Katie O'Reilly
banner
drkatfish.bsky.social
Katie O'Reilly
@drkatfish.bsky.social
Aquatic Invasive Species with Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant | #GreatLakes | Come for the #ecology & #scicomm, get reeled in by the fish puns

https://iiseagrant.org/about/our-team/katie-oreilly/
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay

If they'd put 15 more miles behind her
November 10, 2025 at 2:12 PM
ngl, the Pacific salmon lifecycle has been my Roman Empire since watching that one Magic School Bus episode as a small child #SundayFishSketch
November 9, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Good question! Kind of - adult sea lampreys stop eating when they enter freshwater + devote all their energy to reproduction. Their digestive systems shrink + other parts of their bodies disintegrate. Females typically die immediately after spawning, but males can remain in the nest for a few days
October 31, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Not much is scarier for a #GreatLakes fish than the invasive sea lamprey, sometimes called vampire fish 🧛

But while they're more trick than treat in their introduced range, they're actually threatened in parts of their native range of the Atlantic coasts of Europe + North America - that's scary!
October 31, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Opa! Or should I say Opah! Celebrating 9 years of #SundayFishSketch and the community built by @lampichthys.bsky.social - here's to Year 10!
October 26, 2025 at 11:00 PM
An old sketch of an Arctic grayling for an Arctic-themed #SundayFishSketch! Despite their name, this species was formerly found as far south as the #GreatLakes basin (see the Michigan city of Grayling), but habitat loss and invasive species led to the grayling's extirpation in the basin
October 20, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Podcast title: "Spoiler Alert: This is Not Fine"
October 7, 2025 at 8:10 PM
A new study finds that the 2023 Supreme Court decision (Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency) has resulted in ~72% of Illinois' remaining 981,000 acres of wetlands no longer being protected by the federal Clean Water Act news.illinois.edu/study-72-of-...
September 30, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Come join us at @ilinseagrant.bsky.social! We're hiring a Research & Reporting Administrator to manage the program's ~$400,000 per year competitive research portfolio of #GreatLakes science; the position will be based at Purdue University
careers.purdue.edu/job/Research...
September 22, 2025 at 5:39 PM
When I first moved into my office, there were a couple of crayfish on a shelf that looked like they had been soaking in formaldehyde since the first Bush administration
September 15, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Excited to be giving two talks today at the Indiana Invasive Species Conference in Northwest Indiana! Talking all things aquatic invasive species prevention as well as giving a brief history of zebra mussels in the #GreatLakes
September 4, 2025 at 4:55 PM
The Summer 2025 edition of the @iaglr.bsky.social newsletter has several great pieces about the impacts of federal cuts to #GreatLakes science, including delays to doing sea lamprey treatment, cuts to federal staff, and funding impacts on early-career researchers iaglr.org/lakesletter/...
August 27, 2025 at 2:10 PM
For those who've known of Appa since the Bird Site days, he also now has a little (in name only) sister named Carmen, who is a Newfoundland.
August 22, 2025 at 4:01 PM
For those who aren't already aware, this is Appa, and he has been my best friend (though not my dog) since he was 1/7 the weight he currently is
August 22, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Perils of working from home while dog-sitting: Having to keep myself muted on Zoom calls due to the 140-lb dog snoring at my feet
August 22, 2025 at 3:52 PM
I'll be giving a couple of talks at the Indiana Invasive Species Conference on Sep 4-5 about aquatic invasive species prevention + the current state of zebra mussels. Continuing ed credits are also available for applicator licenses. Registration closes Friday Aug 22: purdue.ag/invasives25
August 20, 2025 at 3:55 PM
props to the yellow perch for holding steady
July 22, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Heartened to see continued support for Sea Grant in the FY26 appropriations bill, a program that, in the Senate's own words, plays "a vital role to... create a sustainable economy and environment" and "provide invaluable educational opportunities to students"
July 18, 2025 at 7:43 PM
The Sturgeon Slide in action
July 15, 2025 at 7:00 PM
I personally helped release a baby sturgeon to the Maumee River via Sturgeon Slide during the 2023 event - hope my buddy's doing well out there!
July 15, 2025 at 6:50 PM
New research tracking the first-year survival rates for lake sturgeon released to a #GreatLakes tributary, the Maumee River, in 2018, 2019 + 2021 suggests that efforts are on track to achieve naturally-reproducing lake sturgeon in the river (hopefully) by 2038 news.utoledo.edu/index.php/07...
July 15, 2025 at 1:59 PM
That's my secret, Cap. I'm always feeling guilty.
July 11, 2025 at 9:52 PM
*happy eel noises*
July 9, 2025 at 11:06 PM
My home state of Ohio still has no official state fish, though there've been multiple efforts to nominate the walleye - including a failed bill last year. And memorialized by this pun-filled article "Ohio bill naming walleye the state fish again flops at the statehouse" www.nbc4i.com/news/politic...
July 4, 2025 at 1:50 PM
One of my favorite examples (though I'll admit I'm a bit biased) is Illinois and the bluegill - the species was selected as the state fish through a vote by school children in 1986
July 4, 2025 at 1:42 PM