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.
Sunfish, young-of-year (bluegill and kin) →22 lines
- What you can seeSpiny and soft dorsal portions joined into one fin, or divided only slightly — not two separate finsCTDEEP-SUNFISHES, IOWA-DNR-BLUEGILL
- What you can seeA dark opercular flap, the ear flap, at the rear corner of the gill cover (sources describe it on adults)CTDEEP-BLUEGILL, MDDNR-BLUEGILL-BIOLOGYEvidence from: Adult bluegill
- What you can seeThree or more spines at the front of the anal finCTDEEP-SUNFISHES, CTDEEP-BLUEGILL
- What you can seeVertical barring is prominent on young fish and fades on adultsCTDEEP-BLUEGILL, MDDNR-BLUEGILL-BIOLOGY
- What you can seeVery deep, slab-sided body and a small mouthMDDNR-BLUEGILL-BIOLOGY, CTDEEP-BLUEGILL
- What argues against itTwo clearly separate dorsal fins with a gap between them, and spines on the gill-cover tip, point to a young perchCTDEEP-SUNFISHES
- What argues against itSunfish lack the opercular serrations or spines that the perches carryCTDEEP-SUNFISHES
- What argues against itA single soft dorsal with no spines rules out sunfishMDDNR-BLUEGILL-BIOLOGY, CTDEEP-SUNFISHES
- Declared limitIn Iowa, first-year bluegill average roughly 25 to 50 mm; in one Indiana lake (Crane Lake), fry returned from open water to weed cover at 21 to 25 mm.IOWA-DNR-FISHIOWA-BLUEGILL, WIDNR-BLUEGILL-LIT-REVIEWEvidence from: Iowa (first-year growth); Crane Lake, Indiana (Werner 1967, via WIDNR review)
- Declared limitThis record covers Lepomis broadly; separating bluegill from pumpkinseed or redear as young fish is not supported here.record’s sources
- Declared limitConnecticut DEEP compares the two families directly on one character: sunfish lack the opercular spines perches carry. The rest of the young-sunfish versus young-perch separation is assembled from family characters, and no source describes the young fish side by side.CTDEEP-SUNFISHES
- Size bandyoung-of-year: 21-50 mmIOWA-DNR-FISHIOWA-BLUEGILL, WIDNR-BLUEGILL-LIT-REVIEWEvidence from: Upper bound: Iowa first-year growth (legacy Fish Iowa profile). Lower bound: return-to-cover length in Crane Lake, Indiana (Werner 1967, via the Wisconsin DNR review)
- Water typelake-marginrecord’s sources
- Water typereservoirrecord’s sources
- Water typeriverrecord’s sources
- Water typestreamrecord’s sources
- Life stageyoung-of-yearrecord’s sources
- Where it sitsfry stay pelagic for several weeksWIDNR-BLUEGILL-LIT-REVIEW
- Where it sitsthen move to littoral vegetation at about 21 to 25 mmWIDNR-BLUEGILL-LIT-REVIEWEvidence from: Crane Lake, Indiana (Werner 1967)
- Where it sitswarm quiet water with at least moderate vegetationMDDNR-BLUEGILL-BIOLOGY, CTDEEP-BLUEGILL
- How it movesholding in and around weed and cover by day; juveniles may move into open water at nightWIDNR-BLUEGILL-LIT-REVIEW, MDDNR-BLUEGILL-BIOLOGY
- Sources disagreeBluegill spawning temperatures differ by source and region: Wisconsin DNR's review gives an onset of 64 °F (Scott and Crossman) or 67 °F in Wisconsin, with little spawning below 70 °F in one set of lakes; Iowa gives 70 to 80 °F; Maryland DNR says spawning begins around 55 °F and may continue through September.record’s sources
- Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental ProtectionCTDEEP-SUNFISHES · State · read 2026-09-02
- Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental ProtectionCTDEEP-BLUEGILL · State · read 2026-09-02
- Maryland Department of Natural ResourcesMDDNR-BLUEGILL-BIOLOGY · State · read 2026-09-02
- Iowa Department of Natural ResourcesIOWA-DNR-BLUEGILL · State · read 2026-09-25
- Wisconsin Department of Natural ResourcesWIDNR-BLUEGILL-LIT-REVIEW · State · read 2026-09-02
- Pennsylvania Fish and Boat CommissionPAFBC-FISH-ANATOMY · State · read 2026-09-02
- Iowa Department of Natural ResourcesIOWA-DNR-FISHIOWA-BLUEGILL · State · read 2026-09-25
The pages themselves
All 224, and what each one is holding up.
- Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
CTDEEP-SUNFISHES
- Iowa Department of Natural Resources
IOWA-DNR-BLUEGILL
- Iowa Department of Natural Resources
IOWA-DNR-FISHIOWA-BLUEGILL
- Maryland Department of Natural Resources
MDDNR-BLUEGILL-BIOLOGY
- Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission
PAFBC-FISH-ANATOMY
- Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
WIDNR-BLUEGILL-LIT-REVIEW
Next