Any mention of the paddle fish industry here in Texas? Word has it,
that it used to exist here on the Neches and Sabine rivers.
Hoover, Jan J ERDC-EL-MS wrote:
>In 1907, Charles Stockard published one of the first (and now famous) field
>studies of paddlefish.
>
>In 1908, he published a follow-up on the newly-developing paddlefish caviar
>fishery (now little known). Today I got a copy of that article. His
>observations on the former abundance of ganoid fishes are fascinating
>particularly since the supply of paddlefish was even then "rapidly
>dimishing." He reports:
>
>...one fisherman in Mississippi had recently shipped 63,500 pounds of
>paddlefish meat and 5940 pounds of caviar! Maximum weight of fish was
>reported as 140 lbs and caviar/female as 8-10 pounds. This total was
>probably equivalent to well over 1000 adult fish.
>
>...fishery in Louisiana began in 1896. A fishermen with a good crew and
>equipment cleared many thousands of dollars during the 6-month season.
>Wholesale cost of caviar was 75 cents/pound!
>
>...paddlefish were collected from special seining barges equiped with
>mile-long nets. Single hauls once yielded as many as 150 barrels of
>paddlefish but even then had decreased to 10 barrels.
>
>...alligator gar, viewed as enemies of the paddlefish, were removed and left
>to the vultures. In one season, 30,000 gar were removed from a single
>Mississippi lake. Stockard reports that a commercial fisherman has a
>"scheme in progress to take their skins, the scales of which take a high
>polish, for hand-bags, pocket-books, leggings and like uses. "
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