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Huge, once-hated fish now seen as weapon against Asian carp [Alligator Gar]
AP ^ | July 29, 2016 | Staff

Posted on 07/29/2016 7:24:26 AM PDT by C19fan

It's a toothy giant that can grow longer than a horse and heavier than a refrigerator, a fearsome-looking prehistoric fish that plied U.S. waters from the Gulf of Mexico to Illinois until it disappeared from many states a half-century ago.

Persecuted by anglers and deprived of places to spawn, the alligator gar — with a head that resembles an alligator and two rows of needlelike teeth — survived primarily in southern states in the tributaries of Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico after being declared extinct in several states farther north. To many, it was a freak, a "trash fish" that threatened sportfish, something to be exterminated.

(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Outdoors; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: alligatorgar; fish; invasive
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Why do fishermen hate the Gar? Luv to catch one of those monsters.
1 posted on 07/29/2016 7:24:26 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: C19fan

Ignorance.

Imagine the resurgence they could have feeding on the Asians. I wonder if they could institute a captive breeding program to speed up the return to natural balance and hopefully eradication of the asians.


2 posted on 07/29/2016 7:26:19 AM PDT by Travis T. OJustice ( I live with a Fierce Allegiance)
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To: C19fan
Why? Too many dadgummed teeth, that's why! If you hook one, you'd better just cut the line and say goodbye to your lure...better that than saying goodbye to fingers.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho! God Bless Texas!

3 posted on 07/29/2016 7:28:01 AM PDT by wku man (Just One Gun, the latest from 10 Pound Test - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6uFqQenIU4)
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To: C19fan

Aren’t they being racist against the migrant refugee Asian carp fish?


4 posted on 07/29/2016 7:28:12 AM PDT by sagar
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To: C19fan

The gar lives well here in the Lake of the Ozarks. My father in law snagged one and had it mounted some years ago. It has taken up residence on our game room wall.


5 posted on 07/29/2016 7:28:48 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Baseball players, gangsters and musicians are remembered. But journalists are forgotten.)
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To: C19fan

RE “...once-hated fish now seen as weapon against Asian carp ...”

There’s a reason for all critters being here, evidently...


6 posted on 07/29/2016 7:28:59 AM PDT by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
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To: C19fan

Lot’s of them in Kansas back in the 50’s. They may still be there, but I am not.


7 posted on 07/29/2016 7:31:49 AM PDT by umgud (ban muslims, not guns)
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To: C19fan

Gar meat is edible, but is extremely bony and rarely consumed. Gar eggs are highly toxic to humans.

Years ago I heard a radio guy in Fl talk about how to cook a Gar.

He said place it on a soaked board,plaster it with salt pepper garlic onions and bake at 450 for 3 hours.
Take it out scrape it off the board and eat the board as it will be better than the gar would ever be.

Or something like that??


8 posted on 07/29/2016 7:32:26 AM PDT by CGASMIA68 (kant spell er punktuate,fluncked english.Gramer to!!)
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To: CGASMIA68

Ouch !


9 posted on 07/29/2016 7:35:49 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Baseball players, gangsters and musicians are remembered. But journalists are forgotten.)
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To: C19fan
"I don't think alligator gar are going to be the silver bullet that is going to control carp by any stretch of the imagination"

They should have democrat strategist dog ugly lesbian Sally Kohn dive in and scare the carp away.

10 posted on 07/29/2016 7:36:55 AM PDT by Mr Apple ( .......why so many dog ugly nasty lesbians like Sally Kohn in the Hillary campaign???)
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To: CGASMIA68

So we should use them to take out the invasive species, then once that goal is accomplished, keep them regulated and controlled.

Like any other species.


11 posted on 07/29/2016 7:36:57 AM PDT by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
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To: C19fan

Back in the 1950s fishing for Alligator gar on the White River in Arkansas was a great sport till they cleaned them out. Don’t know if they still are there or not.
meanwhile, there are still plenty of regular gar throughout the Midwest and Southwest. Saw lots of them along the Pecos years ago, and they were everywhere below Keystone Dam at Tulsa in the Arkansas River.


12 posted on 07/29/2016 7:41:48 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: C19fan

Never bring an Asian Carp to an Alligator Gar fight.


13 posted on 07/29/2016 7:43:29 AM PDT by GreenHornet
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To: Travis T. OJustice

The video says exactly that. Breeding sized gar are caught and spawned and the fry are released into lakes and rivers when they are large enough.


14 posted on 07/29/2016 7:44:39 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Socialism is always just one or a thousand or a million more murders away from utopia.)
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To: C19fan
What about the WKRP Carp?


15 posted on 07/29/2016 7:45:04 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: C19fan

16 posted on 07/29/2016 7:46:22 AM PDT by Haiku Guy (The 2nd Amendment immediately follows the 1st because some people are hard of hearing...)
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To: C19fan

Went canoeing once on a river in So. Missouri that was just full of those monsters. Some were nearly as big as the canoe I was in. The girl with me just screamed the whole time.


17 posted on 07/29/2016 7:48:49 AM PDT by lafroste
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To: C19fan

“Persecuted by anglers and deprived of places to spawn, the alligator gar — with a head that resembles an alligator and two rows of needlelike teeth — survived primarily in southern states in the tributaries of Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico after “

A country Gar can survive.


18 posted on 07/29/2016 7:53:25 AM PDT by freefdny
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To: C19fan

Caught a foot-long gar at the Blanchard River dam in Findlay OH many moons back. Toothy!


19 posted on 07/29/2016 8:15:55 AM PDT by W. (Hillary is just like that ex-partner you've hated forever!)
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To: W.
Heh....remember when my daughter was about 3 and my father in law was teaching her to fish at their cabin on the Mississippi up near Alton.....she hooked a gar her first time out —a baby, but it came out of the water snapping. She threw her hands up and shrieked, and tossed the pole in the water and ran. Gramps had to dive in to retrieve his fishing pole.....
Took her a few years before she was brave enough to try fishing again....Wish I had video, it was hilarious...
20 posted on 07/29/2016 8:21:34 AM PDT by duckbutt (Those who pay no taxes have no check on their appetite for services.)
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