Congratulations to Ichthyology student Jon Walsh, who recently defended his thesis: “Habitat Use of Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis), estimated from otolith microchemistry, in the San Francisco Estuary, and its effect on total mercury and heavy metal body burden upon capture.”

Jon used the chemical composition of otoliths, or fish ear bones, to track where a fish had traveled throughout its lifetime in San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.  He also looked at heavy metal contamination in the fish fillets and found high levels of mercury had accumulated in the fish.  Luckily, this striped bass cake creation by Diane Haas is mercury free!