ANCIENT PADDLEFISH- Caddo Lake is a huge body of water that straddles the Texas-Louisiana border, it is valued for it’s natural beauty and is an economic driver for recreation and tourism. The Caddo Lake Institute is a non-profit organization that focuses on issues such as the lake's water quality and quantity. It's an umbrella organization that works together with other groups and government agencies to accomplish that. Key focus areas are pollution prevention and mitigation and preserving aquatic life; that's where lake water levels come in. Laura Ashley-Overdyke serves as the executive director for the institute and I spoke with her yesterday about a special event taking place today in Jefferson, Texas. It's arelease of a type of fish that is quite unique.
"Paddlefish from the fish hatchery will be arriving on Big Cypress Bayou near Jefferson, Texas—the downtown city ramp," Ashley-Overdyke explained. "And they’ll be releasing thousands of juvenile paddlefish back into our system."
The paddlefish is one very unusual and ancient kind of fish. It's also called a “spoonbill,” which pretty much describes the long snout on its face. ... Due to construction of the dam on Lake Of The Pines which fed into Caddo Lake, the reduced water flow affected the spawning grounds for paddlefish. Ashley-Overdyke explained beginning in 2018, The Caddo Lake Institute has coordinated releasing paddlefish as a means to increase their population.
"Texas had them listed as threatened back in the 70’s when they started disappearing," said Ashley-Overdyke. "And you could not really find any paddlefish in Caddo Lake for decades. But these fish do exist in other river systems. And so the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Texas Parks and Wildlife Inland Fisheries are working to get a viable population back into the lake."
To learn more, CLICK HERE: Caddo Lake Institute/Paddlefish AND Paddlefish Restocking
