A Rubber Band Around an Atlantic Croaker

A rubber band permanently girdled an Atlantic croaker, Micropogon undulatus, resulting in considerable malformation and pathological alterations of the fish. On 12 July 1973 at Graveline Bayou, Jackson County, Mississippi, Mrs. Buster Blades caught on hook and line a 175 mm standard length (102.1 g) croaker that she immediately separated from the rest of her catch as a suspected parasitized fish. Later upon closer examination, she realized that a rubber band encircled the fish, and so she brought the fish to us. The band had deformed the prepelvic isthmus, restricted movement of the pectoral fins, and permanently encircled the fish through a hole in the dorsum. Much of the elasticity was lost, but the band was entire and free to rotate through the perforation below the first dorsal fin. The tissue above the perforation, including the tissue of the dorsal fin, was complete and not severed, although several scales were regenerated. These observations, in addition to the malformed ventral area, suggest a lengthy association between band and fish.

An Overview of Historical Beaver Management in Arizona

In the mid-1820s, Anglo-American fur trappers, known as "mountain men," entered Arizona and began trapping beaver (Castor canadensis). In Arizona there have been a number of famous mountain men such as Sylvester and James Pattie, Ewing Young, Jededia Smith, and Bill Williams who trapped along the waterways in northern and southern Arizona. Although the heyday of mountain men lasted only a few decades due to a population decline of beaver, management of these animals continues to this day. The purpose of managing beavers shifted from monetary gain to controlling wildlife damage. During the late 1900s, beaver were still widely distributed in limited numbers throughout much of the state. We provide a historical overview of beaver management in Arizona with emphasis on the mountain men, recreational trapping, wildlife damage management, and beaver research in Arizona.

Interplay of Late Cenozoic Siliciclastic Supply and Carbonate Response on the Southeast Florida Platform

High-resolution seismic-reflection data collected along the length of the Caloosahatchee River in southwestern Florida have been correlated to nannofossil biostratigraphy and strontium-isotope chemostratigraphy at six continuously cored boreholes. These data are interpreted to show a major Late Miocene(?) to Early Pliocene fluvial– deltaic depositional system that prograded southward across the carbonate Florida Platform, interrupting nearly continuous carbonate deposition since early in the Cretaceous. Connection of the platform top to a continental source of siliciclastics and significant paleotopography combined to focus accumulation of an immense supply of siliciclastics on the southeastern part of the Florida Platform. The remarkably thick (> 100 m), sand-rich depositional system, which is characterized by clinoformal progradation, filled in deep accommodation, while antecedent paleotopography directed deltaic progradation southward within the middle of the present-day Florida Peninsula. The deltaic depositional system may have prograded about 200 km southward to the middle and upper Florida Keys, where Late Miocene to Pliocene siliciclastics form the foundation of the Quaternary carbonate shelf and shelf margin of the Florida Keys. These far-traveled siliciclastic deposits filled accommodation on the southeastern part of the Florida Platform so that paleobathymetry was sufficiently shallow to allow Quaternary recovery of carbonate sedimentation in the area of southern peninsular Florida and the Florida Keys.