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Paddlefish: A Hot Commodity

Ouchley
K. Ouchley

Seemingly unrelated political decisions often impact wildlife resources and lead to a cascade of unanticipated events in the most unlikely of places.  That U.S. policy in Iraq and Iran could suddenly influence my daily biological work in the spectacular Lacassine marshes of southwestern Louisiana is a good example.  The nexus involves humans' peculiar obsession with fish eggs, and the story line goes like this.

 

Kelby was a biologist and manager of National Wildlife Refuges for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 30 years. He has worked with alligators in gulf coast marshes and Canada geese on Hudson Bay tundra. His most recent project was working with his brother Keith of the Louisiana Nature Conservancy on the largest floodplain restoration project in the Mississippi River Basin at the Mollicy Unit of the Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge, reconnecting twenty-five square miles of former floodplain forest back to the Ouachita River.
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