|
This August 12, 2015 photo provided by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources shows IDNR biologist Nerissa McClelland holding alligator gar collected during a sampling survey at Powerton Lake in Powerton, Ill. The alligator gar is a toothy giant that can grow longer than a horse and heavier than a refrigerator. The fearsome-looking prehistoric fish plied U.S. waters from the Gulf of Mexico to Illinois until it disappeared from many states half a century ago. Persecuted by anglers and deprived of places to spawn, the alligator gar – with a head that resembles an alligator and two rows of needlelike teeth – survived primarily in southern states in the tributaries of Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico after being declared extinct in several states farther north. To many, it was a freak, a “trash fish” that threatened sport fish, something to be exterminated. But the once-reviled predator is now being seen as a valuable fish in its own right, and as a potentially potent weapon against a more threatening intruder: the invasive Asian carp, which have swum almost unchecked toward the Great Lakes, with little more than an electric barrier to keep them at bay. Efforts are now under way to reintroduce the alligator gar from Illinois to Tennessee. (Photo by Illinois Department of Natural Resources via AP Photo)
|
