Texas Fauna Project

American Paddlefish

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Tim Bister, a biologist and Inland Fisheries Management district supervisor for Texas Parks and Wildlife, has worked on studying and restoring the American paddlefish to its former habitat in east Texas. Much of this effort has focused on mitigating dam impacts. Here he describes how dams can block paddlefish's upstream migrations, cover their gravel spawning shoals in silt, and remove the spawning cue that high spring flows carry.