Great Lakes Fish Tournament shares in March Madness event on Facebook

The staff at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Green Bay conservation office has started a fish-themed "March Madness" competition. It seeks to raise awareness of Great Lakes fish species and asks the public to vote for their favorites in daily Facebook posts.

The Marquette Golden Eagles fell Sunday in their second game of the NCAA men’s basketball event, a premature finish to what many hoped would be a deep operate for the staff in the “Major Dance.”

But your chance to root for a Wisconsin tourney entry isn’t really about. And I’m not talking about the Wisconsin Badgers in the NIT.

March Madness extends to the drinking water, way too.

For the second 12 months, team at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Assistance Inexperienced Bay Conservation Office environment has arranged its Great Lakes Fish Match.

What is the Terrific Lakes Fish Match?

The competition pits fish species in a well-liked vote on the office’s Fb web page.

The function is “back again by popular demand from customers,” stated Shannon Cressman, direct biological science technician in the Service’s Environmentally friendly Bay workplace who also can help operate its Facebook site.

A peach blossom jellyfish (top left, next to a penny for perspective) and the flathead catfish are among species in a competition organized by the Green Bay Conservation Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“It really is pleasurable, of training course,” Cressman stated. “But our principal purpose is to engage with the public and elevate consciousness for fish species in and all around the Terrific Lakes.”

The Green Bay Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office includes four courses: the Great Lakes Fish Tagging and Restoration Lab Aquatic Invasive Species Partnerships and Habitat and Native Species.

The fish opposition is an office-broad collaboration, Cressman mentioned. In legitimate scientific manner, the workplace staff used a randomized approach to select members from its ranksto enter species in the tourney

The grand prize will be “bragging legal rights,” Cressman claimed.

But there are no losers if the community interacts with the tourney and learns far more about fish in Wisconsin’s waters.

Fourteen species were being involved in the opposition. I was tempted to inquire about the selection (why not 16, for example) But I reminded myself that these are biologists, not bracketologists and the stage is education and learning and engagement.

The fish array from those that were being swimming in space waters even in advance of individuals arrived to the latest introductions acknowledged as aquatic invasive species (AIS).

Brook trout is the No. 1 seed in Great Lakes bracket-style tournament

Brook trout gained the No. 1 seed, a worthy rating for the native, wonderfully-colored trout.

No. 2 is the grass carp, an AIS that has been found in the Badger State for many decades. It truly is large seed is not a reflection of its value to the state’s ecosystem but of the value of the community to be able to realize and if feasible remove the troublesome fish.

Upcoming is the lake sturgeon, Wisconsin’s greatest fish and special resource of satisfaction in the Winnebago Method, household to a single of the world’s most significant populations of sturgeon.

Fourth is the rainbow darter, a spectacularly-coloured fish identified in streams and rivers.

Just after the major four seeds, in buy 5-14 are the flathead catfish, Eurasian ruffe (an AIS), river redhorse, Arctic grayling (a fish that was indigenous to the location and later on extirpated but is prepared for restoration in Michigan), noticed gar, burbot, sea lamprey (AIS), peach blossom jellyfish (AIS), walleye and American eel.