RESTORING THE PADDLEFISH: The prehistoric paddlefish 
returns to Texas waters with a little help from its friends. 
We have details, ahead, on Passport to Texas. (March 5)

This is Passport to Texas

Weather permitting, TPW, the USFWS and Caddo Lake 
Institute will release up to 50 paddlefish into Caddo Lake 
and Big Cypress Bayou in East Texas this week.

12 -- In Texas, it's listed as a threatened species. Much of its 
range has been interrupted by damns on rivers; so the habitat 
just really hasn't been there for the paddlefish to survive in Texas 
very well.

Predating dinosaurs, fisheries biologist, Tim Bister, calls 
the species "big river fish." Populations exist in rivers like 
the Mississippi, but remain scarce in Texas waters.

13 -- It's been a long time since we've collected a paddlefish in the 
Big Cypress River or Caddo Lake. So, this reintroduction is really 
more of an experiment to see if paddlefish are going to stay in 
the system.

Bister says they'll "radio tag" the fish before release. 

38 -- There're going to be radio transmitters; there's going to be 
three different towers down the stretch of the river, including one 
at the spillway of Caddo lake. So, every time a fish swims by one of 
these towers data will be collected. So, why now? What is it about 
this point in time that makes this seem like the right time? Well, 
for about the last 10 years, there have been several groups that 
have been working on establishing recommended flow patterns for 
The Big Cypress below lake of the Pine. So now that we've got some 
of these recommended flows in place, it's time to put some fish in 
there that respond to certain flows, and see how they perform.

Tomorrow: in-stream flows and paddlefish.

The WSFR Program supports our series. For Texas Parks 
and Wildlife, I'm Cecilia Nasti.





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