A big fish that won’t win any beauty contests is on its way back to southeastern Missouri waters.
The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) stocked six different Bootheel locations with alligator gar this week. The fish were reintroduced to Twin Borrow Pits Conservation Area in Pemiscot County, Donaldson Point Conservation Area in New Madrid County, Black Island Conservation Area in Pemiscot County, Thirty-four Corner Blue Hole in Mississippi County, Seven Island Conservation Area in Mississippi County and Wilhelmina Conservation Area in Dunklin County.
Alligator gar are big, growing up to 10 feet long and weighing as much as 300 pounds. Their natural range stretches from southern Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico, but they have all but died out in the Show Me State.
The MDC’s Chris Kennedy said two factors led to the fish’s disappearance in Missouri: overfishing, and habitat change, because they only breed in flooded floodplains.
“We’ve pretty much isolated our rivers from the floodplain,” Kennedy said. “We have them pretty much leveed all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico now. Only on rare occasions do we get the floods that go over onto the floodplain and provide that spawning habitat.”
Contrary to popular belief, Kennedy said they do not feed on sport fish. He said alligator gar are opportunistic feeders that don’t want to expend a lot of energy on feeding. Sport fish, he said, take too much effort for an alligator gar. They prefer to scavenge, weed out sick or weak fish, and eat shad, carp and buffalo.
“They’re not the most cuddly creature, and I think that’s why they probably have gotten a bad rap,” Kennedy said. “They kind of look like an alligator without legs. They are torpedo shaped. They have a long snout. They have a lot of teeth, not as thick as an alligator’s teeth, but more like needles if you will.”
The MDC began stocking alligator gar at Mingo National Wildlife Refuge in 2007. They also stocked a lake at the BuzziUnicem quarry in Cape Girardeau to help control crappie.
Bringing them back, Kennedy said, improves biodiversity and the health of river ecosystems.