If our legislature really wants to save the Florida sturgeon then they need to start feeding the alligators something else besides sturgeon and allow the experts to propagate the sturgeon. The finger size paddlefish from the private farms sell for $1.00 to $4.00 each. Very few state hatcheries are producing paddlefish because they can't compete with these private farms.

I have no intention of making this fish Florida's problem but more like Florida's solution to a national problem with minimum risk. My plea will probably be for a certified paddlefish that has been sterilized (females only). This has been done by farmers in the past with Asian grass carp that are used to eat the weeds in the canals and ponds. They have a specific right to be here and in the wild as long as they are regulated. This concept might make it easier for everyone to accept. In nature there are no absolutes. No matter how thorough I am about vetting this fish for the wild there are always going to be surprises. There has to be some room for error or reversal. In the political world it is always easier to say no and then come back later and say there was nothing we could do. In the real world people take chances every day, just getting out of bed, crossing the street, or investing in the stock market.

Florida Fish & Game Commission can safely do this without outside influences getting in the way. Although up north the paddlefish is considered an interjurisdictional fish, interjurisdictional between states does not fall into play here. There is the matter of the Seminole Indian tribe that owns a large section of the everglades and is not subject to federal laws and SITES regulations. With the expansions of everglades acreage to the north that would be state and federal owned, then this may complicate the "who's on first" issue. Tribal council could be the only saving grace from a dysfunctional federal system. It seems like Governor Charlie Crist and the Fish and Game people have a good relationship with the tribe.

I will continue to update this site with information for everyone. There might be something perverted about the sterilization of perfectly good fish that are in danger of going extinct, but it might be the only way to get them started in the Florida everglades. To quote a contemporary philosopher "Stupid is as stupid does".

What this does is send messages to different people. Breeders will say "they want them for the eggs", Governments will say "they are afraid of something", Farmers will say "the government just wants the power and money", Average people will say "they must know what they are doing". A few people will say "they want to compete with our production". Nobody knows who the they are so it will be greeted with skepticism over purpose and maybe some element of threat. The key to the survival of this species is to establish the large spectrum of purpose and eliminate any perceived threat. For the politicians out there; this is the differential for good publicity, and bad publicity, therein the perversion of our government can be explained in purely mechanical terms.

The truth is that no female fish can be physically sterilized. Yes, even the sterilized Asian grass carp females will have viable eggs. The university of Kentucky has developed methods of producing only female fry and therefore the fish would not be certified as sterile but as females only instead. This would allow a good supply of female fish without the possibility for reproduction in the wild. This method was developed for the higher production of caviar roe, maximum meat growth potential, and is exceptionally reliable. By fertilization of the paddlefish eggs using sturgeon male semen, the eggs all develop as female paddlefish. "Viable, diploid gynogenetic (gynogenotes) paddlefish Polyodon spathula were produced by activating eggs with ultraviolet-irradiated shovelnose sturgeon Scaphirhynchus platorynchus spermatozoa and heat shocking. Without irradiation treatment, sturgeon spermatozoa appeared to activate the eggs (up to gastrulation), but did not result in any viable hybrids". Smaller fish as potential males could be culled by the grow out farm anyway, just in case. If the decision to keep this fish in the everglades on a continuing basis is made then males could be introduced later.

CITES: Because the paddlefish is listed as a Vulnerable species Appendices II, CLASS ACTINOPTERYGII Taxon: Polyodon spathula
(FISHES) ACIPENSERIFORMES

Grants for states and territories, offered through the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund, 25% of estimated project cost. This could provide the state of Florida in the USA with a great offset to their land purchase for everglades restoration. Perhaps several hundred million dollars to the state from the federal government. I am certain that there are other animals that would fall into this category here in Florida already but the only way to prevent them from going extinct may be to feed the alligators something else for a period of time. The critical habitat for some of these species may not include being eaten by alligators. The Florida sturgeons might at last have a chance to avoid the jaws of death.

Never in the history of North America has there been so many permanent obstacles to the restoration of a species. The original paddlefish habitat can not be restored because it will cost hundreds of billions of dollars to either destroy dams or build ladders for the fish that may not work with paddlefish anyway. Farm lands and communities on either side of the rivers would be flooded every year after rains and snow melts in the north. Paddlefish might be attracted to certain stimulus to encourage them to climb a graduated bypass but there is no guarantee that this idea will work. At least Florida could experiment with this idea in the smaller canal systems before the money is spent on a very much larger scale. Engineering is often a matter of trial and error. Maybe with paddlefish in the Florida wild then we could discover the best method to deal with this impossible problem. The paddlefish needs an alternative critical habitat for it's long term survival and the endangered species in Florida need a vacation from being eaten. Perhaps the best advantage the paddlefish has now is that it is not ecologically sustainable within it's own habitat. If it can find a useful purpose within the Florida ecosystem then it might thereby become sustainable. Successful reproduction in the wild is critical to this species survival.

CITES will always be nothing more than a major restriction to trade, denied scientific propagation, and the perpetuation of bureaucratic BS (Politics of Research in Education). The fish farms that are producing eyed eggs from hormone injection, simply get their annual 6 month permit, and ship everything to China within a 3 month period. That is the extent of international trade and the largest percentage of trade in general. The only fish that are going to the wild in the USA are very limited to private initiatives and a few small, ineffective government research programs. Basically this is a loosing proposition that seems to hold some hope for those people involved. About 60% to 80% are lost before they even get to the wild because of poor aquacultural management and CITES restrictions. The price of released fish is so high that only so many can go anyway. Liberal groups pounding away at the animal trade put Florida's farmers in jeopardy. If you give a Florida fish farmer an egg and say here it is for free, we will pay you $4 each for these a month from now, then you will have minimum losses and a good crop to release. Florida has nowhere to go but up; it is starting out with the clear advantages of skilled fish farmers, no government restrictions, and a good potential budget.

These groups have been accepted by the Commission for Florida criteria:

Sorry, I don't have much good to say about government and their way of getting things done. I generally have a bad attitude about such things. I will report anything helpful or anything negative that develops. For what it is worth, the governors office did say "call me any time".

end Politics