Emergency Paddlefish Rules for Oklahoma
By Oklahoma Dept of Wildlife Conservation
First posted on 11-09-2009
Oklahoma is known for having the best paddlefish fishery in the world, and emergency rules approved by the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission will help ensure the fishing in northeast Oklahoma is as good in the future as it is now.
At its November meeting, the Commission approved the following emergency rules for paddlefish angling:
* Paddlefish anglers will be required to immediately release all paddlefish caught on Fridays and Mondays, statewide.
* When an angler keeps a paddlefish, they will be required to immediately record the date and time of harvest of all paddlefish on their paddlefish permit.
* All snagging will be closed on the Grand River from the Hwy 412 bridge upstream to the Markham Ferry (Lake Hudson) dam from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. year-round.
* The Spring River will be designated a paddlefish sanctuary and will be closed to paddlefish angling by all methods from the Hwy 60 bridge upstream to the Kansas state line.
All rules take effect Jan. 1, 2010.
According to Barry Bolton, chief of fisheries for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, these rules were put in place to reduce the harvest of paddlefish after two years of detailed data from the Department’s Paddlefish Research and Processing Center indicated that the fishery was being supported primarily by the fish from the 1999 spawn. Female paddlefish must generally reach eight to 10 years of age before they can reproduce, making the huge fish sensitive to overharvest.
“These measures should reduce our harvest by as much as 30 percent while still providing significant paddlefish angling opportunities, which can go a long way in sustaining the species for anglers to enjoy for generations to come,” Bolton said. “By establishing ‘catch-and-release’ days on Fridays and Mondays, anglers can still enjoy a long weekend of fishing, but they may take home fewer fish than before depending on what days they fish. I am confident this will have a long-lasting positive impact on our paddlefish fisheries and future angling opportunities, while minimally impacting the fishing we enjoy today.”
Prior to establishing the Paddlefish Research and Processing Center at Twin Bridges State Park near northeast Oklahoma’s City of Miami, the Wildlife Department knew very little about the number of anglers fishing for paddlefish each year. The Department also knew very little about the annual harvest numbers of paddlefish, which is one of Oklahoma’s largest fish and dates back to the time of the dinosaurs. As a result, management of the fish proved challenging, and data collection was a difficult and slow process, as fish generally had to be killed by biologists in order for pertinent biological data to be collected.
The Research and Processing Center opened in the spring of 2008 and offers anglers free processing of their paddlefish in exchange for biological data and eggs collected from female fish that were going to be harvested by anglers anyway. The data is used to help make important management decisions, and eggs collected from fish are sold worldwide as caviar. Proceeds from egg sales are then used to fund the paddlefish program in Oklahoma, which includes management and projects to improve paddlefish angling opportunities, such as access to prime fishing waters. Since its inception, the Research and Processing Center has collected information from thousands of fish, far more than biologists could survey without anglers’ help.
The emergency rules come before a slate of town hall meetings and public hearings to be held in 2010, where these rules and others are scheduled for discussion before the Commission considers making the rules permanent.
The Commission also approved an emergency rule that allows licensed aquaculture facilities to possess and grow diploid carp for human consumption, for selling outside the state and for control of vegetation on their farms. Diploids still may not be stocked in private waters of the state. Only non-reproducing triploid carp can be stocked in private waters. The rule is designed to limit reproduction of grass carp in Oklahoma’s waters, which compete with native fish species.
In other business, the Commission heard a presentation from Finley & Cook, PLLC, including the results of the Department’s fiscal year 2009 annual financial audit. The independent audit, which also reviewed federal grant programs, revealed no material findings. A clean audit report was rendered.
The Commission also heard a presentation on the Department’s Lake Record Fish Program, which recognizes big fish caught from select reservoirs and the anglers who catch them. The program was initiated Feb. 1, 2008, and initially included 13 lakes across the state. Since then the program has grown to include 38 lakes. The program is managed electronically, and a unique search feature on the Wildlife Department’s Web site at wildlifedepartment.com allows users to search a range of lake record information, including the species of lake records, the names of anglers who caught them and other facts such as what bait and tackle was used to catch record fish from various lakes. Since the program’s inception, the lake records portion of the Web site has seen more than 63,000 hits and more than 350,000 page views, including viewers from 38 states and 17 foreign countries.
The Commission also recognized Loren Damron, game warden supervisor for the Wildlife Department, for 35 years of service; Steve Spade, hatchery supervisor, for 30 years of service; and Dwight Luther, game warden stationed in Creek and Okfuskee counties, for 25 years of service.
Richard Hatcher, director of the Wildlife Department, also recognized Todd Craighead, information and education specialist for the Department, for recently receiving the George Lewis Advocacy Award. This award recognizes an Oklahoma City area resident with a disability who has performed outstanding and notable feats to enhance the empowerment and/or employment of individuals with disabilities by rising above his or her own disability and encouraging others with disabilities to do the same. This individual displays these principles through community involvement and in his or her area of employment. This individual has also promoted overcoming social, attitudinal, and environmental barriers to enhance the lives of all persons with disabilities and shown good citizenship in his or her everyday activities.
The Wildlife Conservation Commission is the eight-member governing board of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. The Wildlife Commission establishes state hunting and fishing regulations, sets policy for the Wildlife Department and indirectly oversees all state fish and wildlife conservation activities. Commission members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate.
The next scheduled Commission meeting is set for 9 a.m. Dec. 7 at the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation headquarters (auditorium), located at the southwest corner of 18th and North Lincoln, Oklahoma City.
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Comments:
I used to love to fish in Oklahoma ,, I loved snagging , bow fishing, and just fishing,, I would go to park in Miami and shoot gar with my bow and go cat fishing , was a good place to fish. One day my friend ask me if I wanted to go snagging for spoonbill at the park I said yes, I had never been snagging before so we went, when we got their I jumped out grabbed a pole watched the people for a min and started . On my 2nd cast I got on,, I could not believe it it was the fight of a lifetime, after about 10 min of fighting I landed the 60 pounder I was hooked!! . While I stood there looking at it a fish and game officer came up to me and said I need to see your fishing and park permit,,,, I said park permit?? What is that I fish down here all the time I never heard of it , he said you just need it for spoon billing not fishing, I ask why he said it pays for upkeep on the park and research on the spoonbill , I said I thought the fishing licens was to take care of that after all it was noot cheep to buy a fishing licens. He said well you need to get a permit. I said ok. Time went on fishing licenses got higher more rules and regulations , anything the fish and game could do to make more money, and now the EEG issue they need money for up keep and research ,, when is it going to stop!!! Why can’t they pay sniggers 20 dollers a pound if they make 300?? I bet it won’t be long they will stop snagging altogether and have commercial fishing boats netting the spoonbill so they can keep them for themselves. I think they are crooks. Wished I knew what to do to help stop it, but I gues a person can’t even vote on it. Well the one thing I can do is keep my spoon bill clean it myself and keep the eggs they are great catfish bait.
I think its great that the fish and game is doing a excellent job in our state by regulating the paddle fish daily limit and catch and release days and are able to produce enough money to fund studies and research work for the paddle fish to ensure the population will maintain healthy numbers in the future for great fishing year after year, Enjoy what we have available to us and give to mother nature and she’ll return back to you ten fold, no greed please, greed destroys.
The game dept should have to turn over all money made from the sale of eggs to the state it could help fix our roads, They should not get to keep this money the fish belong to the people and they work for us. It is time to stop writing fish and game lsws without a vote of the people.
I am for proper fishing regulations in order to keep fish species from going extinct which hurts everybody. Also overfishing is never good because people get greedy and do illegal whaling and other overfishing of commercial fishing which depletes the fish stocks worldwide which may never be able to recover because people are greedy for money. I am against that. However, our economy is in the worst recession since the great depression and there is a high unemployment rate. I am a democrat at the moment since the president signed more funding for the indian health service and I am native american. However, growth of government is a bad thing and my leanings become more and more republican all the time. Why do the Oklahoma department of wildlife fatcats get to keep all the profit from the paddlefish eggs sale and it is a illegal and a felony for everyone else. At least those government employees have a job they should be happy about that. But saying there expenses are high to maintain the department’s funding is a joke. If paddlefish eggs are selling for $300 a pound on the world market that is a lot of money being made by the department. But, is it being used to give themselve’s higher salaries, hire more do nothing employees, and make up more stupid rules and regulations and laws which infringe upon ordinary people’s freedom. It seems like every year lawmakers make up more stupid laws and regulations which really don’t help anybody but, I guess it gives them something to do. A lot of laws are good for the common good though but, not all of them. Why not let Oklahomans have 1 or 2 paddlefish and their eggs for sale a year during their fishing season? Why make it illegal for oklahoma citizens to sell their eggs but, yet the government gets to profit off their eggs sale? Also at that paddlefish research center in Oklahoma why can’t people bring their “quota” of paddlefish and their eggs into the center and the employees can fillet them for the customers and give them their fish steaks, they can recycle the carcasses for heating oil, and as the employees harvest their eggs why can’t the individual get a percentage of the fish eggs for sale on the open market? It’s illegal for individuals to sell $300 a pound caviar when there is a market for it but, it’s okay for the government to profit from the sale to hire more do nothing employees, raise their salaries, and make up more useless rules and regulations. That’s like saying it is illegal for individuals to visit or work at a whorehouse in Oklahoma but, it is legal for the oklahoma wildlife department employees to run a whorehouse as well as frequent and make money off of a whorehouse and it is legal for them to do so just not everyone else.
I believe that your catch and release program on Monday’s and Friday’s is unfair, for this reason. Those of us coming from out of state, and using our vacation days, feel that it is not worth the time and money if we can’t keep the fish that we catch while we are there. There are times when those may be the only two days of the week that you get any fish. I think that there should be an incentive to come for a week and fish and spend money. If we can only remove fish Tuesday through Thursday then it hardly makes the trip worthwhile. In conclusion, I believe the millions that have been made from the sale of fish eggs, during paddle fish season, has tainted your thinking. You made all this money and now you start making up new rules. I feel that what you are doing is inconsiderate. You get your $$$ and then cut us back. There are some of us that take off work on Friday and Monday to go fishing. What a horrible choice of days. Why not Tuesday and Thursday? I am hopeful that you change the rules and make it worth our time to visit your state.