How I solved the puzzle of unidentified fish fry during coastal monitoring
Last month, while helping with a community estuary survey, I kept finding these tiny, almost transparent fish fry in the tidal pools that totally stumped me, lol. My usual field guides were no help, and misidentifying them could skew our data on local nurseries. I spent evenings compiling everything: detailed photos, water clarity logs, and even notes on their darting behavior. After striking out with online forums, I reached out to a retired fisheries expert I met at a conference, sharing my compiled observations. He pointed me towards a niche database on larval fish morphology, which was a bit overwhelming at first. By comparing my photos to developmental stages, I finally confirmed they were early-stage Pacific sand lances, which are vital for the food web here. Nailing that ID felt incredibly satisfying, like connecting the last dot in a complex diagram, and it actually refined our team's habitat protection focus. It's just a small step, but figuring it out on my own terms was a genuine boost, lmao.