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Katie O'Reilly

@drkatfish.bsky.social
6.3K followers 819 following 927 posts

Aquatic Invasive Species Specialist with Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant | #GreatLakes | Come for the #ecology & #scicomm, get reeled in by the fish puns iiseagrant.org/about/our-team/katie…

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Reposted by Katie O'Reilly
Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition @healthylakes.org · 2h
Thank you to all of our partners in the region who advocated for the GLRI's passage! And thank you to members of the Great Lakes delegation who moved this important legislation through, includ. leadership of @peters.senate.gov, Senator Moreno & Senator Husted www.healthylakes.org/latest-news/...
Lake Erie on a sunny day with overlay text: Federal Great Lakes program advances through Senate. The Senate has reauthorized the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), a federal program integral to the health of the Great Lakes and the 30 million people who depend on them for drinking water. 

The legislation now goes to the House for consideration and we look forward to Congress reauthorizing this bill before the end of the year.
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MSU Extension Center for Lakes and Streams @msue-lakes-streams.bsky.social · 22h
This new research out of Wisconsin suggests that herbicide treatments for invasive plants like Eurasian watermilfoil should be weighed carefully against the possible negative impacts of treatment on the lake ecosystem.
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Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center @maisrc.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Tune in to @kare11.bsky.social tonight 6:00pm CT: MAISRC Scholar Denver Link featured discussing mercury increases in fish species following zebra mussel invasions. You can read more about this research in this recent @univofminnesota.bsky.social Research Brief: twin-cities.umn.edu/news-events/...
twin-cities.umn.edu
Mercury increases in multiple fish species following zebra mussel invasions
New research from the University of Minnesota found that zebra mussel invasions were associated with increased mercury concentrations in several Minnesota fish species.
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Kristen Behrens, PhD @behrenskristen.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Alright fish folks I’m talking to some 4th and 5th graders at the museum next week about science and writing and need a good funky fish to test their observation skills + ability to remember things without writing them down (you bet I’m making a point). Any fish come to mind?
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Auburn SFAAS @auburnfisheries.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Do you call them crayfish, crawfish, crawdad, crawdadfish, crawdaddy, mudbug, or freshwater lobster? Come with us as we explore the fascinating world of these creatures and what we've been learning from them!
southernwaters.auburn.edu
Crayfish, Crawfish, and Crawdads
Imagine landing on and exploring a distant planet. But upon arriving, you discover an alien armored animal. It breathes through gills, carries its young beneath a tail, regenerates lost limbs, digs an...
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Ligus @greyauk.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I added another little painting to my Ko-fi - a smol and very red Chaunacops. The reference was Nautilus footage. 🐡 #SundayFishSketch #art #watercolour #noai ko-fi.com/s/440c260728
Photo of a very red passepartou. Inside is a painting of a very round and very red toad fish. It looks gentle
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Quake & Quiver @quakeandquiver.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Shovelnose sturgeon - hackleback, sand sturgeon, or switchtail #SundayFishSketch #sciart 🐡
a pen drawing in blue, green and dark red of two shovelnose sturgeon circling each other; the fish are surrounded by swirling water
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Better Know a Fish! / 曉得多魚! @betterknowafish.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
For #SundayFishSketch x Day 27 of #SciArtSeptember #Quill here is Ariopsis felis, the hardhead catfish. Which anyone who has fished the southeastern U.S. coast will have caught and cursed at loudly at least once. Those fin spines *HURT* 🐡🦑🧪
Photo of a crayon sketch of a hard head catfish
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Jayce the Creature Creator @creatorjayce.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Pumpkinseed Also coincidentally finished this just in time for Sunday Fish Sketch #fishart #sciart #sundayfishsketch
 A small pen, colored pencil, and acrylic marker illustration of a pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus) against a deep blue background on Bristol board.
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Ryan Greenway @ryangreenway.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
A blue wing olive mayfly and matching fly fishing lure for #SciArtSeptember / #SundayFishSketch 27 “quill.” Fly fishing lures aim to imitate small invertebrate prey of fish by combining natural and artificial materials, with quills making great segmented bodies for aquatic insect models.
Sketchbook page with watercolor illustration depicting a blue wing olive mayfly on the surface of the water, in the corner is an artificial fly fishing lure imitating the insect.
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Liz Butler @lizlagomorph.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
A quillback rockfish. Not quite a drawing with a quill but with a dip pen, which feels of-a-sort. - #SundayFishSketch + #SciArtSeptember Day 27: Quill
An illustration of a quillback rockfish in a graphic style. The fish is defined by black line work and is coloured with purple, yellow, and teal gouache painting. The background is lilac purple. The fish is shown in profile and facing to the left.
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John F Tollefson @jftollefson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Day 26 - #quill A Quillback (Carpoides cyprinus). A medium-sized sucker that inhabits local rivers with gravel/sandy bottoms. If anyone has a good tutorial on doing scales…I generally avoid them like the plague, as you can see why here. #SciArtSeptember #SundayFishSketch #fishart #watercolor
Watercolor and ink illustration of a fish with a long quill-like dorsal fin. Side-view, facing right
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Sarage @sarahcpjones.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
27. Quill. Porcupine fish. I'm knackered and had to dig deep for that one. #SciArt #SciArtSeptember #SundayFishSketch
A face on drawing of a brown striped porcupine fish of some kind
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Kristen Behrens, PhD @behrenskristen.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
For the last #SciArtSeptember #SundayFishSketch, Day 27 Quill I did a lionfish which was an ambitious choice when I’m getting over a bug I picked up at the conference 😅
Colored pencil drawing of a lionfish. It seems proportionally to be more fin than fish and has a huge spiny 1st dorsal fin banded with brown-red. The other find are more spotted/lightly banded with brown. The body is a series of brown/red-brown/yellowish stripes. There is a little horn looking thing with a flag bit on the eye.
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Declan Troy @troydeclan.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I wanted to photograph this moose as he was shedding velvet but on the big day he played hard to get. Once it was gone I couldn't shake him, he was everywhere I went. Chugach State Park #Alaska
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Katie O'Reilly @drkatfish.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
No, Microsoft Word, I'm not writing about "dressed mussels," I am writing about "dressenid mussels"
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Katie O'Reilly @drkatfish.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Petition to rename "coughing baby vs hydrogen bomb" to "millions of gizzard shad vs Canada's largest nuclear power plant" Except in this case, the fish won www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
cbc.ca
An enormous fish die-off tested Canada's largest nuclear plant. A changing climate could test many more | CBC News
A freak fish event that 'challenged reactor safety' at Canada's largest nuclear plant shows why the nuclear energy governments are relying on to fight climate change must also become more resilient to...
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Katie O'Reilly @drkatfish.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
god forbid women have hobbies
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Liz Butler @lizlagomorph.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
A small book, made using Atlantic bay scallop shells. The book features tiny drawings of estuary plants and animals from Nova Scotia. - #SciArtSeptember Day 16: Scallop
An open book made of paper pages and a scallop shell cover. The book is open to a simple ink drawing of a duck. The book's pages and cover are pink. The book rests on a wooden table.A hand holding a pink and purple scallop shell. The shell is bound along one side with green thread, making it the cover to a small book. The background is a wooden table top.A hand holding a small book made with a scallop shell cover. The book is fanned open, to show the pink pages inside the book. The background is a wooden table top.A pink and purple scallop shell resting on a wooden table top. The shell is bound along one side with green thread, making it the cover to a small book.
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WBEZ @wbez.org · 23/09/2026
Senators from Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin are calling for a meeting to discuss the repeated pauses around the Brandon Road Interbasin Project.
wbez.org
Great Lakes Senators call on Trump to stop delaying invasive carp barrier
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Katie O'Reilly @drkatfish.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Cleveland Rocks (if you're a baby sturgeon): Before juvenile lake sturgeon were released into the Cuyahoga River last year, they received tiny acoustic transmitters - now, early data shows that many are sticking close to Cleveland Harbor. signalcleveland.org/lake-erie-ba...
signalcleveland.org
Lake Erie’s baby sturgeon are thriving a year after release - Signal Cleveland
Ahead of Saturday's Sturgeon Fest, we checked in on the little babies released last year. How are they doing? Early signs are promising.
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The dam removals that get the most press tend to be superlative western ones, like the Klamath and Elwha—big rivers, big fish. For @biographic.bsky.social, I wrote about some equally vital, under-the-radar projects now restoring eastern streams, one old mill dam at a time. #AlewivesAreTheNewSalmon
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Avi Henriques 🩸 @legalizegoblins.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
806's spring cub is so chubby she has ankle rolls. What a good mom 806 is. #katmai
A VERY chubby and fluffy brown bear spring cub standing on a dirt road.
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beetle moses @beetlemoses.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Three panel comic. Panel 1: a classroom of young students are sitting at their desks. The teacher responds to a question from a crustacean sitting in the back row, “No… a Japanese spider crab can’t run for office.” Panel 2: the spider crab is hard at work, leafing through a pile of books in a dimly lit library. Panel 3: the spider crab stands proudly at a podium in front of a crowd; behind him is the American Flag. People in the crowd are excitedly cheering, video recording the crab on their phones, and holding a flag that reads: YES WE CRAB.
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Katie O'Reilly @drkatfish.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Move over, Salmon Cannon, it's Sturgeon Elevator's time to shine www.mlive.com/environment/...
mlive.com
Watch lake sturgeon ride an elevator at an Upper Peninsula hydroelectric dam
A fish elevator in Michigan is helping save one of the Great Lakes’ most ancient species from extinction.
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Celestial Whale Studio @celestialwhale.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Honeycomb Stingray 🍯 D15: Honeycomb #SciartSeptember #sciart #digitalillustration
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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I want you to think about the kids in your life. Maybe those kids are 8. Maybe they are 32. Do they know enough about snails? Hard to imagine anyone truly knowing *enough* about snails. Help those kids learn snailhood. Get them a Snail Facts advent calendar. SquidFacts.net.
An 11x14 inch poster featuring snails, slugs, nudibranchs, and other snails! There are 24 yellow-green snail shells that you can scratch off. There's a leaf sheep and sea bunny and sea angel and fire snail and banana slug and mystery snail and ramshorn snail and candy cane snail
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linseyis.bsky.social @linseyis.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I am lucky enough to live by the Skagit wild & scenic river, which supports five salmon species, and in a state that has demolished the Elwha and other dams. I may not know how to paint salmon, but I know that a meandering river is good for the health of the ecosystem #sciartseptember meandering
Five salmon on jagged brown and blue lines, representing the restoration of wild and free rivers
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Titus Seilheimer @drfishsg.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Shiners, shiners, shiners for #sundayfishsketch. Today is Red Shiner and a bonus of 9 other shiners!
Head-on ink sketch of red Shiner.Nine shiner sketches, what more do you want!
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Quake & Quiver @quakeandquiver.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Learning about bristlemouths this week for #SundayFishSketch
A pen and ink drawing of a bristlemouth fish, with black background and heavy black shadows, blue red and green crosshatching, and a wide open jaw reminiscent of a xenomorph
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Ryan Greenway @ryangreenway.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Red River pupfish (Cyprinodon rubrofluviatilis) in #watercolor and ink for #SciArtSeptember 20 / #SundayFishSketch “Meander.” These little fish occur in the meandering, sandy-bottomed streams in the upper Red River basin of western Oklahoma and Northwest Texas, particularly in harsh environments.
Watercolor and ink illustration of a greenish blue fish with dark spotty stripes along its sides and a yellow underbelly
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Paul Tobin @paultobin.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Miss Idaho stealin' my signature look.
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John F Tollefson @jftollefson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Day 20 - #meander The Slough Darter (Etheostoma gracile) I thought back to my aquatic ecology courses and finding this species in the slow water of small river bends (meanders) in SE Kansas. Watercolor + colored pencil. #SciArtSeptember #fishart #watercolor #SundayFishSketch
Watercolor painting of a small slender darter (fish). Side view facing left. A male in breeding colors. Yellow-brown with green bars along the sides. Dorsal fin has deep blue topped with orange-red between the fin rays.
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Sarage @sarahcpjones.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
20. Meander. Ribbon eel. #SciArt #SciArtSeptember
A pencil crayon and pen drawing of a blue and yellow eel with a flat ribbon like body.
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Better Know a Fish! / 曉得多魚! @betterknowafish.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
It's not a worm, it's not a snake. It has no eyes, no pigment, no fins. For #SundayFishSketch x Day 20 of #SciArtSeptember #Meander here is Rakthamichthys, a swamp eel genus adapted to live in aquifers, wet soil, and other underground habitats in India. What a meandering evolutionary journey! 🦑🐡🧪
Photo of a crayon sketch of a thin loop of a beast
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Kristen Behrens, PhD @behrenskristen.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
#SciArtSeptember #SundayFishSketch Day 20 is Meander, which made me think of the meandering creeks and streams I grew up mucking about in. So here are some of the fishy contents of those streams! This is the most time I’ve ever spent on a piece of art or done a background and my neck hurts #SciArt
Digital art drawing of an underwater scene in a creek. At the top, the sunlight is playing off the water and the bottom is a mix of gravel and various sizes rocks. There are four fish: a green sunfish, a common shiner, a fathead minnow, and a creak chub. The minnows are greens and browns and gold but the sunfish is very ostentatious with a bright orange belly and green topside. There are labels beside each fish to indicate what they are.
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Dhiyanah @bydhiyanah.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
#SundayFishSketch Oh look, an internal scream found embodied form as a scribble-fish! 👀 Still experimenting with composition for a piece on ribbon eels (maybe, should be fun, let's see!) 🐡 #fishArt #art #wildlift #natureArt
A line art hand-drawn digital sketch of a ribbon eel, its long ribbon-like body unraveling as its head swims forward with eyes and mouth wide open as if in an eternal scream. Drawn by the artist Dhiyanah Hassan.
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Liz Butler @lizlagomorph.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
A bitterling puppet, with a meander-patterned banner. Bitterlings are listed in The Fish Fauna of the Büyük Menderes River: Taxonomic and Zoogeographic Features, published in 2013. 🐟 - #SundayFishSketch + #SciArtSeptember Day 20: Meander
A photo of a fish stick puppet on a wooden table top. The fish is modelled after a European bitterling, with a primarily pink body and blue fins. It has colourful highlights throughout. The fish has a ribbon trailing from its tail featuring a red meander pattern. The puppet lies flat on the table.A photo of a fish stick puppet on a wooden table top. The fish is modelled after a European bitterling, with a primarily pink body and blue fins. It has colourful highlights throughout. The fish has a ribbon trailing from its tail featuring a red meander pattern. The fish puppet is angled toward the viewer to show how it bends.
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Katie O'Reilly @drkatfish.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
And became my alma mater's nickname! The University of Miami - which had just opened the previous year in 1925 - continued classes in late October 1926 following the storm, which inspired the “Hurricanes”/"Canes" nickname
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Coral City Camera @coralcitycamera.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Please accept a nuzzle from a manatee muzzle (We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!!) 🥹〰️🐮🐮〰️ #manatee #manateesofcoralcity #nuzzle #muzzle #coralcitycamera
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Anthony Ricciardi @ecoinvasions.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Invasive species pose diverse risks to human health. Zebra mussel invasion promotes blue-green algal blooms in lakes: cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/... www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... And algal blooms can produce toxic airborne particles that are breathed in by people (see below).
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Katie O'Reilly @drkatfish.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Harmful algae blooms might not just cause harm in the water. Researchers are working to understand how the toxins produced in these blooms can become airborne and impact people’s health - something boaters and anglers around Lake Erie call "August cough" www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
cbc.ca
Scientists near Lake Erie are studying the health impacts of airborne algae | CBC News
So far, the American-led research has tracked roughly 200 people connected to Lake Erie coastal communities.
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Katie O'Reilly @drkatfish.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
A screenshot of a Tumblr post about scientists wanting to tell people about their science
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Chicago Tribune @chicagotribune.com · 15/09/2026
Army Corps resumes work at Brandon Road Project as invasive carp encroach on Illinois River
chicagotribune.com
Army Corps resumes work at Brandon Road Project as invasive carp encroach on Illinois River
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Katie O'Reilly @drkatfish.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Wandering tattler?? I'm convinced that ornithologists are just trolling when it comes to bird names www.detroitnews.com/story/news/l...
detroitnews.com
Wandering tattler makes first confirmed Michigan appearance
These small gray birds rarely venture east of the Rocky Mountains. Then one showed up on the Lake Michigan shoreline in Ottawa County.
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taenia @taenia.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Caught this baby trying to shove its whole head into its parent's crop. (I would really have liked to spend more time with them but apparently @ferries.wsdot.wa.gov wants you to "drive your car off the ferry" without "holding everyone up." Even for baby cormorants!)
Four Pelagic Cormorants standing on metal dock piles.  One is an adult feeding a juvenile, who has shoved its entire face into the adult bird's throat.

These are black waterbirds with long necks and slender bills. The adults have a purplish iridescent sheen, while the juveniles are duller and brownish.
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Rebecca Lexa, Naturalist @rebeccanaturalist.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Female Coho (Oncorhynchus kisutch) have returned to the #Salmon River on the #Oregon coast where I am visiting. Thought she would be appropriate for today's #SundayFishSketch. Hoping to participate more as we turn to autumn. #fish #illustration
A pen and marker drawing of a chunky fish that is varying shades of green, lighter in top and darker on bottom, with splashes of red along its middle.
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Annabell @annabellfischer.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Eine Indische Fadenmakrele für Tag 13 #SciArtSeptember #diamond #SciArt #SciComm #KleineKunstklasse #watercolors #graphite #pastels #expressive #diamondTrevally #artChallenge #SundayFishSketch
Darstellung einer Indischen Fadenmakrele, seitlich, dunkelblaugrüner Hintergrund
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Kevin Stevens @neohibolites.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Not actually a sketch this time: my wife painted me a cichlid plate with the Lake Malawi endemic electric yellow cichlid (Labidochromis caeruleus). 🐟 #SundayFishSketch
Rectangular shining glazed plate with a yellow cichlid on a blue background.
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Quake & Quiver @quakeandquiver.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Saw a beautiful longnose gar at the New England Aquarium yesterday #SundayFishSketch #sciart
a pen drawing of a longnosed gar, a long fish with a long skinny nose, done in blues, red, and greens. the fish is outlined in contours of green and blue
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