AmericanPaddlefish_EndsofLongLives_Montagne_Mike_SanMarcosTX_20July2020_Reel4027.mp3

Mike Montagne [00:00:00] There have been paddlefish in a lot of East Texas rivers over in history. And of course, as we start damming them up, they started to disappear.

Mike Montagne [00:00:10] One of the problems that we run into with long-lived species is you don't realize they're in trouble until it's getting really bad, because if you have a species of fish that can live, you know, 30 to 50 years, you'll see it out there. So even if you've made a break in its reproductive cycle, if it can't reproduce anymore, you're still probably going to see those adult fish for 30 to 50 years. And so what happens is you think they're fine.

Mike Montagne [00:00:36] And in the meantime, they're not reproducing and recruiting into their population. And after about 30 to 50 years, all of a sudden they're just gone. And no one's really noticed until it's too late, almost.

Mike Montagne [00:00:47] And that's why we've lost a lot of, a lot of paddlefish in a lot of systems in Texas because we have dammed them up, a lot of them back in the 50s and 60s, which is just when we started doing a lot of that to make these big reservoirs for people.

Mike Montagne [00:01:05] But it's not just paddlefish. We've seen this happen. I've seen it happen in other states and other places as well. These long-lived species, they start suffering and you just can't tell they're suffering for quite a while because you still see them and you don't recognize you're not seeing the little guys anymore. But you see the big guys and so you think they're fine. But it turns out they're not so fine.

Mike Montagne [00:01:26] And it's just a matter of time, once you've broken that reproductive cycle, and that life cycle, that they're going to disappear. You just aren't going to see it for a while.

Mike Montagne [00:01:36] And so it's it's a real problem with long-lived species is that we don't know something's going on, until it's almost too late.