Kentucky Lake Paddlefish

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will deny the issuance of CITES export permits for paddlefish and products (caviar) harvested from Kentucky Lake during the recently completed 2008-2009 fishing season. Kentucky Lake provides at least 63 percent of all caviar harvested in Tennessee. This action will not impact the domestic sale of the caviar, but will prevent its export.
Commercial harvest of paddlefish in Tennessee is managed by the TWRA. Recent regulatory recommendations by the agency were based on a scientific research study. This study originated from the Service’s concern over the high number of applications for caviar export permits from this lake. The results of this study indicated that paddlefish were indeed being overfished. To address this, the state wildlife agency developed a five-year plan to gradually increase the minimum size limit to protect more mature females from harvest and close the fishing season earlier in spring to decrease the mortality of discarded fish bycatch.
However, in 2008, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission deviated from implementation of the State’s five-year management plan and adopted
less restrictive harvest regulations than those proposed by the TWRA, including a decrease in minimum size limit and an increase in season length. It is estimated these new regulations enacted for the regulation of paddlefish harvested commercially in Tennessee protect only 7 percent of mature female paddlefish in Kentucky Lake.

Steve McCadams is a professional hunting and fishing guide here in the Paris Landing area. He has also contributed many outdoor oriented articles to various national publications.

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