On Wednesday, May 20 from 8-10am PST we will discuss Mullet Socialities: Engineers of Muddy Brackish Waters and Coastal Feasts. Professors Rafael DeVos and Vivian Vedana, from the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Brazil, will guide our conversation. Please email seacoast@ucsc.edu for the zoom link and password.
There are over 70 species of mullet fish, some considered cosmopolitan, present in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate waters around the world. Living between fresh and salt waters and feeding from bottom sediments, they connect the ecology of the shore to the dynamics of brackish waters of estuaries, lagoons, mangroves and rivers. Mullet are considered to be coastal ecosystems engineers and sentinels for environmental disturbance. Fishermen show us other social effects of large schools of mullets: attracting people, birds, marine mammals, fish and other creatures to seasonal feasts in shallow waters. This seminar discusses what these mullet socialities might reveal of coastal interactions, observed in some examples from ecology, geography, anthropology and fisheries studies.
