This is why there are scientific names....
May. 2nd, 2003 11:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
senoritafishIf you're not familiar with why scientists give living things those long unpronounceable Latin names (and I know some you are, so bear with me), this is the reason. The Latin name is the one it is called all over the world. Most critters also have an official common name as well that's fairly standardized. However, people in different regions will often call the same animal different things, or use the same name for totally unrelated species. For example - the fish I work with a lot, the Pacific mackerel (official common name), Scomber japonicus(meaning In the Tuna family, from Japan), is called by various recreational and commercial fishermen around here - greenback, green-jack, zebra, American mackerel, striped mackerel, blue mackerel, tiny tuna, green racer, cornfed, frog, chub mackerel, and my favorite, goddamn bait stealer. Other regions and countries have even more names. You can see how people might get confused. Therein lies the following problem.
Starting last week, both V. and I were contacted by three other people working with some older fish landing data, wanting to know if a certain dealer really landed this much kelp greenling. We both told them that, no, we're familiar with this guy, and he never lands kelp greenling, he lands sablefish. However, at one point, he was calling it "seatrout" on his fish receipts (seatrout being a common name for both kelp greenling and sablefish). We know this to be true because:
V. and I told these people all of this stuff each time they contacted us. J., whose unit is in charge of entering all the fish receipts for the state, took our word for it, however, the other two people (who mostly only work with databases and are not really familiar with the animals themselves), had to have a conference call with all five of us to rehash this thing again for the third or fourth time! Honestly. Did you think we were making this stuff up?
I guess they were concerned because not only does this affect the landings of kelp greenling and therefore the calculations of how much can be harvested, but also it might affect these guy's eligibility for certain fishing permits, so they wanted to be absolutely sure. But how many times to you have to hear it?
Starting last week, both V. and I were contacted by three other people working with some older fish landing data, wanting to know if a certain dealer really landed this much kelp greenling. We both told them that, no, we're familiar with this guy, and he never lands kelp greenling, he lands sablefish. However, at one point, he was calling it "seatrout" on his fish receipts (seatrout being a common name for both kelp greenling and sablefish). We know this to be true because:
- Kelp greenling are rare in this part of the state; they are caught more in central and northern CA
- Even where they are caught, they are definitely not landed in hundreds of pounds.
- We sample these guys regularly and have never seen them land this species.
- In more than 10 years of market sampling, we've never seen anyone land this species.
- The receipts in question date from before biologists started editing fish receipts; when we did, I actually called this guy and asked "Are you landing kelp greenling?" He replied that no, it was blackcod (another common name for sablefish). The data entry people had been using a "crank names list" prior to that time that listed "seatrout" as another common name for kelp greenling only.
V. and I told these people all of this stuff each time they contacted us. J., whose unit is in charge of entering all the fish receipts for the state, took our word for it, however, the other two people (who mostly only work with databases and are not really familiar with the animals themselves), had to have a conference call with all five of us to rehash this thing again for the third or fourth time! Honestly. Did you think we were making this stuff up?
I guess they were concerned because not only does this affect the landings of kelp greenling and therefore the calculations of how much can be harvested, but also it might affect these guy's eligibility for certain fishing permits, so they wanted to be absolutely sure. But how many times to you have to hear it?
