Hook the HorizonHatch Match
Skip to content
Hatch MatchHook the Horizon · field intelligence

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 29 of 1049 claims and 10 of 224 sources.

Claims

Every reviewed line in the app.

  • Silversides →29 lines

    • What you can seeTwo dorsal fins, clearly separated, the first small and spinySTRI-M-MENIDIA, NOAA-JUVFISH-NWFL, CADFW-SILVERSIDES
    • What you can seeMouth angled upward, with the top jaw extendible — the lower jaw leadsNOAA-JUVFISH-NWFL, STRI-M-MENIDIA
    • What you can seeA thick, bright, iridescent silver stripe running the length of the flankNOAA-JUVFISH-NWFL, CADFW-SILVERSIDES
    • What you can seeTranslucent green above, sometimes cross-hatched along the back, pale to translucent belowSTRI-M-MENIDIAEvidence from: Atlantic silverside; Pacific species green to greenish-blue above
    • What you can seeLarge eye, forked tailCBP-SILVERSIDE, NOAA-JUVFISH-NWFL, STRI-M-PENINSULAE
    • What argues against itOne dorsal fin instead of two, with a translucent body and a narrow faint stripe, is a bay anchovyrecord’s sources
    • What argues against itA single short dorsal near midbody with sharp belly scutes is menhaden or a herringrecord’s sources
    • What argues against itNo pelvic fins and one very long dorsal is a sand lancerecord’s sources
    • What argues against itA blunt flattened head with a small mouth is a mullet, which also has two dorsals; Connecticut separates young mullet by their fewer anal rays and an anal fin that starts directly under the dorsalCTDEEP-STRIPED-MULLETEvidence from: Connecticut
    • What argues against itAn adipose fin between the dorsal and the tail rules out a silverside; the family has noneCADFW-SILVERSIDES
    • Declared limitThis record covers the family, not a species. Connecticut's own guidance is that Atlantic and inland silverside are very difficult to distinguish without magnification, and the stated separators are anal-ray and scale counts. Those are not field observations.CTDEEP-INLAND-SILVERSIDE, CTDEEP-ATL-SILVERSIDE
    • Declared limitSources conflict on teeth: the Chesapeake Bay Program describes a small toothless mouth, the Smithsonian describes teeth well developed in bands, and California describes jacksmelt teeth in several bands and topsmelt teeth forked in one row. This record does not use teeth as a character.CBP-SILVERSIDE, STRI-M-MENIDIA, CADFW-SILVERSIDES
    • Declared limit“Spearing” is sourced only as a Chesapeake Bay Program alternate name for the Atlantic silverside, alongside shiner, minnow and baitfish; no other consulted source uses it.CBP-SILVERSIDEEvidence from: Chesapeake Bay usage
    • Declared limitEye-to-snout proportion is sourced only for the tidewater silverside, whose snout is shorter than the eye. No source consulted describes a school as seen from a beach; Connecticut describes schools that flash brightly in unison when disturbed.STRI-M-PENINSULAE, CTDEEP-ATL-SILVERSIDE
    • Size bandyoung-of-year: 25-114 (Pacific first-year jacksmelt average 114) mmCADFW-SILVERSIDESEvidence from: Upper edge from Pacific jacksmelt and topsmelt; no Atlantic first-year length in the sources
    • Size bandadult: 51-445 (Atlantic silverside to 178; Pacific jacksmelt to 445) mmSTRI-M-MENIDIA, CTDEEP-ATL-SILVERSIDE, CADFW-SILVERSIDESEvidence from: Upper edge is Pacific jacksmelt; Atlantic and Gulf Menidia stop near 178-183 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 sitslarge schools close to the surfacerecord’s sources
    • Where it sitsover sandy bottom and grass beds in shallow estuaries and tidal creek mouthsCTDEEP-ATL-SILVERSIDEEvidence from: Atlantic silverside, Connecticut
    • Where it sitsalong the shoreline through the warm months, moving to deeper water in winterCBP-SILVERSIDEEvidence from: Atlantic silverside
    • How it movesschooling, close to the surfacerecord’s sources
    • How it movesmoves offshore in winter — one assessment records up to about ninety milesNYDEC-SILVERSIDE, STRI-M-MENIDIAEvidence from: Atlantic silverside
    • Sources disagreeConnecticut's own size line is internally inconsistent as published: a state survey maximum of seven inches against a stated maximum reported elsewhere of 5.9 inches. The Smithsonian's 17.8 cm supports the larger figure.record’s sources
    • Sources disagreeSpawning window differs by source — May to July in the Chesapeake Bay Program's account, late March through June in New York's, where it is also described as synchronised to full and new moons.record’s sources
    • Sources disagree“Tidewater silverside” is applied to two different species by two approved sources: to Menidia beryllina by Connecticut and to Menidia peninsulae by the Smithsonian.record’s sources

The pages themselves

All 224, and what each one is holding up.

Next