Michele Dionne, Director of Research at the Reserve, has an ongoing collaboration with Dr. Celia Chen at Dartmouth College to study how mercury moves through the salt marsh system. When some of her lab crew headed out to catch Atlantic silversides to be tested for mercury content, we got some of these small fish instead, which we originally thought must be herring.

After checking a few reference books, everyone agreed they were actually juvenile bluefish, an unexpected catch since bluefish are generally found in more southern waters when they are young. This find was especially exciting since measuring and identification of several of the fish happened under the watchful eye of some visiting students looking through the window from the exhibit area into the lab.