Missouri paddlefish caviar

The effort included eight individuals indicted for federal crimes involving the illegal trafficking of paddlefish and their eggs for use as caviar. The arrests and citations were the result of a multi-year joint undercover investigation by MDC conservation agents and special agents of the USFWS involving the illegal commercialization of Missouri paddlefish and their eggs for national and international caviar markets.

The undercover investigation ran during the spring and spring paddlefish seasons, March 15 through April It was based out of Warsaw, Missouri. Additional MDC conservation agents and federal agents supported the undercover operation.

Paddlefish and their eggs may be commercially harvested only from the Mississippi River. He added that through the undercover operation, agents were able to identify suspects engaged in wildlife violations involving the illegal purchase, resale and transport of paddlefish and their eggs, document other violations of the Missouri Wildlife Code in addition to the core investigation, and determine that paddlefish eggs harvested in Missouri were being illegally transported out of the state for redistribution.

Federal crimes tied to the poaching involve violations of the Lacey Act. The Act makes it a federal crime to poach game in one state with the purpose of selling the bounty in another state and prohibits the transportation of illegally captured or prohibited wildlife across state lines. Department of Justice on the investigation.

Identification of suspects in violation of state wildlife charges is pending legal filings. Copies of the federal indictments may be obtained from the U. Yamnitz added that additional details about the undercover operation are vital to the investigation and prosecution of cases and therefore not available at this time. Callers may remain anonymous and rewards are available for information leading to arrests.

Paddlefish are highly valued by both sport anglers and commercial fishermen. Through MDC stocking efforts at three large reservoirs, Missouri is able to offer some of the best paddlefish snagging fisheries in the U. The fisheries are at Lake of the Ozarks and its tributaries, Harry S. In the past, paddlefish were naturally abundant in Missouri, but their numbers declined because of channelization, damming, impoundments and other river modifications. These modifications have greatly diminished the natural habitat paddlefish need to reproduce in the wild.

Today, paddlefish in Missouri must be stocked. Paddlefish are an ancient species of fish that date back to the times of dinosaurs. The sturgeon is a similar species of fish.

Both are popular for their flesh and their eggs, or roe, which is used as caviar. Paddlefish, also known as spoonbills, are most easily identified by their paddle-shaped nose, which accounts for about one-third of their body length. Paddlefish are cartilaginous, which means that they have no bones. They are bluish-gray to blackish on the back and grade to white on the belly.

They have small eyes and no scales. Paddlefish are filter feeders. Despite their large adult size, paddlefish eat tiny crustaceans and insects, called zooplankton, as they constantly swim slowly through water with their mouths wide open. Paddlefish can grow to a length of about seven feet, weigh up to pounds or more, and live 30 years or more. Females grow larger and heavier than males. Female paddlefish reach sexual maturity at years and spawn every years.

Male paddlefish reach sexual maturity at years and spawn annually. The egg masses of female paddlefish can be up to 25 percent of their body weight, with a large female paddlefish carrying about 20 pounds of eggs, or roe. Paddlefish live mostly in open waters of big rivers and were historically found in the Mississippi, Missouri and Osage rivers, along with other streams. Paddlefish spend most of the year dispersed throughout large reservoirs and rivers until warm spring rains increase flows and raise water temperatures, which prompts the big fish to swim upstream on their spawning run.

Spawning runs occur in late spring at times of increased water flow. It is triggered by a combination of daylight, water temperature, and water flow. Their long snouts contain sensors that can detect weak electrical fields and help the fish to feed on plankton.

Email Marc Lallanilla or follow him MarcLallanilla. Follow LiveScience on Twitter livescience. Original article on LiveScience. Live Science. Marc Lallanilla. Because Russians and many other people all over the world love caviar, farming of American paddlefish occurs in many places in the world.

American paddlefish are stocked in rivers in Europe and Asia. The constant grazing of these fish on tiny aquatic organisms helps to keep their populations in check; paddlefish and their eggs and fry provide food for other aquatic predators. Sadly, the paddlefish's closest relative, the Chinese paddlefish, has recently been declared extinct.

It was native to the Yangtze and Yellow River systems in China huge rivers that are similar to our Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Like salmon, adults of that species needed to be able to move from the sea upstream into freshwater to spawn. Dams on the rivers prevented them from doing this, just as dams prevent our paddlefish from moving up and down stream channels.

Overfishing harmed populations, too. Its average length was nearly 10 feet. As late as the s, annual harvest of the Chinese paddlefish was 25 tons. Attempts to propagate the species artificially as we do with North America's paddlefish were unsuccessful.

No one has seen a living Chinese paddlefish since Unlike our plankton-feeding paddlefish, the Chinese paddlefish was a fish-eater. In addition to our paddlefish, only five other species of paddlefishes are known: One is the recently extinct Chinese paddlefish.

The other four disappeared long, long ago and are known only from fossil evidence. The Polyodontidae family of fish goes back to the Early Cretaceous, to million years ago, about the same time that flowering plants angiosperms appeared on Earth.

It would not be inaccurate to think of paddlefish as "living fossils. Missouri has more than kinds of fish, more than are found in most neighboring states. Fishes live in water, breathe with gills, and have fins instead of legs.

Most are covered with scales. True, lampreys and eels have snakelike bodies — but they also have fins and smooth, slimy skin, which snakes do not.

Fish Facts. Skip to main content. Google Tag Manager. Paddlefish Polyodon spathula. More Fishes. Lance Merry. Other Common Name :.