveloped estuary in the state.
The green sturgeon is a species of sturgeon native to the northern Pacific Ocean, from China and Russia to Canada and the United States.
The San Francisco Estuary together with the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta represents a highly altered ecosystem. The region has been heavily re-engineered to accommodate the needs of water delivery, shipping, agriculture, and most recently, suburban development. These needs have wrought direct changes in the movement of water and the nature of the landscape, and indirect changes from the introduction of non-native species. New species have altered the architecture of the food web as surely as levees have altered the landscape of islands and channels that form the complex system known as the Delta.
This page is a list of fishing topics.
Night smelt(Spirinchus starksi) is a true smelt of the northern family Osmeridae and part of the larger Osmeridemes order. The family of the true smelt consists of 12 species; 7 of which are native to California’s estuary and coastal waters. The night smelt is one of the three exact species in the Spirinchus genus, along with the Longfin Smelt (Spirinchus thaleichthys) and the shishamo (Spirinchus lanceolatus), native to northern Japan.
Hypomesus nipponensis is a commercial food fish native to the lakes and estuaries of northern Honshu and Hokkaido, Japan, Korea, and Sakhalin, Khabarovsk Krai, and Primorsky Krai, Russia. It has been introduced in other locations, including the San Francisco Delta of the United States. It is raised in fisheries, and is very similar in appearance to the delta smelt.
Japanese smelt may refer to:
Atherinopsis californiensis, the jack silverside or jacksmelt, is a species of neotropical silverside native to the Pacific coast of North America from Oregon, United States to southern Baja California, Mexico. This species grows to 45 cm (18 in) in total length, silver throughout the body, grey dorsal pattern, light silver ventral-lateral. Yellow spot present behind the eye, on operculum. and is important commercially as a source of human food. It is the only known member of its genus.
The Californian anchovy or northern anchovy is a species of anchovy found in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, ranging from Mexico to British Columbia. It is a small, Clupeoid fish with a large mouth and a long, laterally compressed body, which strongly resembles the European Anchovy with only slight differences in girth and fin position. They have a euryhaline lifestyle defined by regular migrations between bays and open ocean for both spawning and foraging. Like Pacific sardines, they compose a large fraction of the marine biomass in waters off the west coast of North America, where they are a vital keystone species in coastal pelagic waters. However, they are subject to seasonal boom & bust cycles that are chiefly caused by changes in water temperature and food availability; regularly switching places as the forage fish of prominence with the sardine during years defined by colder water temperatures, which makes them vulnerable to climate change. They have a small commercial fishery; mainly used as bait for fishermen or fish meal, with a dedicated small following as a food fish in San Francisco.
Crangon franciscorum is a species of shrimp in the family Crangonidae which is endemic to the brackish estuaries of California, and found from Puget Sound in the north to San Diego, California in the south. The species is especially abundant in San Francisco Bay, despite population fluctuations due to environmental stresses. Its common names include bay shrimp, sand shrimp, common shrimp, grass shrimp, black shrimp, California shrimp and black tailed shrimp. The species has been commercially fished from 1869 to the present.
Peter B. Moyle is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology and associate director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California, Davis. He has studied the ecology and conservation of fishes in freshwater and estuarine habitats in California (US) for over fifty years. He has a special interest in salmonid fishes and in the state's highly endemic freshwater and estuarine fish fauna. Moyle has authored or co-authored more than 270 peer-reviewed publications, including 10 books, and over 225 other publications, including ca. 75 blogs.
