Texas gar need safeguard

Feb. 8, 2009, 2:02AM

Shannon Tompkins: CHRONICLE

ALLIGATOR GAR BITES

. Alligator gar, which can grow to weigh more than 300 pounds, are the
second-largest freshwater fish in North America. Only white sturgeon grow
larger. The Texas and world record for alligator gar caught on rod and reel
is a 279-pound gar caught in the Rio Grande in 1951.

. Studies done in Texas show gizzard shad and other forage fish make up the
huge majority of gar diet.

. Alligator gar can live 50-75 years and are slow to mature. A female gar
reaches sexual maturity at about 12 years old. Male gar reach that point in
about eight years.

. Nine states have native populations of gar. The species has been driven to
extinction in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.

. Texas and Louisiana are the only states with gar populations that have no
restrictions on taking the fish. In Florida and Tennessee, taking gar is
prohibited.

. Alligator gar require specific habitat - terrestrial vegetation inundated
by seasonal flooding - to spawn. Availability of this ephemeral habitat has
been severely reduced by dams and other flood-control efforts.

. According to Dr. Allyse Ferrara of Nicholls State University, perhaps the
nation's top gar expert, Texas has the best remaining populations of the
fish and is the only state that holds a good population of large
"trophy-size" gar.

. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department fisheries managers this past month
recommended setting a one-fish-per-day bag limit for alligator gar. If
adopted in March, the regulation would take effect Sept. 1.

I was smitten by alligator gar almost a half-century ago when, as a
6-year-old fishing alone on the willow-lined bayou that bordered our rural
yard, I had a 20-pound "juvenile" bust my cane pole and drag it off down the
bayou while I watched with a combination of fear and wonder.

As a teenager and young adult, I obsessively fished for alligator gar in
Southeast Texas' bayous, rivers and backwaters. Gar are incredible fish to
take on rod and reel - challenging to hook, tough to fight and, in a
visceral, atavistic way, gorgeous creatures, what with that olive-colored
cylindrical body covered with those unique, diamond-shape, armor-like scales
and that namesake-shaped snout studded with all those teeth.

I learned a lot about where to find and how to catch big gar - some weighing
150 pounds or more - but not a lot about the fish. A ton of research - life
history, behavior, feeding habits, population dynamics - was available on
bass, sunfish and catfish, but almost nothing was written about gar.

Knowledge improving

What little was out there was not scientifically enlightening, and certainly
not complimentary of gar. Most referred to gar as "trash fish" or "rough
fish," a bane on the fishery and worthy only of extermination. These were
denunciations spawned by ignorance from a lack of scientific study of the
fish and its place in freshwater ecosystems.

Happily, with the past couple of decades producing a fair amount of study
focusing on gar and a growing understanding and acceptance of the
irreplaceable value of every piece of an ecosystem, people have changed
their attitudes toward these incredibly cool fish.

Well, some people have. When it comes to gar, some remain ignorant or,
worse, just plain avaricious.

That sad point has been made over the past few months as Texas fisheries
managers have tried to address real threats to gar by pushing for modestly
reducing take of big gar, and met resistance.

The species is declining in number and range, and has been for years. The
endangered fisheries committee of the American Fisheries Society has placed
gar on its list of imperiled North American freshwater fish.

Habitat loss from human-caused changes in hydrology of river systems has
reduced the ability of the slow-maturing, low-reproducing, long-lived gar to
sustain their numbers in the face of increased fishing pressure.

Worth a listen

More rod-and-reel anglers are discovering gar, and bowfishers are bearing
down on Texas' gar with high-tech archery equipment and specially rigged
boats.

It doesn't take much harvest of large gar to send the population spinning
south. Don't think it can happen? The fish have disappeared from Illinois,
Indiana and Ohio.

Of the nine states where they remain, only Texas and Louisiana offer the
fish absolutely no protection. Some states prohibit any take of gar; most
have a limit of one or two per day.

Dr. Allyse Ferrara, associate professor of biological science at Nicholls
State University, told the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission during a
briefing this past November that Texas has the nation's best remaining gar
fisheries - populations containing a number of large, adult fish.

Ferrara, arguably the nation's top expert on gar populations, was there to
help Texas fisheries managers explain why the state should consider trying
to manage the fishery instead of ignoring it and allowing it to be taken
indiscriminately without restrictions.

Treasure could be lost

Texas has a "very, very unique" gar fishery, and is the only state that has
a chance to maintain "trophy" fishery status.

"Texas is the only place where it's going to happen now because we see such
a decline in the numbers and the size structure of the remaining
populations," Ferrara told the commission.

Continuing allowance of the unrestricted take of gar and the fishery will
vanish, and with it a growing recreational fishery and, perhaps more
importantly, the vital function gar serve in freshwater ecosystems.

But to some, offering any protection to gar seems unwarranted, at best.

"I mean, isn't it still a trash fish?" commissioner Ralph Duggins asked
Ferrara.

Some bowfishers are livid that TPWD wants to offer protection to gar, and
are pushing to keep the most liberal rules possible.

On the docket

This past month, when TPWD asked to be allowed to formally propose to limit
anglers to taking no more than one gar per day, some commission members
balked.

Not enough biological data to justify the proposal, went their argument. No
reason to stop allowing unlimited take of the fish until there is solid
proof supported by collected data.

The TPW Commission reluctantly allowed the one-gar-per-day rule to be
included in the annual regulations proposal package. And the commission will
decide its fate at the group's March meeting.

In natural resource management, taking a conservative path is the
responsible thing - the right thing - to do when all available information
says a resource faces a threat. The risk of doing otherwise is too high and
often irreversible.

Texas is blessed with a great resource in its alligator gar fishery. Risking
losing it is irresponsible. They are anything but "trash fish." Even a
6-year-old could see that.

shannon.tompk...@chron.com