Maurer/Timm Quail Ridge UCD Student Endowment Order Books here Original Poems and Thoughts website Email Frank here: frankmaurer41@gmail.com

Poems and Thoughts by Frank Maurer

Search for:   All Poems   Topics   Titles   Help

Ichthyology

Caught by a Catfish! opus 98

On one occasion (1985), using a 100 foot long seine and dragging the net from bank to bank (as always) we brought in a large number of catfish to harvest by the pond's edge. The top of a seine has cork floats and the bottom has a thick gathered rope mudline. As I was in my waders and working some snags away from shore, I suddenly felt a piercing pain in my right foot. Immediately I knew exactly what had occurred: A fish was caught sideways in the mudline, a barbed pectoral fin projecting straight upwards! Indeed, the fin had pierced my boot's sole, through the sock and into the ball of my foot. Instructing the student on the shore's end, to pull slowly as I limped in, I reached the bank, the fish connecting me with one fin to the line and the other in my foot-- Too painful to pull out, I reached down and snapped the bone, Thus freeing me from the fish and net, But still with a bone, locking the boot, sock, and foot together.

With great pain, the boot was dislodged, leaving a bare sock and foot (and fishbone)!

A trip to the nearby hospital, very painful anesthetic shots to numb the foot's pain, And the bone was removed, leaving a very sore, 'un-numbing' foot! After a drive back to the farm and to the evening chores, I started in limpingly to finish the end of the day's work. Such was the then life of a peasant on a farm with a PhD!

The Bumblebee; a California Fish? opus 127

Under certain circumstances, a California court
Has ruled bees can legally be considered fish 'under specific circumstances'.
So, does the bumblebee, for instance, a terrestrial invertebrate,
Fall within the definition of fish (Endangered Species Act 2062)?
The Act itself protects "native species or subspecies
Of bird, mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile, or plant."
Invertebrates are conspicuously absent from that list of protected species!
But there is a lucky loophole for insects, mollusks, and other spineless creatures,
Falling under the umbrella term "invertebrate":
The actual act defines a "fish" as a "wild fish, mollusk,
Crustacean, INVERTEBRATE, amphibian or part, spawn, or ovum therefrom.
So, this expansion of the definition of fish to include invertebrates,
Allows them for greater protection from the Fish and Game Commission,
And just in time for several species of endangered bumblebee!

No wonder the 'law' can do almost anything!
It is just those germane, ferreted-out words and phrases.

A Text to my Grandson opus 128

My grandson, Rowan, is almost three years old--
Starting to be verbally interactive--what a relief and joy!
Today I texted him via his father's cell phone the following :

    Rowan! See my Betta fish (photo included).
    I think it would be nice for you to have one.
    Let's talk. L. (love).

Ok, why want to push a fish on a three year old?
Well, I have four wonderfully interesting Betta individuals.
I place them each in a large, clear vase--no aeration needed;
These beautiful, variable Asian fish gulp air whenever necessary;
Water change is limited and uncomplicated;
Feeding consists of five Betta pellets in morning or afternoon;
A water conditioner can be occasionally added.
Simple enough--but then the fun begins!

When I feed in the morning (a good time for me),
I first gently tap on the vase and let five Betta food pellets
Fall onto the water's surface.
These clever fish soon learn the routine
And even follow me as I pass by their individual vases.

Such fun and character-building for a little boy to learn the joys
Of interacting with another totally different species than he,
And there is a good chance, with some wise guidance,
He will be closer to having a healthy respect and 'reverence for life'.

Are We Floundering, Using the Name Halibut? opus 130

Consider the marvelous evolutionary changes of this group through natural selection: The pressures to exist flat on the sea bed yield new habitat possibilities with new combined food sources. It was adaptive to have both eyes on one side, but fins, including the pectoral fins, remain almost the same--even when next to the sea bed. The research shows that with one group there was a recent speciation after the invasion of a common ancestor into the Atlantic from Southern Africa during the Pleistocene. But more to the evolutionary point-- The group of fish called Flatfish are the only vertebrates totally asymmetrical. Attempts since ancient times have been made to explain the origin of this characteristic. Flatfish when hatched are symmetrical with bilateral eyes and fins. The larvae live pelagically high above the sea bed. But, with life's advances, they lose the swim bladder and acquire a strange appearance : Totally flattened, a pigmented upper side, an asymmetrical skull-- two eyes together and inclined in relation to the twisted mouth. They are flattened sideways with a less developed whitish lower side. They have morphed to become benthic yielding their strange shape which allows them to move, feed, and defend themselves very well in this environment! These fish have lores with the Jewish people calling soles 'Moses fish' and with St. Peter who was burned by the Flatfish and the Romans who called them 'The Sole of Jupiter' because of the shape.

Lamarck in 1809 explained through 'gradualism' that with their 'need' to be attentive above they experienced the displacement of an eye and their flattening. Later, Darwin partly accepted this idea, but added his thoughts on the process of natural selection. In 1933, Richard Goldschmidt argued that Flatfish were a good example of 'hopeful monsters'-- due to mutations expressed in beginning stages of development and finally in adults which give rise to very different morphology--

Asymmetrical fish from symmetrical fish! Today, recent paleontology studies have found that fossils from 45 million years ago had eyes and their morphology obtained positions between symmetrical and asymmetrical arrangement. Thus we see that this process went through intermediate stages and did not occur abruptly. As stated before, there is a great variety of 'right' or 'left' species but the Thornback Turbot has 'right' and 'left' occurring in equal frequency. This group is closest to the beginning of the Flatfish evolutionary tree with the least asymmetry. So thought concludes that asymmetry first occurred randomly or in relation to environmental variations in this group, and that later was controlled by genes in other related species. In general there were no abrupt changes in any single genes during development but that in their development there are changes in the expression of certain genes and these changes explain the various characteristics of Flatfish: asymmetry, coloration and all!

Note: It is interesting that in 10,000 year old cave paintings, one can determine to which species the paintings depicting Flatfish belong. A depiction of one fish with its right-side twist in the cave of La Pileta, Spain, may just be a Flounder!

The Labyrinth opus 136

Fish have gills, Silly: How else would they breathe?
Well, because of evolution through natural selection,
A group of fish (there are many other examples)
Inhabiting the Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia area are the Bettas.
Bettas were originally found in Thailand.
They are among the oldest domesticated fish species in the world,
Having been owned as pets for more than 4000 years!
They survive in small puddles of water, in rice fields, and ditches.
Because of the uncertain fluctuating oxygen supply,
They have evolved a structure at the bony base of the gill,
Called a labyrinth, which allows not only gill breathing,
But also the intake of air, by gulping, this interacting within the labyrinth,
Supplementing the often low oxygen content in the surrounding water.
The labyrinth contains plates with a myriad of oxygen absorbing blood vessels
Which gather inhaled air now trapped inside a group of folds
And then absorbed into the main bloodstream.

Bettas are obligate air breathers in that they occasionally must take in oxygen from the air.
The other group of labyrinth fish are facultative air breathers,
Which only breathe at the surface when running low on oxygen.
Bettas breathe using their labyrinth organ, day and night,
So they prefer sleeping under large plants near the water's surface
And thus do not need to exert extra energy to rise to the top for a quick gulp.

Interestingly, they use this organ to create 'bubble nests' at the surface.
The males blow bubbles to form one of these nests as part of their reproductive process,
But even single males will make a bubble nest, if content in their space!

Just another fascinating creature to get to know and this is why
Natural history study makes one an ever-more interesting person.

Try it!

Our Mother Seas opus 171

CO2 has been spewed into our atmosphere.
Our oceans have benevolently attempted absorption.
By doing so, the great water masses are warming,
But more, the acid levels are ever-rising,
Atmospheric CO2 has been buffered--so far,
However, increasing ocean acid is committing the slow death
Of many of its shelled inhabitants,
With mass movements of its piscine denizens,
Causing starvation of dependent higher trophic levels.

An Upper Trophic Level opus 281

I was comfortable with catfish as a product, raised in a hot summer environment. (Now after 40 years, summers are ever hotter--I remember at least three winters when all ponds would freeze over and the kids even skated -- not any longer.). While selling fish, customers had many questions, as is the wont in a direct Farmers Market. One, of course, was, 'Don't these fish feed on the bottom?' I quickly solved that one for a good reply, as well as for a better product: I used floating fish food, which created a wonderful feeding frenzy as well, which the many visiting school children immensely enjoyed! The nutrition of catfish flesh is quite complete and very healthy. But the 'haupt' subject which greatly worries me is the fact that we are fishing out our wild stocks, and, of course, most people wish to consume salmon and tuna and trout, all of which are on the top of the food chain--the highest trophic (feeding) level.

It worries me to see customers in a grocery store, ogling over salmon, when there are so many other, environmentally better fish species to be consumed. Captive salmon create their own problems such as antibiotics loose in the ocean near the floating pens, let alone the dissolving artificial food and fish waste. But most, the escape of domesticated varieties of salmon into the wild populations. Pond raised fish are isolated and do not create such problems. In general then, we must all be aware of the trophic levels from which WE feed as well!

Stirring up CO2 opus 285

A report just coming out states that bottom trawling
Is releasing CO2 from the substrate,
By stirring up, as well as , destroying such.
The results may show that this method of fishing
Is doubling the released once estimated CO2,
Relating to the whole world-wide fishing fleet.
There have been many former voices
Decrying the destruction of the seabed,
When not even considering the CO2 problem!

As with many human processes,
The Climate Crisis may force us
To reevaluate and then modify procedures,
Creating more favorable results
For both humans and our planet.

Awareness opus 340

Two youthful fish were swimming together,
Deep into their normal fish-clicking language,
When an older, wiser, member of their type
Passed them by, nodding in the customary manner
And clicking out the greeting, "How is the water?"
The two nodded with respect and swam on.
Suddenly, the one stopped the other and clicked out the query--
"What the hell is water?"

When I lived for several years in Turkiye,
I learned that one of the first greetings upon meeting
Was "Su nasil?" (How is the water? -- meaning in your village.)
The basic point which I am sadly and nervously learning,
Is that our population is consumed with their own immediate needs,
With no idea how important
The surrounding world is for their very existence!
People now-a-days have no thought, for instance,
Of their companion plants--
These include grasses, flowers, shrubs and trees--
All, once vital to the indigenous people of the past.
But little do the Moderns realize of their importance to them.

Farmers and gardeners well know
How the changing rainfall and heat affect their livelihoods.
(Even planting temperature zones have been recently modified.)
Ornithologists well know of the disrupted avian food supplies world wide.
Ictheologists well know of decreasing fish populations,
Affecting both 'man and beast'.
Climatologists, like Yoda, see the changing overall picture.
To top all this, especially according to geophysicists,
Our planet may soon be subtracting a nanosecond from a future year
Because of the slower rotation of the earth,
Due to the melting north and south, and causing shifting
General equatorial planetary mass distribution.

Are we aware or even care about the fish' 'water around us'?
Or do we just continually bicker amongst ourselves
About what may turn out to be exceeding bits of trivia?

How to Survive an Alligator! opus 375

I occasionally drop by my local pet store
To check out what chelonia species are up for sale.
Now and then, on a whim, I 'rescue' a specimen, catching my fancy.
Recently, I inquired about two Yellow Bellied turtles
(Pseudemys scripta scripta)
Which had remained in the store for weeks.
After making a 'deal', homeward they went with me.
With a dark carapace, a yellow streak slicing each scute,
And a bright yellow plastron,
I found them quietly attractive to the eye.

Sussing them out from my comprehensive 'Encyclopedia of Turtles' ,
I discovered about their southeastern US range,
But most interestingly, the heavy shell of this species,
Perhaps evolved to be resistant to their cohabitating alligators,
So that they might survive the potential cracking
And inevitable consumption by their crocodilian neighbors.

So many subtle examples of selection through the evolutionary process,
Which, with some examination, become evident to the studious mind.

On This Day Three Decades Ago--Our 4 July opus 382

On our 37 acre farm, we had 14 fish ponds.
Every week I harvested Channel Catfish for local farmers markets.
On this day three decades ago, I first, then later my two boys,
Paddled out to the center of our largest pond bearing legal fireworks.
As dusk arrived, the fireworks, from the middle of the pond,
Would be released to the delight of all onlookers.
My mother, Elizabeth, was still alive and especially enjoyed them.
In those days it was quite safe, being in the mid-pond,
But with today's temperatures of 110 degrees F and such surrounding dryness,
To do such would be an act of folly and probably would be called in!

How Our Eye has Fared in the Jump from Sea to Land opus 401

Did you know we blink 15 times a minute,
Or in a 16 hour day, a fantastic 14,000 times?
Why? Well we evolved from our fish cousins!
In a watery habitat, then shifting to terrestrial open air,
It demanded many compromises which needed to be 'fanangled'.
The optics of water, the protection and nurturing of water--
To move to land was an incredible move.
Because of this, humans have inherited many terrestrial challenges.
Remodeling an aquatic eye to a terrestrial one,
Resulted in no small set of needed adaptations--
Blinking, eyelids acting as windshield wipers,
Nictitating membranes to facilitate flight and hunting,
The evolution of nocturnal living to evade hunting dinosaurs,
Then reversing to a diurnal lifestyle for many, after their demise,
Our ability to see color (cones) vs sensing day and night (rods),
Our inability to see UV in which so many other fellow creatures revel,
And now, more--myopia--perhaps due to increasing screen time,
Plus the fact our children do not get out enough in natural light
Which seems to make an important difference for this condition!

A Good Intention, Drowns Some Hopes opus 435

I taught Biology at the University of Lesotho, Africa,
For several years.
While there, I befriended a Swiss fish farmer,
Who in all innocence created a large fish pond,
By damming up a donga or deep crevasse,
Formed from excessive erosion.
The countryside was riddled with these long, deep wastelands.
The intention of my Swiss friend was to create
An aquaculture industry for the country.
In this case good intentions ended in disaster.
One of the challenges was to teach a landlocked nation to eat fish,
But that was not the route of these troubles.

One late morning an alarmed villager quickly knocked
On the doors of our campus.
Three teenagers had slipped down the steep,
Muddy banks of the new pond,
Struggled into ever-deeper water, and had drowned--all three!
What to do? Villagers had been digging away for hours at the dam.
Their intention was only to lower the water and retrieve the bodies.
It would take days. No one wished to, nor was really able,
To swim and recover bodies in the muddy water.
Suddenly (and long before I became an aquaculturist),
It hit me, there must be seines nearby which were used for fish harvesting.
One long one was immediately employed and our 'fishing' commenced.
Soon, sadly, the net was drawn onto the bank,
And three young bodies were seen in this netted tangle.
Their arms were frozen in a painful, as if reaching-for-air position,
Their fingers and ears had been badly nibbled, feeding the innocent fish.
The whole operation had been sickening with a terrible tinge of tragedy.
The campus rescue teachers quietly returned home.

Coincidentally, the University had an outdoor swimming pool
For teachers and their guests. The school was far from a town or city,
And perhaps the designers of the campus felt
The pool would help entertain foreign, urban staff.
So, then, teachers, being teachers, invited students to learn to swim.
However, also at that time, a native Mosotho
Was chosen as the new Vice Chancellor.
The VC, perhaps in a surge of nationalism (?), closed down the pool.
He viewed it as a western, useless pastime.
This action took place just after the staff volunteered
To recover the bodies of those drowned teens.
True, nets were used to retrieve the victims,
And no swimming actually occurred,
But if those three were able to swim--an unknown skill--
The horror of that day would have been just an hypothesis.
The rightful feeling of the Mosotho concerning foreigners
Taking only seeming pleasure in the pool--
Opposed to considering the good being done
By innocently teaching swimming--
Draws out the conflicts of one culture benevolently imposed on another.

If the fish industry were successful and many dongas were aqueously filled,
Swimming would have become a natural ability,
As well as adding fish -- a wholesome protein source for the people.

Time Slowed to Almost a Standstill opus 445

The Greenland shark may reach an age of up to 500 years,
Now recognized as the longest living vertebrate animal.
They grow as little as a few centimeters per year, up to five meters,
Reaching four meters and sexual maturity at 150 years old.
Because of the excessive fishing before WWII,
There appears to be no sexually active adults living.
The sampling so far has found only sub-adults,
Implying that it will be another 100 years
Before the population might start reproducing once again!
This is a severe example of how human activity
Can negatively affect another creature's well being
And a reminder of the delicate balance required
To sustain such incredible life forms.

Tooth Structure Makes a Difference opus 556

The basic general concept concerning evolution,
Is that changes unfold over long time periods.
These are genetic changes which are affected through DNA.
We have already discussed the rapid adaptations in lizards.
New research is revealing rapid evolution,
Especially in the Cichlid group of fish.
The Cichlids can rapidly evolve teeth
Which are either 'simple' or 'complex'.
And more, this occurs quickly with gain or loss of the tooth type.
This rapid change allows successful exploitation of new food types.
The African Cichlids seem to have retained the genetic program,
Enabling them to easily switch, with tooth type, to another niche.
The switch between simple and complex (and back)
Drives the rapid formation of new species.
Thus Cichlids are able to form new species
More rapidly than any other vertebrate group.

Codfish Are Becoming Greatly Reduced in Size. An Additional Thought opus 617

Is it possible for humans to 'cause' an evolutionary process?
Nonsense! Impossible! But wait.
Three foot Eastern Baltic Codfish have been harvested for centuries.
But in the last few decades, reduced size of fish have been continually reported.
In 1996 their size was 3 feet; in 2019, half that size; now one fits in two hands.
Is this due to climate change or to fishing activity?
Using larger nets, the smaller fish escaped easily; an advantage being small.
After a fishing ban in 2019, the genetics of the fish maintained their small size.
Upon examining otoliths (from the inner ear) collected between 1996 and 2019,
They demonstrated that the growth rings showed slower size increase.
In addition, the DNA corroborated that same conclusion.
Ever-smaller parent fish are generating ever-smaller offspring.
This indicates that the cods' evolution is pressured externally.
The scientists conclude that this evolutionary process is driven by human activity.
They conclude that, "This is scientifically fascinating, but ecologically deeply concerning."