Conservation agents seized several paddlefish as well as 75 pounds of extracted eggs in Lake of the Ozarks, keeping them from ending up on the black market.
Missouri Department of Conservation Lt. Mike Jones, along with Cpl. Tyler Brown, spoke about the April 30 incident that all started with a tip from a caller in late spring.
“We got some information from an informant about some Russians that were taking over limits of paddlefish,” Jones said in an interview with the News-Leader.
Agents met the fishermen — two adults and one juvenile — once they pulled in their boat late that night in Lake of the Ozarks near the Wigwam School Access. The boat, license plate and truck matched the caller’s description.
With the daily limit of two paddlefish per angler allotted, the people involved had surpassed their catch. The extracted eggs indicated an entirely different problem.
Paddlefish eggs are highly sought after
Caviar is a high-priced delicacy and became so thanks to the sturgeon fish population. There are 27 species around the world in North America, Europe and Asia.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature placed 18 species on its Red List of Threatened Species in the past decade, which makes the sturgeon the most endangered group of species on the planet, per reporting by Business Insider.
Paddlefish eggs are a close substitute to sturgeon caviar, Jones said. Paddlefish are an ancient species of fish that date back to the times of dinosaurs, and the sturgeon is a similar species of fish.
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“The sturgeon population overseas in Europe, specifically Eastern Europe, has been decimated by the caviar industry,” Jones said. “Therefore, it’s the risk for (poachers) to try to harvest these eggs illegally and try to transport them overseas back to Europe.”
The 75 pounds of paddlefish eggs was significant. Jones estimates that at $70 per ounce on the black market, the bounty would go for about $84,000.
“We don’t want to monetize, or commercialize, our wildlife,” Jones said. “Putting a price on the caviar from these fish could significantly deplete the population.”
Spoonbill paddlefish cannot reproduce naturally in Missouri because they cannot access their spawning grounds due to dams that have been built along the rivers. MDC stocks about 45,000 hatchery-produced, 10- to 12-inch-long paddlefish fingerlings each year in Missouri’s three main paddlefish locations: Table Rock Lake, Truman Lake and Lake of the Ozarks.
Anglers who snag their daily limit can take the paddlefish’s eggs, but there are regulations regarding those actions. The Wildlife Code of Missouri states that extracted paddlefish eggs may not be possessed while on the water or adjacent banks and may not be transported. Disposing of paddlefish eggs immediately back into the water is allowed. A person just cannot transport the eggs to another location.
The five paddlefish that poachers had were separate from the extracted eggs, Jones said.
“The extracted eggs that they had were not from the fish that they had,” Jones said. “If somebody wants to try their hand at caviar, or paddlefish roe, they’re absolutely allowed to do that; however, they have to transport the whole fish back to their residence or the place they’re staying. Once those eggs are extracted, it is illegal to transport them.”
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The extracted eggs point to at least six other paddlefish that were killed and discarded for their eggs in the poachers’ process, Jones said. The people involved are facing charges relating to possessed transport, sell or offer for sale of extracted paddlefish eggs.
Poaching incidents like this aren’t necessarily common, but even one instance is too many, Jones said.
“Ninety-nine percent of the fishermen out there are 100 percent legal, but there’s that one percent that makes a bad name for those that are trying to do it right,” Jones said. “That one percent is what we’re after.”
How to report alleged poaching
This is not the first poaching operation conservation agents have helped resolve.
A cooperative undercover investigation back in 2013 by MDC and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lead to more than 100 suspects from Missouri and eight other states being issued citations or arrest warrants for state and federal crimes related to paddlefish poaching in Warsaw.
People may call Operation Game Thief Hotline at 1-800-392-1111, your nearest conservation department office or conservation agent. If all else fails, Jones said to call your local sheriff’s office.
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Sara Karnes is an Outdoors Reporter with the Springfield News-Leader. Follow along with her adventures on Twitter and Instagram @Sara_Karnes. Got a story to tell? Email her at skarnes@springfi.gannett.com.
