Dan Daugherty from the Heart of the Hills Fisheries Science Center provided the program for us last Wednesday.
The fishery was built in the 1920s, and was commonly known as the "Fish Hatchery". It did serve that purpose until 1969, but today is a research center which aims to conserve aquatic resources and improve fishing for the people of Texas.
One of their most successful programs has been restocking genetically pure Guadalupe Bass into central Texas rivers.
Another program they have been working on is educating the public about the native alligator gars. They are the oldest fresh water fish species in Texas, with their ancestors appearing in the fossil record nearly 200 million years ago. However, like Rodney Dangerfield, they have not gotten the respect they deserve. For years, there were efforts to eradicate the gar due to misinformation about them. But now, there are more fans, and "trophy" gars can weigh over 200 pounds and 8' in length. Scientists can use carbon -14 dating of their otilith, and have found alligator gars over 90 years old.
Studies have shown that the alligator gar do not eat that many game fish, but actually prey on each other when they are small, and are opportunistic eaters that favor carp and tilapia. They can also survive in the salty waters of our bays, and grow up to 30" in length per year when young. If you want to try your hand a catching one, there is a bag limit of one per day in Texas, which was instituted in 2009 to conserve the species.
