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Evidence

Where all of this came from.

39 reference records rest on 224 published pages, and 109 of those come from state and provincial natural-resources departments. That suits a set of records about what lives in the water those departments survey. The rest is federal survey work, university and extension guides, and interagency reports. The counts are below. Every reviewed line sits behind a record or a search, with the sources standing behind its record.

Carrier reviewed
2026-09-25
Next review due
2026-12-24
Review cadence
90 days
Publication state
Approved — reviewed evidence, within its review cadence

How to read this

A line is cited as precisely as someone checked it.

Where a reviewer traced a line to the pages that carry it, the line names those pages and, when the evidence is narrower than the record, where it comes from — one coast, one lake, one region. 605 of 1049 of the lines below are traced that way. The rest show the sources standing behind their whole record, marked “record’s sources”, because nobody has yet checked which page carried which line, and printing a single citation there would be a mapping nobody made.

  • National

    52

    A federal or national government body — USGS, NOAA, EPA, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Park Service, Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

  • State

    109

    A state, provincial or commonwealth natural-resources department. Most of this carrier rests here, which suits it: these are the bodies that survey the water the records describe.

  • Interagency

    12

    A commission or joint survey run across several agencies, such as the Great Lakes Fishery Commission's forage task groups.

  • University

    45

    A university research programme, cooperative extension service or Sea Grant office. Published work, but not the agency that manages the water.

  • Journal

    6

    A peer-reviewed paper, or a curated scientific register such as the World Register of Marine Species. Added with the 2026-09-25 evidence review, which went to the primary study where no agency page said what a claim needed.

Probe leftovers

What the weekly check could not treat as ordinary.

These addresses are still the citations. The check named what it saw. None of them is a gone page in the MISIN sense, so the records were not rewritten to hide a redirect, a timeout, or a bot wall.

  • Iowa DNR — BluegillMoved

    The cited address answers through a permanent redirect. GET on the page that lands still names Bluegill.

    A same-site move that still names the animal is not the MISIN case. The citation stays until a reviewer reads the new address into the record.

  • CASG — market squidUnreachable from this network

    The California Sea Grant market-squid page times out from the probe network.

    NOAA still covers the same animal on this record. The CASG address stays; a timeout is not a reason to drop a citation.

  • Mass.gov — menhaden and longfin squidRefused the probe

    Both creature-feature pages answered 403 from the probe network.

    A bot wall is not evidence the page is gone. The citations stay; the weekly check does not fail the build on unverifiable.

  • Michigan DNR — crayfish identification PDFRefused the probe

    The cited PDF answered 403 from the probe network.

    A refused PDF is not a 404. The citation stays on the crayfish record until a reviewer can open it.

  • Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute — silversidesRefused the probe

    The Menidia page answered 500 from the probe network.

    A 500 is not a 404, and it is not a 403. The citation stays.

Showing 26 of 1049 claims and 6 of 224 sources.

Claims

Every reviewed line in the app.

  • Anchovies →26 lines

    • What you can seeOne dorsal fin and a forked tailCBP-BAY-ANCHOVY
    • What you can seeBay and striped anchovy: body translucent — grey-shaded above, and light passes through the flankVIMS-BAY-ANCHOVY, CBP-BAY-ANCHOVY, NOAA-JUVFISH-NWFLEvidence from: Anchoa; not stated for the Pacific northern anchovy
    • What you can seeA narrow silver stripe along the middle of the side, often faint or absent toward the frontFWC-BAY-ANCHOVY, VIMS-BAY-ANCHOVY
    • What you can seeA large mouth, the jaw reaching back past the front of the gill cover; a large eye is sourced for the striped anchovyCBP-BAY-ANCHOVY, VIMS-BAY-ANCHOVY, NOAA-JUVFISH-NWFL
    • What you can seeThe vent sits well forward, nearer the tips of the pelvic fins than the start of the anal finVIMS-BAY-ANCHOVYEvidence from: bay anchovy
    • What argues against itTwo dorsal fins and a thick bright stripe is a silverside, not an anchovyrecord’s sources
    • What argues against itA deep body with sharp belly scutes and a shoulder spot is menhaden or a herringrecord’s sources
    • What argues against itNo pelvic fins and a dorsal running most of the back is a sand lancerecord’s sources
    • What argues against itA faded stripe on a dead fish is not evidence against anchovy — the stripe is documented to fade after deathFWC-BAY-ANCHOVY
    • Declared limitThe snout is the character most often overstated. Florida describes the bay anchovy's snout as very short and only slightly overhanging the mouth, while NOAA's page for the Pacific northern anchovy describes a long snout overhanging a large mouth. A pronounced overhang is not what the sources say about the bay anchovy specifically.FWC-BAY-ANCHOVY, NOAA-NORTHERN-ANCHOVY
    • Declared limitSpawning windows differ by region: May to September in Chesapeake Bay, June to mid-August in the lower Hudson, and possibly year-round off Biscayne Bay, Florida.CBP-BAY-ANCHOVY, NYDEC-ANCHOVY, VIMS-BAY-ANCHOVY
    • Declared limitNo source consulted gives an eye-to-snout proportion for the bay anchovy, states whether an adipose fin is present, or describes what an anchovy school looks like from a beach.record’s sources
    • Size bandyoung-of-year: 20-55 mmrecord’s sources
    • Size bandadult: 51-178 (bay anchovy to about 100; above that only Pacific northern anchovy) mmCBP-BAY-ANCHOVY, VIMS-BAY-ANCHOVY, NOAA-NORTHERN-ANCHOVYEvidence from: Upper edge Pacific northern anchovy; Atlantic/Gulf bay anchovy to about 100 mm
    • Water typesurfrecord’s sources
    • Water typeinshorerecord’s sources
    • Water typenearshorerecord’s sources
    • Life stageyoung-of-yearrecord’s sources
    • Life stageadultrecord’s sources
    • Where it sitsdense schools in shallow open waterrecord’s sources
    • Where it sitsmore common over muddy bottom in brackish water shallower than twenty-five metresVIMS-BAY-ANCHOVYEvidence from: bay anchovy, western Atlantic
    • Where it sitssaltmarsh creeks, marsh tide pools, eelgrass beds and the surf zoneNYDEC-ANCHOVY
    • How it movesdense schoolsrecord’s sources
    • How it movesspawning takes place in the eveningVIMS-BAY-ANCHOVYEvidence from: bay anchovy
    • How it movesin the Hudson, adults move into the lower river in April and stay through summerNYDEC-ANCHOVYEvidence from: Hudson River, New York
    • Sources disagreeAbundance is described very differently in two places: New York's assessment records declines since the mid-1990s in the Chesapeake and Delaware bays and a tenfold drop in the Hudson since the late 1980s, while the Chesapeake Bay Program still calls the bay anchovy the most abundant fish in that bay. Neither is a statement about your water.record’s sources

The pages themselves

All 224, and what each one is holding up.

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