Despite unprecedented scientific productivity, Earth is undergoing a sixth mass extinction. The disconnect between scientific output and species conservation may be related to scientists studying the wrong species. Given fishes have a high extinction rate, we assessed the paradox between scientific productivity and science needed for conservation by comparing scientific output created for critically endangered fishes and game fishes. We searched 197,866 articles (1964–2018) in 112 journals for articles on 460 critically endangered fishes, 297 game fishes, and 35 fishes classified as critically endangered and game fish—our analysis included freshwater and marine species. Only 3% of the articles in the final database were on critically endangered fishes; 82% of critically endangered fishes had zero articles. The difference between the number of articles on game fishes and critically endangered fishes increased temporally with more articles on game fishes during the extinction crisis. Countries with 10 or more critically endangered fishes averaged only 17 articles from 1964 to 2018. Countries with the most critically endangered fishes are most in need of science. More scientific knowledge is needed on critically endangered fishes to meet the challenges of conserving fishes during the sixth mass extinction.

Body condition indices are commonly used in the management of fish populations and are a surrogate to physiological attributes such as tissue-energy reserves. Relative condition factor (Kn) describes the condition of species relative to populations in a geographic area. We developed models to allow for the calculation of Kn in Montana, USA by using the weight–length data collected by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. We generated log10weight–log10length relationships to obtain Montana specific parameter estimates for relative condition equations (W′) for 51 species and three subspecies. We developed separate models by water type (e.g., lotic and lentic) and sex for five species due to varying growth based on sexual dimorphism and varying ecosystem types. Relative condition offers the advantage of describing body condition relative to species in Montana, provides a condition index for species that do not have standard-weight models developed for relative weight (Wr), and affords more information for the global database on weight–length relationships of fishes.

We compared different creel survey methods at three Alabama reservoirs (Harris, Jordan, and Mitchell) to identify approaches that could improve precision. We were particularly interested in whether boat trailer counts from time‐lapse photos taken at boat ramp parking lots could be used as an index of fishing effort to improve the temporal coverage of sampling. Angler effort was estimated independently using roving creels, access point creels, and aerial census counts and compared with fixed‐location digital camera images of trailers at boat ramps. Digital camera counts of trailers correlated with angler effort from aerial census, access point creel surveys, and roving creel surveys. This finding suggests that time‐lapse digital cameras as a sampling method to obtain angler effort may provide a feasible method once calibrated to a system. Best‐fitting models for relationships between time‐lapse trailer counts and the other creel methods included covariates for season and day type (weekend versus weekday) effects, but not reservoir and time‐of‐day effects. The inclusion of effort predicted from time‐lapse digital cameras incorporated with roving creel surveys did not statistically affect the magnitude of effort estimates but substantially increased the precision of effort estimates.