More paddlefish facts and figures
May 11—Here are some tidbits about paddlefish from a Q&A posted on the North Dakota Game and Fish Department website and a pamphlet available at the North Star Caviar cleaning station during snagging season. Information is provided by Dennis Scarnecchia, a fisheries professor at the University of Idaho, and Aaron Slominski and Scott Gangl of the North Dakota Game and Fish Department.
* Paddlefish represent an ancient lineage of fish most closely related to sturgeons. There are only two species of paddlefish in the world; an extremely endangered — possibly extinct — species found in China and the North American species, currently found in 22 states throughout the Missouri and Mississippi river basins.
* The paddlefish population in Lake Sakakawea and upstream in the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers — known as the Yellowstone-Sakakawea stock — is the only stock in North Dakota that supports a snag fishery. The habitat quality in the Yellowstone River and Lake Sakakawea is conducive to successful spawning. There is another smaller stock in North Dakota that inhabits Lake Oahe and the Missouri River below Garrison Dam.
* Paddlefish feed mostly on tiny animals called zooplankton, using filament-like gill rakers with their mouths open to filter zooplankton from the water. Paddlefish also eat aquatic insects and, occasionally, small fish. Because paddlefish won't bite large bait, anglers hoping to harvest a paddlefish must participate in snagging.
* Paddlefish can live to age 60 or older, with females typically living longer than males. Most paddlefish larger than 50 pounds are females ranging in age from 15 to 40 years and averaging about 27 years, while most paddlefish less than 40 pounds are males from 9 to 40 years old and averaging about 20 years.
* Researchers age paddlefish by removing the lower jaw bone — or dentary — from harvested fish during snagging seasons and counting the rings in a cross-section of the jaw bone, much like the process for aging a tree.
* According to Greg Power, fisheries chief for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, a year-class of paddlefish hatched in 1995 continues to drive the population. There's optimism that paddlefish produced another good year-class in 2011, Power said, but because female paddlefish from that hatch are still being recruited to the population, the strength of the 2011 year-class has yet to be determined.
* North Dakota's state record paddlefish, measuring 71 inches and weighing 131 pounds, was snagged May 7, 2016, at the confluence area of the Upper Missouri River. A paddlefish weighing 131 pounds and snagged on the Yellowstone River was also weighed on Friday, May 3, at the North Star Caviar cleaning station.
