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Commission to evaluate paddlefish problems Friday, Jan 19, 2007 By Joe Mosby Arkansas News Correspondent LITTLE ROCK - Staff of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission backed off of a request to immediately close Ozark Lake to commercial taking of paddlefish Thursday and recommended commissioners study the issue. The agency's Fisheries Division had proposed closing Ozark Lake, part of the Arkansas River system, to commercial taking of paddlefish because of a possible threat to the species overall population in the area. Commissioners could vote on the issue at their February meeting. Officials said the problem stems from the caviar market. With depleted stocks and availability of beluga sturgeon roe - fish eggs - in the Asiatic regions of Russia and Iran, the caviar market has found an alternative in paddlefish roe, and the largest numbers of paddlefish are in Arkansas and Tennessee. Paddlefish roe sells for about $100 a pound, and an adult female paddlefish can carry 5 or 6 pounds of eggs, meaning each fish is worth $500 to $600. Abuses have cropped up in the pursuit of paddlefish for their roe, said Mike Armstrong, AGFC's chief of fisheries. Some fish are netted, cut open to extract the roe and then dumped back into the river or on a shoreline. "Paddlefish have had a lot more attention in the last 10 years because of caviar," Armstrong told commissioners Thursday. "Our management of them is evolving. What we are after is to sustain the population of paddlefish in Arkansas. "By a sustainable fishery, it means to leave enough adults for reproduction (to keep the numbers healthy). Usually you don't know it until the population (of a species) declines." The paddlefish issue in Arkansas has come under scrutiny of the 172-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITIES), said Bill Posey, AGFC's commercial fisheries biologist. The possibility exists that if Arkansas does not maintain its paddlefish populations, CITIES could place sanctions on the state, including banning the export of Arkansas paddlefish roe, he said. Posey said virtually all of the paddlefish roe harvest on the Arkansas River is in Ozark Lake, also called Ozark Pool, which extends from a dam at the town of Ozark upstream to another dam at Barling, just outside Fort Smith. Last year, Posey said, about 6,000 of the 6,200 pounds of paddlefish roe taken on the Arkansas River came from Ozark Lake. In 2006, AGFC issued 64 permits to fishers and 22 to helpers for paddlefish activities. They checked in with 1,068 paddlefish, including 722 egg-carrying females in the 15 days in November that were open to paddlefish netting. Of most concern is the unreported take of paddlefish. Posey said paddlefish are being netted without permits, length limits are being violated and fish are being mutilated by persons who cut them open to see if they have eggs. Paddlefish also are being stolen from other nets and untagged nets are being used, he said. Proposals for control of paddlefish activities include prohibiting removal of eggs on the water or on shore before they are checked, prohibiting night fishing when enforcement is more difficult and closing Ozark Lake to paddlefish harvest until its populations can improve. "A few opportunists are the cause of this problem. This issue could get beyond Arkansas (with CITIES involvement)," said Game and Fish Director Scott Henderson, whose background is as a fisheries biologist. Also Thursday, the commission: -Approved a policy to permit geocaching, a recreational activity that uses Global Positional System (GPS) electronics along the lines of the old-fashioned treasure hunt, on AGFC facilities, primarily wildlife management areas. -Accepted a donation of seven acres of land on the Strawberry River near Horseshoe Bend to be developed as an access and park area. -Approved building an access area at Peeler Bend on the Saline River near Benton. The estimated $73,000 cost for the project will come from de-authorized access area projects downstream on the Saline at Summerville and at Tull. -Approved building a road on the Steve N. Wilson/Raft Creek Wildlife Management Area near Georgetown in White County in partnership with the county. AGFC's cost will be $33,433, which will come from Marine Fuel Tax funds, which are state gasoline taxes paid on fuel used in boats. -Donated two elk hunting permits to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation for fundraising activities. The foundation returns 85 percent of the money raised to Arkansas for elk program work. |
