Paddlefish in Florida?

Paddlefish got into the Apalachicola River by way of the Flint River by way of the Warm Springs National Fish Hatchery in Georgia.

Paddlefish are raised at the hatchery and got flooded into the Flint River at one point.

Those paddlers are getting around. They are thought to be established (but I think uncommon still) in the Danube River in Europe, and I read recently that there have been a couple captured from the Yangtze River in the last couple years. Odd, considering that we are concerned about bighead and silver carp effects on paddlefish in the central USA, that we should be worried about paddlefish establishing in the Yangtze, the epicenter of bighead and silver carp evolution and range. But there are very few silver and bighead carp left in the Yangtze to compete with paddlers, so it does not seem so strange that they would find an opening there. Still, my feeling is that pollution, overfishing, and dams will keep paddlefish from becoming a substantial part of the Yangtze River ecosystem. But notable that it does not take long for escapes from aquaculture to occur if one does not take a very high level of care to prevent it.

I was told by someone in the fish farm business that a great many paddlefish were being exported to China possibly to replace their native paddlefish that is extinct in the Yangtze river. Since their paddle fish is more of a piscavore than the North American Paddlefish I don't see the logic but logic doesn't always fit in these things....

It needs to be asked, is stocking paddle fish outside their native range such a bad idea? I know there is an official zero tolerance to stocking fish outside their native range in this group but lets face anytime it it suits the powers that be there seems to no problem with it. So i ask if it's ok to stock fish out side their native range for fishermen or some other reason why is not a good idea to stock paddlefish out side their range to give them a better chance of survival? Why not do it to benefit the fish instead of to benefit recreational fishing or some other reason? The numbers of fish stocked either on purpose (such as peacock bass) or simply due to really not thinking out the plan, (the large carps) to fish like LMB or some trouts that seem to be everywhere due to recreational fishing. Why not to preserve the species?.

Paddlefish got into the Apalachicola River by way of the Flint River by way of the Warm Springs National Fish Hatchery in Georgia.

Paddlefish are raised at the hatchery and got flooded into the Flint River at one point.

Is there any real chance these fish are breeding or are they just escapees that will grow old and die?

It needs to be asked, is stocking paddle fish outside their native range such a bad idea? I know there is an official zero tolerance to stocking fish outside their native range in this group but lets face anytime it it suits the powers that be there seems to no problem with it. So i ask if it's ok to stock fish out side their native range for fishermen or some other reason why is not a good idea to stock paddlefish out side their range to give them a better chance of survival? Why not do it to benefit the fish instead of to benefit recreational fishing or some other reason? The numbers of fish stocked either on purpose (such as peacock bass) or simply due to really not thinking out the plan, (the large carps) to fish like LMB or some trouts that seem to be everywhere due to recreational fishing. Why not to preserve the species?.

It might make some sense to stock fish outside their native range if it would save the species. Paddlefish is not really in that bad of straights in its native range, although in much of its range it has to compete with Asian carps now. But they seem to be holding their own, at least so far. I don't understand how, but somehow they are hanging on pretty good. At any rate there is no reason at this time to stock them elsewhere to "save the species".

This is an issue that we are going to have to deal with, as the globe warms. Do we want to save species by moving them northward into cooler climes, at the risk of damaging the resident species (which may already be damaged by warming?) It sure won't be as easy as just playing musical chairs with all our aquatic species. Temperature regime is not the only habitat variable to which aquatic species become adapted. Say you've got a species adapted to desert potholes, like pupfish. Maybe the pothholes are not only heating but also drying up. There won't be a similar habitat a bit further north in which to dump them, certainly not without some resident hanging-on biota that will eat them. (I don't really know much about pupfish - this is just an example and maybe not a good one.)

There are other reasons to stock fish outside their native range. I'd argue that in the case of reservoirs where there are no native lacustrine species, it should be considered - but carefully. Stocking other fish outside their native range for a variety of reasons has often been beneficial for economic and recreational purposes. I'd argue that walleye stocking in Missouri reservoirs has had no substantial negative effect on native species. We have a long history of stocking walleye and we have some clue of what to expect. Indescriminate stocking of a species outside its native range without a record of what happens when you do so, and with no research to give us some idea what to expect, and with no reasonable goals or likely fulfillment of those goals --- well that's a bad idea.

I was told by someone in the fish farm business that a great many paddlefish were being exported to China possibly to replace their native paddlefish that is extinct in the Yangtze river. Since their paddle fish is more of a piscavore than the North American Paddlefish I don't see the logic but logic doesn't always fit in these things....

They were not imported to replace the native paddlefish. There never was any thought to stocking paddlefish into the wild. Paddlefish were imported into China as a potential aquaculture organism. Nothing more or less. In China, any new and different fish, especially one as odd looking as a paddlefish, can bring a high price in the market. And with paddlefish, there is also a market for roe.

We apperceive that there never was any anticipation to stocking paddlefish into the wild. Paddlefish were alien into China as a abeyant aquaculture organism.




_________________
How

Just to clear up the great lakes thig There were once paddlefish populations in, lake erie, lake st. claire, saginaw bay, and southern lake michigan and its tribs. The Michigan dnr lists them asgone from the state however there may be a small population in the western basin of lake Erie.

Just to clear up the great lakes thig There were once paddlefish populations in, lake erie, lake st. claire, saginaw bay, and southern lake michigan and its tribs. The Michigan dnr lists them asgone from the state however there may be a small population in the western basin of lake Erie.

They will most likly never be reintroduced into the Great Lakes then.

A fue years ago the Shead Aquarium in Chicago wanted to stock Lake Sturgeon in Lake Michigan with fish from Wisconsin. The fish were from the Fox River that flows into Green Bay(Lake Michigan) but were told they could not do it on the off chance that a Lake Sturgeon from a southern drainage might still be alive and want to spawn with its northern relitive.

Paddlefish roe is big business hence other countries wanting to stock and raise them

China used to have some kind of "spoon billed" fish

Paddlefish roe is big business hence other countries wanting to stock and raise them

China used to have some kind of "spoon billed" fish

There is (or, more likely, was, since there has not been one caught in nearly 10 years) a Chinese paddlefish. The rostrum of the Chinese paddlefish was not spoon-shaped, but more triangular - broader at the base, and tapering to a point. The Chinese paddlefish (same family, different genus - can't remember the spelling but it is something like Psephorus gladius) is not a filter feeder like ours. It is, or was, a huge predator, with teeth like a great white shark. I had my picture taken with a preserved one last time I was at the Institute of Hydrobiology in Wuhan.