Red Stock Research Articles

Red Snapper in the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. South Atlantic: Data, Doubt, and Debate

AbstractStock assessments provide fisheries managers with information that is used in the regulation of a fish stock. Assessments often rely upon a wide array of biological and fisheries data of varying quantity and quality, making the assessment process data hungry, complex, and uncertain. Assessment scientists face the difficulty of estimating numbers of individuals (among other biological benchmarks) of a population of widely distributed, often mobile, fishes for which direct measurement of almost everything is impossible. Consequently, stock assessment scientists are forced to use tools designed to assemble a variety of indirect measures into a statistical model capable of producing predictions to inform fisheries management about stock status and the consequences of past, current and future fishing practices. Despite large differences in estimates of the status of red snapper stocks in the Gulf of Mexico (U.S.) and south Atlantic Ocean (U.S.), and the management conclusions and decision drawn from these assessments, there are more similarities than differences in the basic data being used to inform assessment models, as well as in model outcomes concerning trends in biomass, catch‐at‐age and stock productivity. There are key differences in some of these data, and in how historical landings and uncertainty is handled in the assessment process, that result in large differences between the two management regions in beliefs about current and future productivity of red snapper stocks, and regulatory measures necessary for reaching management goals.

Effects of tag type on red snapper Lutjanus campechanus tag retention, growth and survival under hatchery conditions

Summary Management of red snapper stocks is one of the most controversial issues in the Gulf of Mexico fisheries. Fish tagging programs can help to address many management issues if an appropriate tag is selected. In the study three types of tags were tested to determine tag retention and effects on red snapper growth and survival. Hatchery-produced juveniles (43.7 ± 5.6 g) were either not tagged or given: internal anchor tags anchored in the abdominal cavity; passive integrated transponders (PIT) tags injected into the body cavity; or metal self-piercing fish tags clamped around the dentary bone. Fish were stocked at 25 m−3 in three replicate circular tanks/tag type, and fed a commercial feed for a 150 days period. Fish survival did not differ by treatment. Average weight gains after 150 days were similar. Tag retention differed by treatment (P = 0.0002), with 100% retention of PIT tags, 98.4 ± 2.8% retention of jaw tags, and 90.4 ± 1.6% retention of internal anchor tags. Loss of internal anchor tags occurred primarily within the first month. Inflammation was frequently observed at the internal anchor tag insertion site. Irritation and cell proliferation was sometimes observed in areas around the jaw tags.

Determining policy-efficient management strategies in fisheries using data envelopment analysis (DEA)

Abstract In this paper, the authors analyze a wide range of recreational management strategies for their impacts on red snapper yield, economic surplus and the fish stock. Simulating a wide range of policies, the authors find Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) inspired policy efficiency frontiers that lead to finding those management strategies that offer the greatest level of economic surplus for any biological target, looking at both the east and west Gulf of Mexico fisheries. Red snapper has been declared overfished since 1988 and the 2005 SEDAR 7 stock assessment declared red snapper were overfished and undergoing overfishing. In November 2009, the update of the assessment declared that overfishing was no longer occurring but that the red snapper stocks needed to be rebuilt. In this analysis, it was found that red snapper are neither overfished or undergoing overfishing. The main difference between the present model and the SEDAR 7 model is that the latest model uses a higher mortality rate for juveniles and a density dependent model. The authors also suggest that the east and west should be managed as separate units.

Disreputable Young Ladies at Play

It was no coincidence that notable baseball club of young ladies took field in upstate New York village of Peterboro. The sponsors were well known political figures, committed to cause of equal rights for women. Gerrit Smith was as radical as he was wealthy, an old friend of Frederick Douglass John Brown. In spring of 1851, Smith's daughter, Elizabeth Miller, disgusted with difficulty of working in long skirts of period, had designed more comfortable outfit, consisting of Turkish trousers beneath short dress. Her idea was soon adopted by other feminists, including her cousin, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, their friend Amelia Bloomer, who popularized costume in her magazine, The Lily.1Conservative commentators of both sexes dismissed notion of sharing nation's diamonds with women. A columnist for Ladies' Repository listed number of suitable outdoor activities for girls, but stated flatly that Base Ball would seem so far out of line of feminine pursuits that nothing need be said of it.2 Mr. Hooper of Appleton's Magazine argued that National Pastime's moral influence was shown by its exclusion of opposite sex, noting proudly that women are soliciting office demanding franchise, base ball clubs are only accessible to men.3The new organization was there to give them lie. Word of their innovation spread quickly, thanks to Mrs. Cady Stanton, who shared news with her many contacts in press. On August 13, 1868, Buffalo Courier Republic summarized her report, noting that Nannie Miller, granddaughter of Gerrit Smith's, is captain, handles bat with grace strength worthy of note. It was pretty sight to see girls with their white dresses blue ribbons flying, in full possession of public square last Saturday afternoon, while boys were quiet spectators of scene. An engraved illustration, showing club at play, helped reinforce message.4Others soon adopted notion. The following season, Cincinnati, home of undefeated Red Stockings, also hosted club entirely of young ladies, who play very well.5 In Evansville, Illinois, students of female seminary followed suit. call themselves Dianas, noted Oliver Optic's Magazine, and they lately received challenge from Baltic club of Chicago, Juniors.6 The movement spread as far south as Columbus, Georgia, in 1872, Appleton's reported that the swiftest 'pitch' in country is young woman, aged 23, belonging to Minnesota female base ball club.7In early 1870s, focus of organized baseball shifted from clubs of gentlemen amateurs (more or less) to lineups composed of best available professional players. In fall of 1875, readers of New York Clipper, which featured sports theater, learned thatthe latest commotion in base ball line is formation of club composed of young ladies-9 blondes 9 brunettes-at Springfield, Ill. The originators of idea, Frank Myers, S. B. Brock, Thomas Halligan, under impression that there is money in it, propose to give exhibitions in principal cities, depending on novelty of thing to render it success.8The first game of baseball ever played in public for gate money between feminine ball-tossers took place in Illinois capital on September 11. The press was advised that players were a selected troupe of girls of reputable character who have shown some degree of aptitude in ball playing. The Clipper's correspondent noted thatboth clubs wear handsome new uniform, which does not differ materially from those worn by ordinary clubs. The Brunettes wear white suits trimmed with blue. The Blondes wear blue suits trimmed with white. They also have light leather gloves, use lighter ball than that required by rules. The bases field are trifle over half ordinary field, bases being only 50 feet apart. …

Recessional

Recessional Robert A. Moss (bio) Robert E. Murphy . After Many a Summer: The Passing of the Giants and Dodgers and a Golden Age in New York Baseball. New York: Union Square Press, 2009. 418 pp. Cloth, $24.95. The Dodgers have now played longer in Los Angeles (since 1958) than they played in Ebbets Field (1913-1957), their famously intimate bandbox in Brooklyn. Fans who grew up doting on the "Boys of Summer" Dodgers teams of 1947-1957 are now elderly. New York Giants fans who thrilled to Bobby Thomson's epic home run that won the 1951 National League playoff at the Polo Grounds and who rejoiced as Willie Mays and his teammates defeated Cleveland in the 1954 World Series, similarly lost their team to San Francisco in 1958. Like their onetime Brooklyn Dodgers antagonists, they must now be content either with memories or the New York Mets. How did it happen that two storied franchises—the Giants of John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, Mel Ott, and Willie Mays, and the Dodgers of Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella, and Duke Snider—simultaneously deserted the country's media and financial capital for California? Robert E. Murphy's After Many a Summer is a requiem for "the Dodgers being taken from me," as well as an inquest: "The boy left behind, and the man he becomes, wants to know more about the man who did it" (xiii). Murphy does not assume an impartial stance. From the outset it is clear to him that Walter O'Malley, the Dodgers' owner, is the villain. And although his book is subtitled "The Passing of the Giants and Dodgers and a Golden Age in New York Baseball," Murphy's emotions are mainly engaged by O'Malley and the Dodgers. Dutiful attention is paid to the Giants and Horace Stoneham, their owner, but the microscope is focused on O'Malley. His is the lead role and the object of Murphy's undisguised animus. (Truth demands that this reviewer acknowledge a similar prejudice.) [End Page 96] However, since the publication of Neil J. Sullivan's The Dodgers Move West in 1987, an alternative demon has emerged: Robert Moses, New York City's Parks Commissioner and power broker supreme. In this new scenario, also adopted by Michael Shapiro in his study of the 1956 Dodgers, The Last Good Season, O'Malley simply wants to build a new stadium for the Dodgers in Brooklyn, but Moses blocks him at every step and ultimately points him westward. Murphy mistrusts this "revisionist view," and it irks him "to see it become the standard version of events" (xiv). After Many a Summer is thus written to reestablish O'Malley's culpability. Does Murphy prove his case? I'll admit to rooting for him, but I came away convinced that his exhaustive (and exhausting) dissection of the events and evidence demonstrates that both O'Malley and Moses must share the blame and bear the obloquy. Murphy himself implicitly recognizes this, writing, "The team's fans might have cursed the fate that brought these two fiercely self-assured men together in an awkward dance around Brooklyn and Queens . . ." (113). Murphy begins with extensive historical vignettes of baseball in Brooklyn and New York dating back to 1845. These include the Civil War era Brooklyn Excelsiors, the Brooklyn Atlantic's 1870 defeat of the professional Cincinnati Red Stockings, and Brooklyn's National League championships in 1890 and 1899. The great Giants teams of McGraw and Matty are invoked as well. We are given a review of Dodger ownership up to the appearance of O'Malley, brought aboard as a young lawyer and team director in 1932. Murphy even includes short biographies of O'Malley's father, Edwin, a Tammany Hall politician and New York Commissioner of Public Markets, and of Stoneham's father, Charles, a stock manipulator and gambler, who bought the Giants in 1918 and left them to his son when he died in 1936. Both Edwin O'Malley and Charles Stoneham were onetime subjects of judicial investigations, and Murphy actually entitles a chapter "Stoneham and O'Malley: Sinful Fathers." As much as one may rue the later actions of the sons, imputing to...

Red Snapper Reproductive Biology in the Southern Gulf of Mexico

AbstractSex ratio, size at maturity, reproductive periodicity, ovarian development pattern, and spawning ground data for red snapper Lutjanus campechanus from the southern Gulf of Mexico were analyzed to understand this species' reproductive biology throughout its geographical distribution. Red snapper were sampled in 1999 and 2000 from commercial fishery catches taken on Campeche Bank at depths ranging from 43 to 130 m. Overall sex ratio (male: female) and sex ratios by size‐class did not differ significantly from a 1:1 ratio. First maturity was at a slightly smaller size in males (24.2 cm total length [TL]) than in females (28.3 cm TL), and maximum length percentages at first maturity were 28% for males and 34% for females. The length at which maturity was attained in 50% of females (L50) was 31.4 cm TL. The Campeche Bank red snapper stock had a protracted spawning period from February to November, with a spawning peak occurring in early fall. Vitellogenic oocytes were continually recruited from previtellogenic oocytes during the entire spawning season, with no gap between each oocyte development stage. This means that red snapper ovaries are asynchronous and that the species can be considered a heterochronal (batch) spawner with indeterminate annual fecundity. Females in spawning condition were collected from both the northeastern and northwestern areas of Campeche Bank, near submerged or emergent coral reef structures, and at depths between 48 and 117 m. These results generally agreed with those for red snapper stocks in others regions of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean off the southeastern United States. However, reproductive periodicity in the Campeche Bank red snapper stock apparently displayed more of an insular pattern of extended spawning in comparison with the typical continental pattern of restricted spawning reported for other regions. The latitudinal differences observed in red snapper spawning seasons could also reflect a latitudinal gradient in the intensity of seasonal environmental constraints.

Red snapper management in the Gulf of Mexico: science- or faith-based?

The most controversial fishery in U.S. waters of the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) is for northern red snapper Lutjanus campechanus, which collapsed in the late 1980s when stock biomass became too low to be fished commercially in the eastern Gulf. Red snapper management began in 1989; the stock is now showing signs of recovery. The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council has been slow to sufficiently reduce catches of the directed fisheries to rebuild the stock in a timely fashion, although compliance with the Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization Act of 2006 (MSRA) required substantial cuts in the harvest of red snapper beginning in 2007. In our opinion, this could have been avoided if conservative management practices had been adopted earlier. We believe that ‘faith-based fisheries’ arguments have been used to defer effective management of red snapper in the Gulf, which in turn has strained the relationship between science, management, and stakeholders there. We provide a simple empirical argument and alternate interpretations of a recently published perspective on the historical fishery of red snapper in the Gulf to conclude that the preponderance of evidence used in the agency stock assessment process, and the simple arguments made here, do not support the perspective that the red snapper stock has increased in size sufficiently to defer compliance with the MSRA.

Growth comparison of Asian Nile and red tilapia strains in controlled and uncontrolled farm conditions

Growth of several genetically improved Nile tilapia (GIFT or Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia, FaST or Freshwater Aquaculture Center Selected Tilapia, SEAFDEC-selected) and domesticated red tilapia (BFS or Binangonan Freshwater Station, NIFI-red or National Inland Fisheries Institute red, HL or Hacienda Luisita) stocks were compared in controlled (tank) and uncontrolled farm conditions (lake-based cages) with unselected NIFI or Chitralada Nile tilapia as control. Specific growth rate differed significantly (P = 0.009) in tank-reared Nile tilapia stocks where GIFT grew best at 1.358%/day followed by FaST (1.307%/day), control stock NIFI (1.257%/day) and SEAFDEC-selected (1.202%/day). Genetic effect explained 84.4% of the variance in growth of Nile tilapia in tanks. Although Nile tilapia growth in cages followed the same trend where GIFT grew best at 1.570%/day, no significant stock differences (P = 0.479) were noted. Meanwhile, red tilapia reared in either tanks or cages showed no significant stock differences in terms of growth. However, survival of the red tilapia stocks in cages differed significantly with HL having the highest percentage survival at 93.3%. The different growth responses of the Nile tilapia stocks especially under controlled (tank) farm conditions were largely due to genetic factors (stock differences).Under uncontrolled farm conditions, environmental factors were generally observed to have also affected the survival and to some extent, the growth of Asian Nile and red tilapia stocks.

The effect of male colouration on reproductive success in Nile tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus)

Red tilapia stocks have been developed for aquaculture from rare colour mutations. This study was carried out to discover if male body colour (wild type or red) influences mating success in the Nile tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus), by allowing females to choose between wild type and red males under semi-natural spawning conditions. In a series of eight trials, ten females (wild type females in four trials, red in the other four) were placed in an arena tank with two size-matched males, one wild type and one red. Each trial ran for 5 weeks, during which fish were allowed to spawn and eggs were collected from the mouths of the females after spawning. Paternity was assessed using microsatellite genotyping and phenotype scoring. Where both males contributed to a batch of fry from a single female, the batch was allocated to the “primary” sire for statistical analysis. No significant departures from equal mating success as the primary sire were observed between red and wild type males. However, there was a significant difference between the red and wild type females in the frequency of secondary paternal contribution to egg batches. These results are discussed with reference to spawning of Nile tilapia in natural and aquaculture environments.

Exis-tensions: Surviving theRed ShoesSyndrome in Margaret Atwood'sLady Oracle

As the earliest and most sustained of Atwood's attempts to examine the potentially deadly conflict between a woman's artistry and female identities, Lady Oracle has often been read as a text that must necessarily be considered alongside Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's influential film, The Red Shoes. Yet absent from previous analyses is a discussion of how this conflict is perpetuated though the female artist tradition, and how Joan Delacourt's habitual overeating indicates her self-destruction, rather than her self-empowerment, in the face of conflict. Moreover, while Joan's obesity aligns with the self-harm anticipated by what Atwood terms ‘the Red Shoes syndrome,’ her projecting her creative talents onto alternate identities can be read as a dissociative survival strategy that, for a time, permits her to maintain her divided identity as a woman artist. keep silent and avoid red shoes, red stockings, dancing. Dancing in red shoes will kill you. Atwood, Two-Headed In [the Victorian Period], a woman writer was a freak, an oddity, a suspicious character. How much of that sentiment lingers on today, I will leave you to ask yourselves … Atwood, ‘The Curse’

Age Composition, Growth, and Density‐Dependent Mortality in Juvenile Red Snapper Estimated from Observer Data from the Gulf of Mexico Penaeid Shrimp Fishery

AbstractBeginning in May 1998, the National Marine Fisheries Service has required that bycatch reduction devices be installed in penaeid shrimp trawl gear in the Gulf of Mexico. Changes in observer protocols were introduced, one of which was that all of the red snapper Lutjanus campechanus collected would be enumerated and measured when possible. This change has yielded catch and length information from the Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishery. To date, however, an integrated approach to determining the age composition, growth, and mortality of juvenile red snapper has not been attempted. To address this problem, we constructed a length‐based, age‐structured model to objectively estimate the growth and mortality parameters and age composition of the shrimp trawl bycatch of red snapper in the western Gulf of Mexico from 81 monthly length frequency data sets (a total of 239,521 fish were measured) from July 1999 to February 2007. Our modeling strategy was to make simple and straightforward representations of the deviations in growth from the mean trend, partial recruitment, density‐dependent mortality, and population dynamics. Bayesian parameter estimation was accomplished by calculating the mode of the posterior distribution. Important findings of this paper include (1) the shrimp trawl bycatch during the first and third trimesters is dominated (86–87%) by age‐0 fish, (2) the growth patterns of age‐0 and age‐1 red snapper suggest that the fish form an opaque annulus in winter months, (3) the natural mortality of age‐0 fish appears to be about double (a minimum 70% increase) the value used in the last stock assessment, and (4) the evidence for density‐dependent juvenile mortality is overwhelming. Inclusion of these findings in the red snapper stock assessment has the potential to substantially alter management practices.

Genetic Effective Size in Populations of Hatchery‐Raised Red Drum Released for Stock Enhancement

AbstractGenetic analysis of progeny from 13 spawning events occurring over a 2‐week period in a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) hatchery for red drum Sciaenops ocellatus during the spring of 2002 and hatchery spawning and release records over the 2003 spawning season were used to estimate the average genetic effective size of an average spawn and an average hatchery‐released population. The purpose of this study was to assess the potential for a Ryman‐Laikre effect in the TPWD red drum stock enhancement program. Genetic analysis revealed that 16 of 27 dams (59.2%) and 16 of 18 sires (88.9%) spawned at least once. The average effective size (Ne) for a single spawn was 2.59, approximately 43% less than the maximum Ne (4.55) predicted if all possible mating (dam × sire) combinations had occurred and family size per mating combination had been equivalent. The reduction in Ne stemming from the actual number of mating combinations was approximately 34% and appeared to be due primarily to nonspawning dams; the reduction in Ne generated by the actual variation in family size was approximately 9%. Spawning and release records at the TPWD hatchery indicate that in 2003 the number of released populations per bay or estuary ranged from 7 to 27. Using the average effective size (Ne) estimate for a single spawn (2.59), the estimated average effective size of all released fish per bay or estuary (NeR) in 2003 ranged from about 28.5 to about 46.6. These values of NeR are less than the averages estimates of about 272 and 263 for the long‐term (NeI) and contemporaneous (NeV) effective size, respectively, of red drum in bays and estuaries in the northern Gulf of Mexico and indicate a reasonable potential for a Ryman‐Laikre effect. Approaches that might be employed to increase the NeR of TPWD‐released fish and decrease the probability of a Ryman‐Laikre effect are discussed.

Genetic identification of red deer using autosomal STR markers

The primary application of STR markers is going to be a tool of high fidelity in forensic genetics, for instance identifying the cognate animal from traces. The microsatellite marker set also helps in the protection of red deer stocks from poaching in Hungary. Moreover, increasing interests of red deer farms have appeared to develop DNA based diagnostics for pedigree analysis. In addition, these loci will be useful in population genetic studies in order to assess the genetic diversity in the Hungarian population of red deer ( Cervus elaphus hippelaphus). To achieve this goal a parentage control kit is being developed in Hungary in cooperation with academic and governmental institutes.

Tim Murnane: <i>Heart of the Game</i>

Two images accompanying this article neatly frame Tim Murnane's story, even though they were photographed only nine years apart in his six-decade life in baseball. In the first photograph-a rollicking Old Timers' Day at Peddock's Island in Boston Harbor on August 12, 1908-Murnane was at the pinnacle of his career. Striking a dapper pose in waistcoat, cravat, and boutonniere, the longtime baseball columnist of the Boston Globe reunited with some of the men with whom he had played ball in the 1870s. In the other photograph, taken on September 27, 1917, he is present in name only at the Benefit Game, with the proceeds designated for his widow; the defending champion Boston Red Sox, behind star left-hander Babe Ruth, shut out an all-star team led by Connie Mack.But chronology is God's way of telling a story, so why don't we begin this portrait at the beginning, on June 4, 1851, when Timothy Hayes Murnan was born in Naugatuck, New Haven County, Connecticut. An obituary notice in the Naugatuck Daily News placed his birth in Tipperary County, Ireland, but when Murnan applied for a passport in 1874, he had sworn that he was born in Naugatuck. At some point after that he commenced to spell his name as Murnane, and he will be thus referenced below.He began his baseball career as catcher for the Stratford Club, in 1869, a formidable nine that two years later would feature Jim O'Rourke, future Hall of Famer, on its state champion squad. By that time, however, Murnane was off in Georgia, having been recruited by the Savannahs, a barnstorming professional team. When he returned to the state of his birth with his Southern teammates in the summer of 1871, he played so well that he was engaged by the Mansfield Club of Middletown, which would play the following season in what was then the big league, the National Association (NA). The club's backers also signed Orator Jim, almost a year older than Handsome Tim.The major-league Mansfields enjoyed only a brief run of 23 games before disbanding, but both Stratford alumni landed on their feet. O'Rourke, who had batted .307, was signed by the Red Stockings, who would top the NA for the three remaining years of its existence. Murnane, who had played first base for Middletown and batted .359, was snapped up by the Athletics. The two Nutmeggers reunited not only when Boston played Philadelphia but also in England, when in 1874 the two clubs conducted baseball's first overseas tour. A speedy and nimble baserunner, Murnane perpetrated a legendary stunt in a game at Boston on June 14, 1873, when he escaped an otherwise unavoidable out by jumping clean over second baseman Andy Leonard, who was stooping to tag him.In 1875 Murnane transferred his allegiance to the Philadelphia White Stockings, also known as the Pearls, and when that team vanished along with the entire NA structure, he joined O'Rourke on Harry Wright's Boston club in the new National League (NL) for the centennial year of 1876. There he remained for two seasons before seeing an opportunity in Providence, where a new NL franchise was launched for the 1878 campaign. But Murnane's hitting dropped off badly; while O'Rourke was to remain a bigleague star for another dozen years, for Murnane the end was suddenly in sight. In 1879 he began the season with the Capital City Club, of Albany, New York, which was thereafter transferred to Rochester, in a crumbling league.In 1880 Murnane called it quits and went into business, including, over the ensuing years, opening a saloon and billiard hall in Boston and serving a stint as publisher of The Boston Referee, a sporting paper devoted to baseball, polo and other sports. It was short lived, but it testified to the printer's ink in Murnane's blood. He contributed baseball items to the New York Clipper and other papers and began to develop a following, for he wrote the way he spoke-like a ballplayer. In an age of Victorian reserve, restraint, and moralizing (exemplified in the writing of Henry Chadwick), this was an innovation. …

The Cincinnati Reds , and: The Cleveland Indians (review)

Reviewed by: The Cincinnati Reds, and: The Cleveland Indians Randy Roberts The Cincinnati Reds. By Lee Allen. (1948; reprint, Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2006. xviii, 315 pp. Paper $18.00, ISBN 0-87338-886-0.) The Cleveland Indians. By Franklin Lewis. (1949; reprint, Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2006. xviii, 286 pp. Paper $18.00, ISBN 0-87338-885-2.) [End Page 133] What can a reviewer say about two team histories, one published in 1948 and the other in 1949? Reading Lee Allen's The Cincinnati Reds and Franklin Lewis's The Cleveland Indians, I get the sense that the game was somehow more vivid, that the grass was greener, the skies were bluer, the heroes purer, the characters of the game funnier. Each book has scenes that are so archetypically baseball, so soaked in the lore of the game, that they read like something from Bernard Malamud's The Natural or Mark Harris's Bang the Drum Slowly. For instance, take the luncheon of the Cleveland brass in a suite at the Terminal Tower in the spring of 1936. Team president Alva Bradley went around the table asking questions, assessing the upcoming season. Eventually he got around to C. C. "Cy" Slapnicka, his new assistant. "Slap, tell them about that young pitcher you signed." Slap cleared his throat and began, "Gentleman, I found the greatest young pitcher I ever saw. I suppose this sounds like old stuff to you, but I want to tell you to believe me. This boy that I found out in Iowa will be the greatest pitcher the world has ever known." Slap's modest bravado rings a bit of Roy Hobbs in The Natural when he announces that he plans to be the best that ever was. There is something so pure about it. A general manager who still had farm dirt under his fingernails discovers a right-handed farm boy from Iowa who throws the ball faster than the eye can follow it. The boy is a phenomenon who averaged nineteen strikeouts a game in summer ball, a boy with all the promise of America. Of course, Slapnicka's boy was Bob Feller, and arguably he was as good as any pitcher ever. But Lewis's story is only partially true. He left out the fact that the Cleveland organization violated baseball's rules for signing pre-college amateurs and tried to cover up its action through a complex bookkeeping scheme. Lewis's version is fun to read, but for today's readers it seems not so much naive as it does intentionally sanitized. To some degree this is because Lewis was part of the organization. A sportswriter for the Cleveland Press in the 1940s and 1950s, he was as necessary to the team as batboys and equipment managers. He traveled with the team, ate with the players and coaches, and probably knew where all the skeletons were hidden. In his columns he praised and criticized the actions on the field and in the boardroom, but he never tried to damage the image of baseball as the great American pastime. He was a sportswriter by vocation but a fan by choice. He often asked why his team wasn't better and repeatedly offered opinions on how to improve the Indians, but he never questioned the foundations of professional sports or the culture of baseball. Lee Allen viewed baseball from the same perspective as Lewis. A native [End Page 134] of Cincinnati, he served for a time as the director of publicity for the Reds, wrote about baseball for a series of newspapers, and eventually became the historian for the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Known as "Baseball's Walking Encyclopedia," Allen loved the sport, working tirelessly to preserve its statistics and stories. As much as anyone else, he was responsible for the Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia, the magisterial final word for millions of bar bets. When he wrote The Cincinnati Reds, no one knew the story better, and few could tell it as well. From the Red Stockings 1869 tour through the struggling early period and tainted 1919 World Series victory to the World War II decline...

Henry Bridgewater's Black Stockings of St. Louis, 1881-1889

Henry Bridgewater's Black Stockings team of St. Louis provides another foundational story in history of colored baseball.1 remarkable thing about this story is not so much its retrieval from baseball's past as its buried treasure, its titillating fragments and artifacts. It argues that something special occurred in 1880s, something that needs to be unearthed and reexamined-if not examined for first time. Henry Bridgewater's colored nine, Black Stockings of St. Louis, provide a parallel vision of larger forces of modernization reshaping American life, alternately resisting and adapting to these forces. Mass-circulation newspapers and sporting journals represent some of novel constraints and opportunities with which this colored club had to contend. While story of Black Stockings may be tracked from start to finish in print media, its meaning remains to be fully explored by historians. And as this essay makes clear, colored baseball teams rarely present a single story, or a single meaning.2Scant attention has been devoted to Black Stockings. While primary references to Bridgewater's club have been incorporated into baseball histories-most recently in works by Harold Seymour, Robert Peterson, Jerry Malloy, and Michael E. Lomax-no significant scholarship, to my knowledge, has been devoted to subject.3 I present this work, then, as a bare-bones historical outline. Historians fascinated with postbellum Gilded Age, period of economic ascendancy in United States following Civil War, may give priority to other colored nines if subject were to enter their accounts. For present purposes, I think it makes sense to concentrate on this buried treasure and leave other cultural artifacts of 19th-century colored baseball to be exhumed later.4Pre-1883 sports columns tended to limit their coverage of Black Stockings. Bridgewater changed all that. He fits among most famous unknown baseball men of period-unknown, that is, to modern investigators-a man whose presence, at time, was immediately recognizable. Bridgewater was not only a baseball man; black sporting community considered him an expert billiardist and a principal exponent of western sporting fraternity.5 Traveling throughout United States and Upper Canada in 1883, Bridgewater's professional nine anticipated Cuban Giants, both in national prestige and as a viable economic entity.1882: The Colored Lads Play Surprisingly WellBetween 1881 and 1882, St. Louis newspapers offered sparse coverage of city's colored clubs, but when they did, Lindells, Aetnas, Waverlys, Hartfords, West Ends, Blue Stockings, Yellow Stockings, and Black Stockings figured prominently.6 papers promoted weekend games and provided score results that appeared on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, or Mondays. On June 17, 1881, for example, Evening Chronicle reported that Black and Yellow Stockings would play at Red Stocking Park.7 Local papers failed, however, to carry game's score.Why poor coverage? One answer was column space. Critics complained that editors gave baseball too much column space. And press doted on white professional club, Brown Stockings, which it viewed as a lucrative, civic-minded enterprise. On other hand, Black Stockings colored nine hardly qualified as city's iconic sports symbol. In 1880s, professional baseball intensified its demands, weeding out those ill-suited by age, class, ethnicity, race, and gender.8 Labor historian Robert E. Burk explains, [T]he established lines of ethnic and racial acceptance and prohibition changed little. owners' recalcitrance illustrated other half of player value equation-the need for player force to present an appealing visual product to a 'respectable' white spectatorship.9 For Burk, white ownership's preoccupation with controlling ballplayer's image and enhancing spectators' response to product- namely a high-skill, labor-intensive entertainment industry-defined the ethnocultural composition of player force. …

Playing chicken with red junglefowl: identifying phenotypic markers of genetic purity in Gallus gallus

AbstractWe report the results of a novel experiment, in which genetically pure male red junglefowl Gallus gallus (Richardson strain) were deliberately crossed with domestic female chickens to create contaminated lines of known purity, reaching as high as 93.75%. Phenotypic characters generally used as indicators of purity (reduced or absent female comb, male eclipse plumage, etc.) all appeared to at least some extent in domestically contaminated progeny and moreso in successively more pure generations of the experiment, suggesting that such phenotypic characters may have little, if any, utility in characterizing red junglefowl stocks as to their genetic purity.

Catch‐and‐Release Mortality in Subadult and Adult Red Drum Captured with Popular Fishing Hook Types

AbstractSaltwater anglers along the entire coast of the southeastern United States target red drum Sciaenops ocellatus more frequently than any other recreational fish species. The frequency of catch‐and‐release angling has increased dramatically for this species in the past two decades, but little is known about the survival of released fish. This study demonstrates that catch‐and‐release mortality rates for subadult and adult red drum differed significantly among the most popular types of fish hooks in each fishery. To investigate the effect of hook type on anatomical hooking location and short‐term (48‐h) mortality, we captured subadults (339–825 mm total length (TL)) by use of 2/0 J‐hooks (n = 57 fish), 4/0 nonoffset circle hooks (n = 58 fish), and 4/0 offset circle hooks (n = 57 fish). Nonoffset circle hooks penetrated shallow regions of the body (jaw, tongue, or inside of mouth) significantly more frequently (90%) than did J‐hooks (60%) or offset circle hooks (80%). Nonoffset circle hooks also resulted in the lowest rate of subadult mortality (2%). Adults (660–1,138 mm TL) were captured on bottom longline gear with 7/0 J‐hooks (n = 60) and 9/0 nonoffset circle hooks (n = 107). The frequency of deep hooking in adults was significantly higher for J‐hooks (30%) than nonoffset circle hooks (3%). Only deep hooked fish were monitored for 48‐h survival. Adult mortality after 48 h was lower for nonoffset circle hooks (1.9%) than for J‐hooks (3.3%). These mortality rates should be considered in future red drum stock assessments.

Bioeconomic simulation analysis of hake and red mullet fishery in the Gulf of Saronikos (Greece)

Hake (Merluccius merluccius) and red mullet (Mullus barbatus) are two of the most important species in Greek fisheries due to their high commercial interest. Both have been reported to be overexploited and in need of management to preserve the continuity of their exploitation. Hake is exploited by trawlers and red mullet by both trawlers and beach seiners in Saronikos Gulf (Greece). The MEFISTO bioeconomic simulation model is applied in order to test the interaction between trawlers and beach seiners through the age-specific fishing mortality applied by each fleet to the red mullet stock. The effects of the withdrawal of some beach seiners in 2002 and the increase in trawl mesh size that has already been implemented (from 28 mm to 40 mm stretched mesh) are tested jointly with alternative management scenarios such as the complete withdrawal of beach seiners and effort reduction in trawler activity. The analysis of the simulation results is based on the evolution of biological and economic indicators through 15-year stochastic projections. It is shown that limiting fishing effort and improving selectivity patterns of the trawl fleet would be beneficial for the recovery of the populations and for the profitability of the fishery. In addition to the increase in trawl mesh size, a further fishing effort reduction of 12% is recommended for the trawling fleet. Conversely, limiting or completely removing the beach seiner fleet would protect red mullet juveniles but would not significantly increase the profitability of the trawling fleet, and it would cause unemployment.

The Knickerbockers: <i>San Francisco's First Baseball Team?</i>

On September 23, 1931, prior to a Mission Reds-Hollywood Stars Pacific Coast League baseball game, an Old-Timers Day was celebrated at San Francisco's brand new Seals Stadium. The 40 honorees were divided into two teams recalling old California League of 1880s: Pioneers and Haverleys. Appropriately, at least four of old timers had either been members of those two venerable teams, or of Greenwood and Morans, another California League team of that bygone era.Almost half a century before Seals Stadium nostalgia-fest, a similar baseball reunion was held at Recreation Grounds at 25th and Folsom Streets. The date was Washington's Birthday, February 22, 1882, and occasion was commemoration of, as written in next day's San Francisco Chronicle, the twenty-second anniversary of introduction of baseball on Pacific Coast.As in 1931, 21 veterans of Eagle, Pacific, Liberty, and Empire Base Ball Clubs of 1860s and 1870s were divided into two teams: Eagles and Pacifics. These two teams, long and bitter rivals, had very deep roots in San Francisco baseball history. A half dozen of these baseball veterans had had singular honor of representing their clubs in a series of games against legendary Cincinnati Red Stockings when they visited San Francisco 13 years earlier.The arrival of Red Stockings in San Francisco on September 23, 1869, was an unprecedented event: An baseball club came to play city's best nines. Not just any eastern club-this was legendary Cincinnati Red Stockings, sport's first openly professional team. While San Francisco's best base ball clubs were no threat to Red Stockings' 45-game winning streak, city looked forward to prospect of an entertaining six-game display of baseball expertise at Recreation Grounds, San Francisco's premier sporting venue.The local newspapers fawned over arrival of team that had created such a furor back east. On September 24, San Francisco Bulletin printed an article summarizing city's history of baseball. It began:The first appearance of baseball on this coast, according to records in charge of Mr. [John] Durkee, one of pioneer baseball players on this coast and an enthusiast in game, was 1859. The Eagle Club was organized in November, 1859, and first game of baseball according to New York rules occurred at Center's Bridge February 22, 1860 between Eagles and Red Rovers.The article related well known tale of contentious game that stood at 33-all after nine innings, and Red Rovers' refusal to continue play, complaining that pitching of Eagle J. C. Willock was illegal. Finding no fault with Willock's delivery, umpire declared game a forfeit and awarded victory to Eagles.Three of 1882 honorees had participated in that landmark game at Center's Bridge on Washington's Birthday in 1860: John Fisher, J. Kerrigan, and John Durkee, keeper of San Francisco's baseball records. Durkee played center field, batted eighth in Eagle lineup, and scored three of his team's thirty-three runs in that momentous game.In 1867, two years before Cincinnati Red Stockings put San Francisco on baseball map, it was written in Pacific Base Ball Guide, published by Pacific Base Ball Convention of California, state's governing body for baseball:Previous to year 1859, game of base ball as it was then played in east, was unknown on this Coast, but in that year a few members of Eagle Club, of New York, organized a club in this city and styled themselves San Franciscans.1Since at least 1869 Durkee's records have been undisputed foundation and mortar of almost 150 years of San Francisco baseball history. Although they were undoubtedly lost in fire of 1906, other documents based on those records did survive, supporting and validating to this day contention that baseball's Genesis in San Francisco was 1860 and that Garden of Eden was Center's Bridge. …