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Author: Virginia Fishes

cobia

 A five year old cobia in our Chesapeake bay exhibit Cobia Rachycentron canadum have a dedicated following in this area and thus many cobia fishermen are very secretive about their fishing spots. In addition to being a powerful and challenging adversary for sport-fishermen, they are…

blennies

The latter part of each summer is our most productive time to collect specimens. Most recently we have been collecting fishes for our Piling exhibit: blennies, gobies, skilletfish, various crustaceans, and vegetation. Late summer is prime time for these fishes, and Kiptopeake State Park is…

Roanoke logperch

Roanoke logperch Percina rex The “king” will soon be at the VLM! The king of what? The king of darters! Darters comprise several Genera of the Family Percidae (perches) and are typically small stream fishes but may inhabit swamps, ponds and lakes as well. And…

Chippy the barn swallow

  Juvenile barn swallow One of the benefits of the museum is that we are exposed to a wide range of animals, not just fish. As a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, I have the opportunity to care for many types of local wildlife from red foxes…

Ponds

Virginia has many ponds and all of them contain a surprising amount of life. Ponds are generally defined as water bodies that are shallow enough for sunlight to reach the bottom. Therefore, they are often covered with and full of aquatic vegetation and plankton, making…

I want to do what you do!

We recently had two long-time employees, Jessi Shupe and Heidi Pankratz, move on from the VLM to new opportunities. While it is hard to lose good employees and even harder to replace their knowledge immediately, we are happy for them. The two positions have recently…

crabs and lobsters

The VLM has many species of invertebrates and almost every common crab species found in VA and a few that aren’t. Of course we display the iconic blue crab Callinectes sapidus, but also several hermit crab species, mud crabs, ghost crabs, two spider crab species, and…

Collecting season

As the water warms this spring, our collecting opportunities expand. I generally have a mental list of species we would like to have here, but there are always fishes we need each year as they outgrow their exhibits and are transitioned to larger ones (e.g….