Plan of attack
Since 2010, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has coordinated the stocking of alligator gar spawned at the Private John Allen National Fish Hatchery in Tupelo, Mississippi. This newfound popularity starkly contrasts the gar’s inglorious past when unfounded views on their consumption of sport fish gave ill-advised anglers a shoot-on-sight mission.
Currently existing in Mississippi River tributaries throughout the southern states, alligator gar can reach 7-plus feet and push the 300-pound mark. Sporting powerful jaws bristled with needle-like teeth, alligator gar certainly appear menacing enough to threaten invasive carp.
But will efforts to control the carp plague with southern-spawned predators prove successful? The jury’s still out, but Gilliland minced no words.
“No way,” he bluntly stated.
From a predatory standpoint, an adult gar would have no trouble taking out a decent-sized carp, while juveniles are easy pickings. However, species nuance confines the gar’s formidable ability to impact an overwhelming problem.
A hill too steep
Assuming that southern-born alligator gar adjust well to the climate and water conditions of their new homes, Gilliland points to the inescapable ecological factors.
“Asian carp are extremely prolific; alligator gar, on the other hand, are not a prolific species,” he said. “They take a long time to mature and they have very large home ranges, which means they don’t have big populations, even when there are strong populations of them.”
An effective control species, Gilliland said, would need to have huge numbers of voracious fish gobbling juvenile carp before they can grow too big for predators. Willing as they may be, alligator gar are likely to be outpaced by the exotic invasives.
“If you have a lot of Asian carp out there that are 20-60 pounds, even alligator gar are not going to be able to control something like that,” Gilliland said.
For clarity, Gilliland’s dissing neither the notion of carp-chomping gar, nor those pursuing it. Who wouldn’t want to see a giant, toothy fish of ancient design ravaging carp with ferocity rivaling the great whites of South Africa’s Seal Island?
It’s just not going to happen often enough.
But maybe there’s a larger point; one that leverages the alligator gar’s personality as well as its physical prowess.
Purpose and perspective
The sport-fishing value of a giant fish with a sinister smile is pretty intriguing, particularly for bow-fishermen.
“I think the people who are encouraging the idea or reestablishing alligator gar are doing it for the gar, not to control the carp,” Gilliland said. “Yeah, they might eat some carp, it makes everyone think they’re doing a good job, but in the long run, is it going to help? It’s going to be a Band-Aid.
“This has gotten some play in the press because the alligator gar is a charismatic species. It’s something the pubic can relate to. Here’s this gigantic fish that grows to be 100-something years, and it happens that they’ll eat these Asian carp.”
Gilliland notes that getting these slow-growing fish to trophy size will require patience, conservative regulations and habitat enhancement efforts between local authorities and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to ensure sustainable spawning habitat.
He’s simply not buying the notion of using gar to wage an unwinnable war.
“I think the carp problem is much too big to think that alligator gar are going to save us from the invasion,” Gilliland said. “We’re going to have to find other solutions to the carp problem.”
One potential solution, Gilliland notes, is commercial fishing; an option dependent on developing sustainable demand for these fish with profitability sufficient to keep the netters in business.