Paddlefish Egg Deal Kind Of Wrangles My Feathers

[Justin Spencer]

Kind of cuts out fur trapping and commercial fishing on the rivers with that type of thinking. Maybe also guiding. You could easily start at Warsaw with a collection faculity, and they already know about the numbers being harvested at various locations. They just need to collect the eggs there and have them processed at Warsaw. They can sell products over the internet. This can be done.

Good point, I think the nature of how the paddlefish congregate lends them to being exploited if big individual profits are involved. Not many people make a living trapping anymore and those that do are few and far enough between to not hurt the resource. Commercial fishing generally happens with unutilized rough fish that otherwise are not harvested. I am all for the state utilizing what is already being brought in, but to allow the general public to profit from a stocked resource would be counter productive, and lead to much higher harvests.

[dtrs5kprs]

This egg eating deal has been going on since I was a whipper snapper on lake O. I want to congratulate MDC for the work that they have done with the paddlefish, but they are the ones causing the problem here.

To me it is a No Big Friggin Deal someone was going to make Cavier out of the eggs. MDC waste more roe worth millions of dollars than the rest of the United States put together and then makes a big deal out of busting someone that wants to utilize it.

They need to take a deep breath and take a look at this. Oklahoma has set the bar here and they are making money to fund not only the paddlefish but other species with the selling of the roe.

It is time we all take a good close look at ourselves and see how we can support projects without taxes, and without someones elses money or help. Paddlefish are one of those examples. Utilize the roe and sell it for a profit eliminating it from the hands of citizens wanting to do the same.

I have seen in my time thousands of pounds of it dumped in the lake or on the shoreline or trash bins all over the Osage River and Lake of the Ozarks, as well as now Table Rock.

Lets just waste this resourse and then fuss when someone wants to use it. The time the effort and the money it will take to convict a handful of people for processing basically what MDC considers as garbage from their actions, makes this ridiculas.

Looks good in the headlines, till you take a deeper look at this.

Makes no sense to me.

Why do I think Mr. Babler finished his taxes?

Spot on about gov't learning to do with less. Especially when it makes no sense to spend our $$$ on it.

[Feathers and Fins]

Logistically it is not that difficult! Growing up in So-Cal the Tuna factories use to have trucks ( still might ) that met the sport boats at the dock. They would pull up a refrigerated truck loaded with canned tuna and swap it out for fresh tuna off the boat. Same could be done here. MDC could contract to a company that would take the eggs from popular ramps give a voucher to the fisherman for say a Deer tag or (X) off the next years license or something along those lines. MDC would get (X) percentage of the procedes of the eggs when sold.

Creating a commercial business in partnership with MDC could benifit MDC, Anglers, Hunters and create jobs even if seasonal. It will need a check and balance and regulations but I see this as a very viable resource that if done correctly benifits many interest. Funny that the most numerous bird is chicken and its the most commercialized bird because we eat it!

[fishinwrench]

There is simply no victim involved when selling eggs from fish that are legally caught. Limits regulate how many can be legally kept, transported, and when they can be caught, ect. so nobody is gonna make a living out of it.... except the lawyers if this remains a felony offense.

I just recently bought deer tails, where did they come from? Wild turkey feathers? Wood duck flanks?

The overpunishment of victimless "crimes" is totally out of control and should be a federal crime in and of itself.

The enforcement of "laws" has become too much of a lucrative business in this land IMO.

[Bill Babler]

MDC does not have to invent anything here,

it is already being done to our South. Just have to get on board and make it happen.

People who are not onboard with the salvaging of Paddlefish eggs have never seen 50 gallon drums of them being poured in the dump. At our resort on Lake O we had four 50 gallon drums that we usually filled every two day, during the early season. We could not put them in the lake at our fish cleaning station as there was hundreds of pounds of rotting mess.

Conservation does mean wise use of a renewable resource. This is not wise use of a multimillion dollar resource. Looks sensational to arrest someone for selling a handful of eggs

Wonder how 100's of pounds of them would look to people rotting in the dump.

[Bill Babler]

There is simply no victim involved when selling eggs from fish that are legally caught. Limits regulate how many can be legally kept, transported, and when they can be caught, ect. so nobody is gonna make a living out of it.... except the lawyers if this remains a felony offense.

I just recently bought deer tails, where did they come from? Wild turkey feathers? Wood duck flanks?

The overpunishment of victimless "crimes" is totally put if control and should be a federal crime in and of itself.

The enforcement of "laws" has become too much of a lucrative business in this land IMO.

Fish, way to much common sense it that post. Expect a knock on the door as the Gastoppo is commin.

[fishinwrench]

LOL, Think they'll be stormin' Feather-Craft and/or Wapsi any day now?

[Wayne SW/MO]

pretty hard to make caviar if it is illegal to possess the eggs.

I'm just saying that the MDC doesn't care. I'm going on the fact that they are apparently worth thousands per fish. The article say $4K from a big one and I'm not naive enough to believe there wouldn't be a crush of boats after them. If we're talking about whether the MDC should utilize them to pay for programs then I all for it, but the reward would have to be reasonable.

You guys know what would happen if you put $1000 bounty on big bass or browns, you couldn't stir 'em with a stick on TR or below it.

[Justin Spencer]

There is simply no victim involved when selling eggs from fish that are legally caught. Limits regulate how many can be legally kept, transported, and when they can be caught, ect. so nobody is gonna make a living out of it.... except the lawyers if this remains a felony offense.

I just recently bought deer tails, where did they come from? Wild turkey feathers? Wood duck flanks?

The overpunishment of victimless "crimes" is totally out of control and should be a federal crime in and of itself.

The enforcement of "laws" has become too much of a lucrative business in this land IMO.

See how those who enjoy grabbing paddlefish feel when every Meth head gets out there trying to make money when they've never fished for paddlefish before. Many more paddlefish will be harvested, limits will drop to maybe 2 per year per person (not per day), and those who enjoy the sport will suffer. I'm all for MDC selling the eggs, but let the general public profit, and the whole dynamic will change.

[Bill Babler]

Funny why all these disasters are not happening in Oklahoma where it is not illegal. As I said in my opening comments, this has been goiing on since before most of you were born. Spoonbill are very prolific if allowed to be on there natural spawing grounds. When not they are easily introduced and stocked with a very high success rate.

Let's quit sensationalizing this crud about arresting someone with a pocket full of eggs, and turn this negitive into a positive with better utilization of this wonderful resource. As I said, as we write this there are thousands of pounds of them floating bloated up on Lake of the Ozarks, and more in the trash.

totally irresponsibe for this conservvation dept.