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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 33 of 1049 claims and 13 of 224 sources.

Claims

Every reviewed line in the app.

  • Menhaden (bunker, pogy) →33 lines

    • What you can seeSharp belly scutes forming a distinct sawtooth keel — thirty to thirty-five of them in Atlantic menhadenVIMS-MENHADENEvidence from: Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus); no Gulf count in the sources
    • What you can seeA dark shoulder spot behind the upper edge of the gill coverMEDMR-MENHADEN, NOAA-ATL-MENHADEN
    • What you can seeRows of smaller spots behind the shoulder spot — up to six irregular horizontal linesVIMS-MENHADEN, CBP-MENHADEN, LSUSG-GULF-MENHADEN
    • What you can seeOne dorsal fin at about the middle of the back, short and triangularVIMS-MENHADEN, NOAA-JUVFISH-NWFLEvidence from: 'short and triangular' from Gulf menhaden, NW Florida
    • What you can seeDeeply forked tail, lower lobe slightly the longerCBP-MENHADEN, CTDEEP-MENHADEN
    • What you can seeLarge mouth with a projecting lower jaw, reaching at least under the back of the eye in adultsCTDEEP-MENHADEN, CBP-MENHADEN
    • What argues against itA shoulder spot on its own does NOT separate menhaden from a young river herring — blueback usually carry one, alewife carry one once past about 10 cm, and alewife has belly scutes too. The rows of smaller spots behind it are what the sources actually separate onVIMS-ALEWIFE, CTDEEP-BLUEBACK, VIMS-MENHADEN
    • What argues against itTwo dorsal fins and a bright thick side stripe is a silversiderecord’s sources
    • What argues against itA translucent body with a narrow faint stripe and one dorsal is an anchovyrecord’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 itOn the Atlantic coast north of South Carolina, an eye wider than the snout is long, on a fish with scutes and no trailing spot rows, points at alewifeVIMS-ALEWIFE, LSUSG-GULF-MENHADENEvidence from: Atlantic coast, Labrador to South Carolina
    • Declared limitAdult size is stated five incompatible ways across NOAA, Maine, Connecticut, the Chesapeake Bay Program and VIMS, one of them exceeding another's stated maximum. The band here spans them rather than picking one.NOAA-ATL-MENHADEN, MEDMR-MENHADEN, CTDEEP-MENHADEN, CBP-MENHADEN, VIMS-MENHADEN, MADMF-MENHADEN
    • Declared limit“Peanut bunker” has no sourced length. Massachusetts ties the term to young-of-year fish and gives no measurement; the only sourced juvenile thresholds are a NOAA developmental staging — larva under 30 mm, prejuvenile 30 to 38 mm, juvenile above 38 mm.MADMF-MENHADEN, NOAA-LEWIS-YOUNG-MENHADENEvidence from: staging from the White Oak River estuary, North Carolina
    • Declared limitNo consulted source separates Atlantic from Gulf menhaden by any character. The distinction in the literature is geographic.record’s sources
    • Declared limitNo source consulted states whether an adipose fin is present, or gives an eye-to-snout proportion for Brevoortia.record’s sources
    • Declared limitThe rows of smaller spots are described as a varying number, and up to six — they are not guaranteed present, least of all on a small fish. In the Gulf, yellowfin and finescale menhaden lack them altogether, so a Gulf fish without them may still be a menhaden.VIMS-MENHADEN, LSUSG-GULF-MENHADENEvidence from: Gulf of Mexico addition
    • Size bandyoung-of-year: 30-150 mmNOAA-LEWIS-YOUNG-MENHADENEvidence from: Lower edge from one North Carolina estuary
    • Size bandadult: 152-500 (above about 300 only northern Atlantic menhaden) mmCTDEEP-MENHADEN, VIMS-MENHADEN, LSUSG-GULF-MENHADENEvidence from: Upper edge Atlantic menhaden, northern range; Gulf menhaden to about 305 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 sitsvery large, tightly packed schools at or just under the surfacerecord’s sources
    • Where it sitsestuaries and tidal creeks in the warm monthsrecord’s sources
    • Where it sitsyoung fish spend most of a first year inside estuariesASMFC-MENHADEN, NOAA-ATL-MENHADEN
    • How it movesdense schools that ripple or splash at the water surfaceMADMF-MENHADEN
    • How it movesyoung fish corralled at the surface or tight to the shoreline in a feeding blitzMADMF-MENHADEN
    • How it movesswims with its mouth open, straining plankton through its gill rakersMADMF-MENHADEN
    • How it movessynchronised swimming inside a dense schoolMADMF-MENHADEN
    • Sources disagreeMigration is framed two ways. NOAA states that while many menhaden are migratory, others stay resident; the interstate commission describes a coastwide autumn migration of all sizes and ages south around the North Carolina capes.record’s sources
    • Sources disagreeSpawning season is stated four ways: the interstate commission puts most spawning offshore in winter between New Jersey and the Carolinas; NOAA gives a December to February peak; VIMS describes spring spawners off Cape Cod and Long Island, autumn spawners from Long Island to North Carolina and winter spawners off Florida; Massachusetts finds eggs in May and June.record’s sources
    • Sources disagreePelvic ray counts are published differently: seven rays in Connecticut's description, six branched rays in VIMS'. The two are reconcilable but are not stated the same way.record’s sources

The pages themselves

All 224, and what each one is holding up.

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