Page 41 - March/April 2020 - Outdoor Oklahoma

KeLLY AdAMS/odWC

After the paddlefish collected from Northeast Oklahoma are spawned, they are released into John Redmond Reservoir in Kansas, where a
long-term paddlefish restoration project is ongoing. This reservoir is on the Neosho River and some of the fish eventually travel downstream
into Oklahoma, contributing to the fishery in Grand Lake. It is truly a shared resource.

are met, conditions that don’t exist fry grow into fingerlings.
in a hatchery pond. The wait time The young fish are initially fed brine
between fish collection and spawn- shrimp, but hatchery staff eventually
ing is usually a couple of weeks as the train them to eat a highly-nutritious
eggs mature, the water warms, and pellet diet to encourage rapid growth.
the fish reach biological readiness The little paddlefish can be observed
for spawning. In the wild, spawning to “capture” the pellets from the sur-
is motivated by water temperature, face by turning in their side much
length of daylight, and river discharge like an Olympics swimmer grabbing
from spring rains. Of course, the lat- a breath of air. Eventually, tens of
ter of these is absent in a hatchery thousands of young paddlefish (also WATCH ON TV!
pond, therefore egg maturation is known as “teaspoons”) are released For a detailed look at these
prompted artificially through injec- into reservoirs such as Oologah Lake, paddlefish restoration efforts,
tion of hormones to induce ovulation where they quickly adapt to using the tune in during March for the
(or egg release). full potential of their electrosense to Outdoor Oklahoma TV show at
Techniques for artificial spawning find zooplankton prey and continue 9 a.m. Sundays on OETA, the
and culture of paddlefish were devel- growing rapidly, which is critical to state’s public television network.
oped in the late 1960s and, with some their long term survival and to the Watch episodes anytime online at
modifications, are still used today. success of these restoration efforts. youtube.com/OutdoorOklahoma.
Eggs and milt are delicately mixed and Schooley said that because of uni-
then divided into an array of hatching fied efforts across multiple agencies,
jars for the eggs to incubate. Individual the future of paddlefish in Oklahoma
fish are crossed, and the fertilized eggs looks promising. “Fortunately, the pad-
are kept separate with an intent to dlefish themselves have made our jobs
maximize the genetic diversity of the a lot easier by demonstrating success-
progeny. The eggs hatch into fry, and ful recruitment across the state.”

MARCH/APRIL 2020 39