03-20-2006, 11:08 PM
03-21-2006, 12:34 AM
his is a good view on gar
Interview with Allyse Ferrara, Ph.D.
By Bill Tracy
I first learned of Allyse Ferrara in conjunction with research efforts on gar occurring at Auburn University. Next, I noticed she had finished her dissertation on the alligator gar and was teaching at a university in Louisiana. We at Save the Gar thought our readers would like to know more about her efforts.
The interviewer's questions are presented in bold, while Dr. Ferrara's responses are in normal text. Brackets [ ] indicate comments, or clarifications by this author.
Dr Ferrara laughingly admitted to being a fisherperson. So, I asked, how does an expert fish for gar? "Here I'm a fisheries biologist but I'm horrible when it comes to using recreational methods. The best thing that I've found is cut bait. I've never caught alligator gar, but have caught spotted gar and longnose gar."
Have you eaten gar? "Yes I have. I've had it a lot. I usually don't fish for gar to eat them, every once in a while we will eat a spotted gar. I've learned several different ways to prepare gar while I was in Mexico. One way is to gut the gar, put them on a big wooden dowel, and cook them rotisserie style over hot coals. Sand is used to scrub off the slime and most of the pigmentation and roast them like that… It's excellent meat. [However] I'm not going out to seek alligator gar for consumption. It is sold around here. We have a little fish place by my house, they are selling it for $3.00 a pound."
At what temperature are gars happiest? "I guess it depends on the season. I know that gar can tolerate high temperatures, above 30 degrees Celsius, as well as the low temperatures in the single digits.
In the winter, do they hibernate? "I have heard this from commercial anglers, that in the winter gar burrow in the mud. I don't believe this. I do know gar won't feed as much…. Gar won't be found in high velocity areas; but will be in off channel areas during the winter. In the spring they respond to increased water flow [due to rain] as well as increasing temperature."
How do you feel about bow fishing: "I bought a bow. I wanted to learn more about the sport. The bow anglers in Alabama were just fantastic. They helped me so much. They took me out in their boats, showed me where they collected fish. A lot of the bow anglers, particularly individuals that ran guide services, said they didn't want anyone to shoot a fish unless it was over a hundred pounds. The bow anglers want to make sure they are not shooting the small fish.
I hate to see any of those very large fish die. But we did get a lot of information from fish killed by bow anglers. The largest fish that I've seen was 7 1/2 feet long. It was a big female from Orange, Texas. The guy, who lived just south of Montgomery, shot the fish in Texas and brought it over to us at Auburn. [He said] You can have all the data you want. Just keep it in the freezer. He was getting it the fish mounted. It was the biggest fish I've seen. We had it wrapped in a tarp in the freezer. We called it her Earl. I pulled 31 pounds of eggs out of that fish. She was shot in April, so I would have expected even more weight gain in the eggs. The eggs would have developed more before she released them."
Are the eggs poisonous: " That's a really good question. Actually one of the other professors at Nicholls [State University] is working with the eggs now. As far as I know, gar eggs are toxic to vertebrates who normally wouldn't be in the water eating gar eggs. There is some evidence of toxicity to crayfish when injected with the egg toxin.
They [researchers] are trying to isolate the toxin to determine, what it is, where it is in the eggs, and how long does the toxin persist? Once the eggs hatch out are they still toxic? Do they [young gar] have to absorb the yoke sac before the toxicity goes away? The group here is trying to ID the toxic substance right now. They are presently developing a biochemical assay for the egg toxin. They have been feeding gar eggs to crawfish, and injecting them with an extract from the eggs.
There is another tale that I've read, that gar will lay their eggs in bass nests. "You've read Cope's article. You know I just looked at that article again yesterday. My feeling is that they [the eggs] just happened to land in the smallmouth bass nests. Actually the smallmouths that made those nests were lucky that they didn't get in the way of the spawning gar. The bass would probably have had eggs stuck on them."… "I've seen spotted and longnose gar spawn in streams…. I don't want to say that they are in a trance, [but] they are going to get the job done. If they have started the motion of spawning it doesn't matter what's there, they are going to continue."
What I've been impressed with is the number of studies, done with gar. Is it because of their hardiness? "I think that that has a lot to do with it, and physiologically they are so unique. Their ability to breathe air, as well as the tremendously long neurons in their snout. The physiologists love them. Gar are kind of oddballs and are easy to maintain.
How long will gars live and how large will they get? My estimate is that alligator gar will live 75 years, maybe longer. I would guess that about 3 meters is their maximum length
What do gars like to eat? "Well there are going to be some differences between the species. … Crayfish in the spotted gar. The alligator gar will also eat crabs or crustaceans. The alligator gar will eat benthic fishes like drum, and catfish, they also like schooling species like mullet and menhaden. The big fish we got, the 7 1/2 footer, had eaten a monstrous catfish, a big blue. The catfish was in a pretty sorry state when we pulled it out of the gar, but I would estimate that catfish was approximately 3 feet long."
"Gar are highly cannibalistic in culture. So you will see if one has a couple millimeter advantages on its sibling, it's going to eat its sibling."
"The group that I worked with in Mexico from the Universidad Jaurez Automoma de Tabasco (UJAT) in Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico would try to separate the cannibals because their growth rate was incredible and they were eating the rest of the fish."
Is the alligator gar going to make it Alabama? "I think alligator gar will be able to hang on in some of the coastal areas. But I don't think that we will ever see the population rebound. If the [stream] flows are altered further, I wouldn't be surprised if the alligator gar becomes extirpated from the state. It is just a matter of, is there spawning habitat available? I don't think the fishing pressure is that high in the state…. We did find some smaller individuals that were several years old which indicates fairly recent successful reproduction events. I'm concerned about spawning habitat being available. It could be that about every 5 years they get good spawn off. But is that enough to sustain the population. Maybe, but for the population to grow, I doubt it."
So you see flow rate as the major problem and not pollution? "Yes. I don't know how toxic substances effect the gar, I'm not a physiologist, but I do believe that we have altered the habitat so severely that we are never going to see gar populations like we used to, even if we stop fishing for them. I really don't think the [fishing] pressure is that high it's just a complicating factor when the habitat has been so degraded."
In must of the US, the Longnose gar is the dominant species, perhaps the All American Gar. Why: "You do find them in some of the Atlantic drainages where you don't find the other gar. I don't know how they got there, but that is one reason why you see a wider distribution of longnose gar when compared to other gar species. I think that the Longnose are able to use practically any substrate for spawning. Everything from rocks to grass. … If they can find a place that is adequate, they will spawn."
Obviously they are an industrious species. "I would almost think that the Longnose population has increased due to some of these habitat alterations, particularly below the dams. They stack up below dams and munch shad till they are fat and happy. … I don't think that there is any sort of social interaction going on; the gar are there because that is where the shad are. … The only times you see collections of gar interacting are when they are spawning."
"The Longnose peter out in Texas or maybe into Northern Mexico, while alligator gars are found as far south as Vera Cruz [Mexico]."
Where are you going in your research? "The big one is, that is, the Holy Grail of gar research, is habitat research. What is the essential habitat for the larvae, the juveniles? The adults are migratory enough so that they will survive adverse conditions. But are the adults actually going to be able to reproduce?
Do you have any idea on what scents gars respond to? "I know the group in Mexico (UJAT) is actively looking into that because they want to try to create a feed for the larvae. I've had gar in tank and fed them cat food and some of the gar eat the cat food. Cat food has a higher protein than dog food. But the researchers at UJAT are looking for a scent that is going to attract the larvae to the pellets get the majority of the larvae on feed, if this is possible. I think the longer you wait to start offering artificial feeds, the fewer individuals you can get to turn from feeding on live feed to nonliving items."
Is there a particular time of day when gars are most active? "I've seen them active at all times of the day. When you see them active on the surface and in large groups are is days when spawning is occurring. I know that the commercial anglers will set nets out over night. I would imagine, particularly with the alligator gar, in areas, which have tidal influence, tidal stage is a key factor.
Why do gar gulp air? As temperature increases, water can hold less oxygen. One study has shown that with water temperatures over 70 degrees Fahrenheit, 70 or 80% of the gar's oxygen actually comes from air. …My guess is that the gar's gills are less efficient at extracting oxygen from the water at high temperatures.
There was one incidence, in the 1920's in Louisiana of a gar biting a bathers dangling foot. "I wonder if that was really true. The gars are more afraid of us than we are of them. The only time they will hurt you is if you have them in a boat and they are swinging their head.
I've been scraped by gar when untangling them. "Those scales are amazing. …I think gar slime contains an enzyme that breaks-down proteins. Thats why if you handle gar a lot, people will get pink looking hands. My hands peel after I handle gar. It takes about a week.
One of our readers commented that he fishes for gar using cheap hooks, which he baits, lets the gar swallow the bait and sets the hook. After catching he doesn't remove the hook, just cuts the line, leaves the hook in the gar and returns the fish to the water. "You know what is really amazing? I've seen gar pass hooks. You cut the gar open and you find hooks all the way near the end of their digestive tract. They also will pass crawfish legs. This ability to pass hooks and crawfish legs doesn't surprise me, because gar have a fairly straight digestive tract."
Are you familiar with the efforts to eradicate the gar in Texas in the 1930s? "Yes, that was [also the case] in many states, all the way up into Iowa. In Alabama, until very recently, they had a law on the books, stating that it was illegal to throw a live gar back into the water. That is just a misunderstanding, unfortunately some people still believe that. I've found Longnose with broken snouts. That disgusts me. When people leave gar on the bank, what's the point? If its an invasive or exotic species, no problem. … If it's a native species why? I just don't understand."
"People need to understand that gar are an important part of the eco system. They make take an occasional bass. But is it probably better for the anglers, because they are getting rid of a [slow] one."
There are two groups [of researchers] in Mexico that work with gar; the northern group at the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon in Nuevo Leon is very interested in restoring the alligator gar. Alligator gar have practically been extirpated from Northern Mexico due to over fishing and building of dams.
This group of researchers have been spawning alligator gars for years. I don't know when they started it, but the government owns the brood stock, and the way they described it to me, was that these brood stock fish are a national treasure. Alligator gar is a very important fish in northern Mexico."
I believe that the Cubans also have a strong interest in their gar. "Yes, they are proud of their native species the Cuban gar.
In southern Mexico, in the state of Tabasco, the tropical gar is part of the state seal. Tropical gar is served in restaurants. I saw it tropical gar painted on the sides of buildings. …. There is a lot of pride in their local species the tropical gar or pejelagarto]. The researchers from UJAT are trying to maintain it and to partially restore [tropical gar populations in certain areas of the state. Tropical gar is still heavily fished in Tabasco. I don't remember the exact number, but tons and tons are taken commercially every year for human consumption."
"Commercial anglers will sell their catch of tropical gar on the sides of roads and in markets. The researchers at UJAT gave me some of their pictures of commercially caught tropical gar], one is just incredible, it's a log that's got a [horizontal] branch.with 8 to 10 fairly large tropical gar, that are strung up through the jaw, hanging from the branch… for sale. Tropical gar is part of the culture; they are very obvious."
The Mexican efforts sound very strong, do we need to worry about a Gar Gap developing? "The Mexicans are further ahead of us in terms of aquaculture. They have been raising them gar for years and want to raise [gar] commercially. They are also interested in releasing laboratory spawned fish. The big concern is, are the larvae actually going to survive?
My gut says no, the larvae are probably being released at too small a size. At release, the larvae are maybe 2 inches long. I would say that the larvae may need to reach 6 to 10 inches or longer before release. Then you get into problems with the cost of raising larger gar for release. The gar grow incredibly rapidly, but you need to feed them large quantities of food to maintain the rapid growth rate in culture.
[With] Stocking programs here in the United States we need to have a better idea about the genetics of gar populations. That is something that concerns me. We need a lot more research just to see how or if the populations of alligator gar from different areas mix. Are the populations completely isolated according to drainage? This wouldn't surprise me.
Do we just put the young out there and ignore any genetic differences between the areas, or not? I do not want to advocate stocking alligator gar without an understanding of the genetic diversity of alligator gar populations.
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Interview with Allyse Ferrara, Ph.D.
By Bill Tracy
I first learned of Allyse Ferrara in conjunction with research efforts on gar occurring at Auburn University. Next, I noticed she had finished her dissertation on the alligator gar and was teaching at a university in Louisiana. We at Save the Gar thought our readers would like to know more about her efforts.
The interviewer's questions are presented in bold, while Dr. Ferrara's responses are in normal text. Brackets [ ] indicate comments, or clarifications by this author.
Dr Ferrara laughingly admitted to being a fisherperson. So, I asked, how does an expert fish for gar? "Here I'm a fisheries biologist but I'm horrible when it comes to using recreational methods. The best thing that I've found is cut bait. I've never caught alligator gar, but have caught spotted gar and longnose gar."
Have you eaten gar? "Yes I have. I've had it a lot. I usually don't fish for gar to eat them, every once in a while we will eat a spotted gar. I've learned several different ways to prepare gar while I was in Mexico. One way is to gut the gar, put them on a big wooden dowel, and cook them rotisserie style over hot coals. Sand is used to scrub off the slime and most of the pigmentation and roast them like that… It's excellent meat. [However] I'm not going out to seek alligator gar for consumption. It is sold around here. We have a little fish place by my house, they are selling it for $3.00 a pound."
At what temperature are gars happiest? "I guess it depends on the season. I know that gar can tolerate high temperatures, above 30 degrees Celsius, as well as the low temperatures in the single digits.
In the winter, do they hibernate? "I have heard this from commercial anglers, that in the winter gar burrow in the mud. I don't believe this. I do know gar won't feed as much…. Gar won't be found in high velocity areas; but will be in off channel areas during the winter. In the spring they respond to increased water flow [due to rain] as well as increasing temperature."
How do you feel about bow fishing: "I bought a bow. I wanted to learn more about the sport. The bow anglers in Alabama were just fantastic. They helped me so much. They took me out in their boats, showed me where they collected fish. A lot of the bow anglers, particularly individuals that ran guide services, said they didn't want anyone to shoot a fish unless it was over a hundred pounds. The bow anglers want to make sure they are not shooting the small fish.
I hate to see any of those very large fish die. But we did get a lot of information from fish killed by bow anglers. The largest fish that I've seen was 7 1/2 feet long. It was a big female from Orange, Texas. The guy, who lived just south of Montgomery, shot the fish in Texas and brought it over to us at Auburn. [He said] You can have all the data you want. Just keep it in the freezer. He was getting it the fish mounted. It was the biggest fish I've seen. We had it wrapped in a tarp in the freezer. We called it her Earl. I pulled 31 pounds of eggs out of that fish. She was shot in April, so I would have expected even more weight gain in the eggs. The eggs would have developed more before she released them."
Are the eggs poisonous: " That's a really good question. Actually one of the other professors at Nicholls [State University] is working with the eggs now. As far as I know, gar eggs are toxic to vertebrates who normally wouldn't be in the water eating gar eggs. There is some evidence of toxicity to crayfish when injected with the egg toxin.
They [researchers] are trying to isolate the toxin to determine, what it is, where it is in the eggs, and how long does the toxin persist? Once the eggs hatch out are they still toxic? Do they [young gar] have to absorb the yoke sac before the toxicity goes away? The group here is trying to ID the toxic substance right now. They are presently developing a biochemical assay for the egg toxin. They have been feeding gar eggs to crawfish, and injecting them with an extract from the eggs.
There is another tale that I've read, that gar will lay their eggs in bass nests. "You've read Cope's article. You know I just looked at that article again yesterday. My feeling is that they [the eggs] just happened to land in the smallmouth bass nests. Actually the smallmouths that made those nests were lucky that they didn't get in the way of the spawning gar. The bass would probably have had eggs stuck on them."… "I've seen spotted and longnose gar spawn in streams…. I don't want to say that they are in a trance, [but] they are going to get the job done. If they have started the motion of spawning it doesn't matter what's there, they are going to continue."
What I've been impressed with is the number of studies, done with gar. Is it because of their hardiness? "I think that that has a lot to do with it, and physiologically they are so unique. Their ability to breathe air, as well as the tremendously long neurons in their snout. The physiologists love them. Gar are kind of oddballs and are easy to maintain.
How long will gars live and how large will they get? My estimate is that alligator gar will live 75 years, maybe longer. I would guess that about 3 meters is their maximum length
What do gars like to eat? "Well there are going to be some differences between the species. … Crayfish in the spotted gar. The alligator gar will also eat crabs or crustaceans. The alligator gar will eat benthic fishes like drum, and catfish, they also like schooling species like mullet and menhaden. The big fish we got, the 7 1/2 footer, had eaten a monstrous catfish, a big blue. The catfish was in a pretty sorry state when we pulled it out of the gar, but I would estimate that catfish was approximately 3 feet long."
"Gar are highly cannibalistic in culture. So you will see if one has a couple millimeter advantages on its sibling, it's going to eat its sibling."
"The group that I worked with in Mexico from the Universidad Jaurez Automoma de Tabasco (UJAT) in Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico would try to separate the cannibals because their growth rate was incredible and they were eating the rest of the fish."
Is the alligator gar going to make it Alabama? "I think alligator gar will be able to hang on in some of the coastal areas. But I don't think that we will ever see the population rebound. If the [stream] flows are altered further, I wouldn't be surprised if the alligator gar becomes extirpated from the state. It is just a matter of, is there spawning habitat available? I don't think the fishing pressure is that high in the state…. We did find some smaller individuals that were several years old which indicates fairly recent successful reproduction events. I'm concerned about spawning habitat being available. It could be that about every 5 years they get good spawn off. But is that enough to sustain the population. Maybe, but for the population to grow, I doubt it."
So you see flow rate as the major problem and not pollution? "Yes. I don't know how toxic substances effect the gar, I'm not a physiologist, but I do believe that we have altered the habitat so severely that we are never going to see gar populations like we used to, even if we stop fishing for them. I really don't think the [fishing] pressure is that high it's just a complicating factor when the habitat has been so degraded."
In must of the US, the Longnose gar is the dominant species, perhaps the All American Gar. Why: "You do find them in some of the Atlantic drainages where you don't find the other gar. I don't know how they got there, but that is one reason why you see a wider distribution of longnose gar when compared to other gar species. I think that the Longnose are able to use practically any substrate for spawning. Everything from rocks to grass. … If they can find a place that is adequate, they will spawn."
Obviously they are an industrious species. "I would almost think that the Longnose population has increased due to some of these habitat alterations, particularly below the dams. They stack up below dams and munch shad till they are fat and happy. … I don't think that there is any sort of social interaction going on; the gar are there because that is where the shad are. … The only times you see collections of gar interacting are when they are spawning."
"The Longnose peter out in Texas or maybe into Northern Mexico, while alligator gars are found as far south as Vera Cruz [Mexico]."
Where are you going in your research? "The big one is, that is, the Holy Grail of gar research, is habitat research. What is the essential habitat for the larvae, the juveniles? The adults are migratory enough so that they will survive adverse conditions. But are the adults actually going to be able to reproduce?
Do you have any idea on what scents gars respond to? "I know the group in Mexico (UJAT) is actively looking into that because they want to try to create a feed for the larvae. I've had gar in tank and fed them cat food and some of the gar eat the cat food. Cat food has a higher protein than dog food. But the researchers at UJAT are looking for a scent that is going to attract the larvae to the pellets get the majority of the larvae on feed, if this is possible. I think the longer you wait to start offering artificial feeds, the fewer individuals you can get to turn from feeding on live feed to nonliving items."
Is there a particular time of day when gars are most active? "I've seen them active at all times of the day. When you see them active on the surface and in large groups are is days when spawning is occurring. I know that the commercial anglers will set nets out over night. I would imagine, particularly with the alligator gar, in areas, which have tidal influence, tidal stage is a key factor.
Why do gar gulp air? As temperature increases, water can hold less oxygen. One study has shown that with water temperatures over 70 degrees Fahrenheit, 70 or 80% of the gar's oxygen actually comes from air. …My guess is that the gar's gills are less efficient at extracting oxygen from the water at high temperatures.
There was one incidence, in the 1920's in Louisiana of a gar biting a bathers dangling foot. "I wonder if that was really true. The gars are more afraid of us than we are of them. The only time they will hurt you is if you have them in a boat and they are swinging their head.
I've been scraped by gar when untangling them. "Those scales are amazing. …I think gar slime contains an enzyme that breaks-down proteins. Thats why if you handle gar a lot, people will get pink looking hands. My hands peel after I handle gar. It takes about a week.
One of our readers commented that he fishes for gar using cheap hooks, which he baits, lets the gar swallow the bait and sets the hook. After catching he doesn't remove the hook, just cuts the line, leaves the hook in the gar and returns the fish to the water. "You know what is really amazing? I've seen gar pass hooks. You cut the gar open and you find hooks all the way near the end of their digestive tract. They also will pass crawfish legs. This ability to pass hooks and crawfish legs doesn't surprise me, because gar have a fairly straight digestive tract."
Are you familiar with the efforts to eradicate the gar in Texas in the 1930s? "Yes, that was [also the case] in many states, all the way up into Iowa. In Alabama, until very recently, they had a law on the books, stating that it was illegal to throw a live gar back into the water. That is just a misunderstanding, unfortunately some people still believe that. I've found Longnose with broken snouts. That disgusts me. When people leave gar on the bank, what's the point? If its an invasive or exotic species, no problem. … If it's a native species why? I just don't understand."
"People need to understand that gar are an important part of the eco system. They make take an occasional bass. But is it probably better for the anglers, because they are getting rid of a [slow] one."
There are two groups [of researchers] in Mexico that work with gar; the northern group at the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon in Nuevo Leon is very interested in restoring the alligator gar. Alligator gar have practically been extirpated from Northern Mexico due to over fishing and building of dams.
This group of researchers have been spawning alligator gars for years. I don't know when they started it, but the government owns the brood stock, and the way they described it to me, was that these brood stock fish are a national treasure. Alligator gar is a very important fish in northern Mexico."
I believe that the Cubans also have a strong interest in their gar. "Yes, they are proud of their native species the Cuban gar.
In southern Mexico, in the state of Tabasco, the tropical gar is part of the state seal. Tropical gar is served in restaurants. I saw it tropical gar painted on the sides of buildings. …. There is a lot of pride in their local species the tropical gar or pejelagarto]. The researchers from UJAT are trying to maintain it and to partially restore [tropical gar populations in certain areas of the state. Tropical gar is still heavily fished in Tabasco. I don't remember the exact number, but tons and tons are taken commercially every year for human consumption."
"Commercial anglers will sell their catch of tropical gar on the sides of roads and in markets. The researchers at UJAT gave me some of their pictures of commercially caught tropical gar], one is just incredible, it's a log that's got a [horizontal] branch.with 8 to 10 fairly large tropical gar, that are strung up through the jaw, hanging from the branch… for sale. Tropical gar is part of the culture; they are very obvious."
The Mexican efforts sound very strong, do we need to worry about a Gar Gap developing? "The Mexicans are further ahead of us in terms of aquaculture. They have been raising them gar for years and want to raise [gar] commercially. They are also interested in releasing laboratory spawned fish. The big concern is, are the larvae actually going to survive?
My gut says no, the larvae are probably being released at too small a size. At release, the larvae are maybe 2 inches long. I would say that the larvae may need to reach 6 to 10 inches or longer before release. Then you get into problems with the cost of raising larger gar for release. The gar grow incredibly rapidly, but you need to feed them large quantities of food to maintain the rapid growth rate in culture.
[With] Stocking programs here in the United States we need to have a better idea about the genetics of gar populations. That is something that concerns me. We need a lot more research just to see how or if the populations of alligator gar from different areas mix. Are the populations completely isolated according to drainage? This wouldn't surprise me.
Do we just put the young out there and ignore any genetic differences between the areas, or not? I do not want to advocate stocking alligator gar without an understanding of the genetic diversity of alligator gar populations.
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03-23-2006, 01:26 AM
i've caught one gar in my lifetime, many years ago. I can honestly say i don't want to see one of those bad boys at the end of my line ever again!
cya
rc
cya
rc
07-08-2006, 04:14 PM
hello i have cought a gar it waas 5 feet long .i cought it in lake grahm in jackson tn.but ya i am with u i dont want to see one of them bad boys at the end of my line again.
give it all u got or dont do it
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give it all u got or dont do it
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08-04-2006, 11:32 PM
[cool]Here they are sailfish , during the winter!!
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08-06-2006, 01:26 PM
Seeing as that aqua view has a perch profile, he's luck they weren't hungry. Great video, all I see is a bass now and then.
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08-06-2006, 06:16 PM
Gar are warm water fish. So if you locate the warmest water on your lake during the winter you will find, gar, carp catfish and largemouth. Usually these areas consist of shallow murky rivers, creeks and bays. Hope this helps!
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