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.
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.
Claims
Every reviewed line in the app.
Mullet (young) →31 lines
- What you can seeTwo well-separated dorsal fins, the first carrying four spinesSCDNR-STRIPED-MULLET
- What you can seeBlunt, flattened head with a small mouth at the front and a bump at the tip of the lower lipUFFLMNH-STRIPED-MULLET, FLFWC-STRIPED-MULLET
- What you can seeSeen from below, the mouth reads as an inverted VSCDNR-STRIPED-MULLET
- What you can seeA thick adipose eyelid over part of the eye, visible to the naked eye by about 42 mmNCDMF-MULLET-FMP-2006, UFFLMNH-STRIPED-MULLET
- What you can seeFaint horizontal stripes along the flank, formed by a dark spot at the centre of each scale — absent on small fishUFFLMNH-STRIPED-MULLET, FLFWC-STRIPED-MULLET
- What argues against itOne dorsal fin and a sawtooth belly keel is the herring family, which includes menhadenrecord’s sources
- What argues against itTwo dorsals but a slim body with an upturned mouth and a bright thick stripe is a silverside — one source separates them by the anal fin sitting directly under the dorsal on a mulletCTDEEP-STRIPED-MULLET
- What argues against itA rounded tail on a stout blunt-headed fish in a marsh creek is a killifish, not a mulletrecord’s sources
- Declared limitBelow about six inches, striped and white mullet are genuinely hard to separate. The sourced characters are eight soft anal rays against nine (Florida's agency says nine to ten), a gold spot on the gill cover of a living white mullet that fades fast after capture and can be confused with a similar spot on striped mullet, and scales extending onto the second dorsal and anal fins of white mullet only.NCDMF-MULLET-JUV-ID, FLFWC-WHITE-MULLET, UFFLMNH-STRIPED-MULLET
- Declared limitThe phrase “mullet run” is used by no source consulted; North Carolina's plan records fishermen calling the autumn movement a “mullet blow”. “Finger mullet” is North Carolina's own term for young-of-year mullet, and a dealer market grade there.NCDMF-MULLET-FMP-2006, NCDMF-MULLET-FMP-BASEEvidence from: North Carolina usage
- Declared limitWhy mullet jump has four different sourced explanations and no settled one. Connecticut's page says flatly: for unclear reasons.CTDEEP-STRIPED-MULLET, TPWD-STRIPED-MULLET, UFFLMNH-STRIPED-MULLET, UFIFAS-MAGNIFICENT-MULLET, NCDMF-MULLET-FMP-2006
- Declared limitStripe onset is stated two ways — evident after 40 mm in one source, absent below about 150 mm in another. They cannot both describe the same transition and no source reconciles them.NCDMF-MULLET-FMP-2006, UFFLMNH-STRIPED-MULLET, NCDMF-MULLET-JUV-ID
- Declared limitNo source consulted states whether mullet have belly scutes, a keel or an adipose fin.SCDNR-STRIPED-MULLET
- Size bandyoung-of-year: 15-178 mmTPWD-STRIPED-MULLETEvidence from: Texas
- Size bandadult: 283-698 (North Carolina striped mullet; white mullet mostly under 330) mmNCDMF-MULLET-FMP-BASE, FLFWC-WHITE-MULLETEvidence from: North Carolina striped mullet
- Water typesurfrecord’s sources
- Water typeinshorerecord’s sources
- Water typenearshorerecord’s sources
- Life stageyoung-of-yearrecord’s sources
- Life stageadultrecord’s sources
- Where it sitshuge schools near the surface over sand or mudUFFLMNH-STRIPED-MULLET
- Where it sitsclose to shore around the mouths of streams and rivers, in brackish bays, inlets and lagoonsTPWD-STRIPED-MULLET
- Where it sitsjuveniles move inshore into tidal creeks at about an inch longFLFWC-STRIPED-MULLET
- How it movesleaps clear of the water, sometimes a metre up; one of its common names is jumping mulletSCDNR-STRIPED-MULLET, NCDMF-MULLET-FMP-BASE
- How it movesschools by day for protectionTPWD-STRIPED-MULLET
- How it movesadults feed by sucking in bottom sediment and scraping at grassUFFLMNH-STRIPED-MULLET, UFIFAS-MAGNIFICENT-MULLET
- How it movesautumn movement toward and along the coast, which sources tie to north or northwest winds and cold frontsNCDMF-MULLET-FMP-BASE, NCDMF-MULLET-FMP-2006Evidence from: North Carolina
- Sources disagreeTwo sources contradict each other on where the second dorsal fin starts relative to the anal fin — over its beginning in Florida's wildlife agency page, behind it in the Florida Museum's. This record does not use that character.record’s sources
- Sources disagreeMaximum size is published as 698 mm in North Carolina, 914 mm internationally, 1200 mm by the Florida Museum and 1194 mm by Connecticut. Different scopes, not blended here.record’s sources
- Sources disagreeFeeding time is stated two ways: Texas Parks and Wildlife says striped mullet feed around the clock, and the Florida Museum calls them diurnal feeders.record’s sources
- Sources disagreeA dark blotch at the base of the pectoral fin is attributed both ways: Florida's wildlife agency says striped mullet lack it and white mullet carry it, while the Florida Museum and South Carolina DNR describe a dark or purplish blotch there on striped mullet. This record does not use it.record’s sources
- Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation CommissionFLFWC-STRIPED-MULLET · State · read 2026-09-04
- Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation CommissionFLFWC-WHITE-MULLET · State · read 2026-09-04
- South Carolina Department of Natural ResourcesSCDNR-STRIPED-MULLET · State · read 2026-09-04
- North Carolina Division of Marine FisheriesNCDMF-MULLET-JUV-ID · State · read 2026-09-04
- North Carolina Division of Marine FisheriesNCDMF-MULLET-FMP-BASE · State · read 2026-09-04
- North Carolina Division of Marine FisheriesNCDMF-MULLET-FMP-2006 · State · read 2026-09-04
- Texas Parks & Wildlife DepartmentTPWD-STRIPED-MULLET · State · read 2026-09-04
- Florida Museum of Natural History, University of FloridaUFFLMNH-STRIPED-MULLET · University · read 2026-09-04
- University of Florida IFAS ExtensionUFIFAS-MAGNIFICENT-MULLET · University · read 2026-09-04
- Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental ProtectionCTDEEP-STRIPED-MULLET · State · read 2026-09-04
The pages themselves
All 224, and what each one is holding up.
- Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
CTDEEP-STRIPED-MULLET
- Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
FLFWC-STRIPED-MULLET
- Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
FLFWC-WHITE-MULLET
- Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida
UFFLMNH-STRIPED-MULLET
- North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries
NCDMF-MULLET-FMP-2006
- North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries
NCDMF-MULLET-FMP-BASE
- North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries
NCDMF-MULLET-JUV-ID
- South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
SCDNR-STRIPED-MULLET
- Texas Parks & Wildlife Department
TPWD-STRIPED-MULLET
- University of Florida IFAS Extension
UFIFAS-MAGNIFICENT-MULLET
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