What Do Muskies and Humans Have In Common?

They both eat perch :)

Hey, struggling students have to eat too right?

Time To Revive The Blog: Analysis Updates

I promised folks that I'd not let this blog go stagnant throughout the winter months, but I seem to not be holding up my end of the bargain. I'll use the old "I've been really busy" excuse here because, well, it's true.

One of the things that has kept me busy the last couple weeks is analyzing my data from this past summer. Below are a few of the more interesting findings:

1) Behaviourally, muskies show a significant difference in distance moved (between sequential tracking points) at immediate (2 hrs) time intervals than at 48 (short-term) and 1 week (long-term) time periods. This is likely simply reflecting recovery from the angling event.

2) Physiology wasn't a whole lot different between treatments, but when analyzed using temperature as a covariate (an additional variable that might have some influence on the main variable in question, in this case stress levels) I did find some differences. Cortisol (primary stress hormone) and glucose (energy stores released in response to increases in cortisol) were significantly greater in concentration at temperatures above 20C/68F than below.

For you folks down in the States that are skeptical of our results because we didn't angle very many fish from upper 70/80+F water temps, this trend should be of some consolation. You'll be pleased to hear that we will make every effort to angle fish during the warmest part of summer next year. We, unfortunately, did not get the hot summer weather last year that we might normally experience.

Dr. Ed Crossman Research Grant

I'm not entirely sure who reads this blog, but if you're a Canadian student, or someone that knows of a Canadian student, conducting muskellunge research, note the following link:

http://www.muskiescanada.ca/news.php?article_id=25

The requirement is that the student is researching muskies in Canada. You may be eligible regardless of your citizenship.

Application package should include the following:

• Identify researcher/student
• List research supervisor
• Name of educational institution
• General time frames of research activity
• Short (shorter the better) outline of research activity
• Waterbody study will be conducted on
• Upon completion of the research activity, it is expected that the student will provide a short report about the findings.

Application deadline is February 15th.