By John Karl

MADISON, Wis. (10/30/00) —  Did you know that bullhead have 100,000 taste buds that cover their head and body, giving them an extraordinary sense of taste? Or that northern pike have been known to eat ducks, squirrels, sandpipers, moles, mink, fully-grown muskrats, and at least one blackbird? Did you know eels can live for more than a year without food?

You can now find these and innumerable other facts about Wisconsin fishes--from the quirky to the most basic biological information--on the World Wide Web. Fishes of Wisconsin by George Becker, the single most comprehensive reference book on Wisconsin fishes ever published, is now available on the Web site of the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute at www.seagrant.wisc.edu/greatlakesfish/becker.html. Currently out of print, the classic book details the distribution, habitat, and biological and cultural importance of nearly 150 Wisconsin fish in over 1,000 pages of text, photographs, and maps.

An innovative Web browser plug-in, called DjVu, reproduces the original page layout in a format that is easy to download, read, and print. The entire text is also searchable. Pull-down menus allow users to look up individual fish and families of fish by common or scientific name. Other links take users directly to the glossary, references, and index. The site also provides links for downloading the free, easy-to-install DjVu plug-in.

Putting Fishes of Wisconsin online was a collaborative project of the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, the University of Wisconsin Press, which originally published the book, and AT&T Labs, which developed the DjVu plug-in.

Wisconsin Sea Grant has also published an update to the 1983 Fishes of Wisconsin, called Wisconsin Fishes 2000: Status and Distribution. Written by John Lyons and Don Fago of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and Philip A. Cochran of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, the 100-page book offers the first complete assessment of Wisconsin fishes since Becker’s landmark book, including recently introduced non-native species such as the round goby, the ruffe, and the white perch.

Wisconsin Fishes 2000: Status and Distribution is available for $10 from the UW Sea Grant Institute, 1975 Willow Drive, Madison, WI 53706-1177. For more information, call (608) 263-3259 or visit www.seagrant.wisc.edu/greatlakesfish

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For More Information:   
Elizabeth White, Editor, (608) 262-6393
Stephen Wittman, Assistant Director for Communications, (608) 263-5371

Conceived in 1966, Sea Grant is a national network of 30 university-based programs of research, outreach and education dedicated to the protection and sustainable use of the United States' coastal, ocean and Great Lakes resources. The National Sea Grant Network is a partnership of participating coastal states, private industry and the National Sea Grant College Program , National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration , U.S. Department of Commerce. The University of Wisconsin Sea Grant College Program is administered by the Sea Grant Institute on the UW-Madison campus in Madison, Wisconsin.

© University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute
all audio, images and video used with permission

last updated 10 January 2001

posted 30 October 2000  by Karl

http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/communications/news_releases/2000/FishOfWisOnline.html