Paddlefish: American Behemoth (Full Episode) | Monster Fish | Nat Geo Animals

It's big, bizarre, and prehistoric. And I'm on a mission to find it. Whoa, that's a big fish. I'm going on the water. Whoa! And undercover. We got a fish right here. To see what's threatening this freaky beast. Look at that. The Mississippi Paddlefish. The American Midwest. Famed for its rich farmland and idyllic views. But not exactly a hub of exotic wildlife. Now, look closer. In seemingly quiet lakes and rivers, the water is alive with monsters. This is the Mississippi Paddlefish. It's like a swimming nose, attached to the body of a fish, up to seven feet long. And it's lived on our planet for over 100 million years. But recently, many populations began dying off. I'm Dr. Zeb Hogan, and I'm heading into the Central U.S. to find out what's wrong, and what can be done to help. Starting in Southern Illinois. I'm on my way to go scuba diving at Mermet Springs. This is gonna be my first chance to get up close to a free-swimming paddlefish. But I do have a more serious objective. The owner of the springs has noticed something strange about his fish, and he's invited me to come check it out. It's all part of my work for the Megafishes Project. Good, almost got me. An international collaboration. Oh, it's big. To study and save the planet's largest and most vulnerable freshwater species. Do you wanna grab your fins and your dry suit? Great. Mermet Springs used to be a limestone quarry, until new owners transformed it into a dive site, and released hundreds of juvenile paddlefish. Those fish grew into giants. But lately, sightings have dropped off. I've come to gather clues about the population. Helping me is biologist Ed Heitman. Of Southern Illinois University. And so we'll just go down to 30 feet, and cruise around, see what we see. Just kinda keep it slow and easy. So just kinda keep it moving. All right, all set. Very good to go. Yep. Spring rains have clouded the water. It's dark and disorienting. But then, I see them. Giant paddlefish, feeding on plankton. They eat by opening wide, and swallowing. Comb-like gill rakers filter out tiny organisms, suspended in the water. It's an amazing sight. But something is wrong with this picture. That was great. Was that good? Man, that was a lot better than I was expecting. Yeah, we saw a bunch of big ones. I saw, yeah, I probably saw 15 fish. Yeah, that was wonderful. And three at one time? Yeah, God, they're so cool. So why is it that there were only big fish? I didn't see any small ones. That's right, only about four or five foot long fish. So no young fish, no babies? No young fish being produced. They really need the big river, open water environment, in order for them to successfully reproduce. In a free-flowing river, melting snow and spring rains create a surge of water, signaling paddlefish to swim upstream and lay eggs. But in the quarry, there's no flow. Without those seasonal cues, they won't spawn. Unable to reproduce, the paddlefish will grow old and eventually die out, which could explain the drop in sightings. The struggles of paddlefish here may yield clues to the crisis sweeping wild populations. They once teemed throughout the Mississippi and Missouri river systems, but their range is shrinking. They've disappeared from four states and are struggling across most of their remaining range. I wonder if something could be limiting their ability to reproduce. Every spring, hundreds of paddlefish swim up Missouri's Osage River, searching for places to spawn. To find out if they're succeeding, I joined researcher Josh Lollimuth. So right now I'm pointed straight ahead of us and you can hear the signals are fairly strong. He's tagged dozens of paddlefish with transmitters to learn about their annual migration. Should be a fish right there. Today, we're trying to find his fish and look for clues that they're reproducing. Probably close to a quarter mile downstream from where we can hear two fish. Think right up here in front of us? Probably, yeah, the chirps are getting pretty loud. Going forward. About a hundred yards. Hundred yards. Dead ahead. Oh, look at that. This is Bagnell Dam, a 12-story wall of concrete. The hydroelectric station powers households across central Missouri, but also keeps paddlefish from reaching their spawning grounds upstream. They're not getting past that, are they? It may look like bad news, but maybe they're still able to reproduce below the dam. Ready? Yep. To find out, we'll try to get hands-on with some mature fish. Just kind of feed that black line out. Got a little tangle here. It seems like I got two ends already. Huh? Oh, here we go. Watch out. Here we go. What do you think of that set job? It's not the worst I've ever seen. It's a disaster. I'm surprised it's even floating at all. So you can see that fish right there? Is that? We got something? It looks like a paddlefish. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it feels like we got a fish right away. Oh, yep, paddlefish. That's on fish? Yep. Paddlefish. Oh, nice. Here's a little bit bigger one. Oh, we already got another one. Arnett is brimming with fish. Hit a really big school of them. There could be hundreds more. These are fish that have probably moved from downstream, got to this spot, and they can't go any further. So there's a huge dam blocking their way. Got one? Holy. I was not expecting this. We catch 23 paddlefish. These are all big enough fish to potentially be mature, so we want to know whether they're male or female and whether or not they're spawning. Okay, let's get these back. So now we're just trying to get back to the boat launch as fast as we can. We caught a lot more fish than we were expecting, and they're really stacked in this tank. We just want to get to shore. We can get fresh bales of water in this tank, and Josh is going to help me process them up. Is that what you meant? Yep. So if we throw this right on top. You ready? Yep. Our paddlefish are all good sized, old enough to reproduce. I think this might be the biggest one. If this female has eggs, it could signal that the population is healthy, even near a large dam. Josh performs a harmless operation to see. If this was a spawning female, she would probably have post-spawning eggs. Unfortunately, I don't see any eggs. It's not a good sign, but it's not conclusive. Females don't spawn every year. She's ready to go back? Yep, she's ready to go. For me, the paddlefish, it's truly the craziest, weirdest fish in North America, maybe in the whole world. Paddle-like snout, very small eyes, this huge mouth that the paddlefish uses to suck food out of the water column. And these comb-like filaments strain out microscopic food. Crazy fish. To know for sure if the paddlefish here are in trouble, there's one test left. There are other females in this river, and some of them may have spawned. Finding their larvae may seem like tricky work, but I know a way to catch them. So what do you think, right along in here? Yeah, we'll set it right up next to the... Paddlefish hatchlings drift at night to avoid predators. Good idea of where these larvae are drifting. Sure, yeah. We'll set nets to collect them from the current. Looks pretty good. Give us a little bit more tension. And come back in the morning. Just gonna drop it? Go ahead and drop it. And then we're fishing. If we find larvae, we'll know paddlefish are reproducing in the Osage River. We're on our way to check the larval drift nets we set out last night. I can see them up in front of the boat here. Hopefully, if we get lucky, those nets will be filled with baby paddlefish. Look at the end. It looks like we collected some stuff, but let's see, dump it in the bucket. Look at that. Well, those definitely don't look like paddlefish. In my hand are plenty of species, but no paddlefish. Out of 40 or 50 fish, zero. Nothing? No, and in fact, that's not too surprising. We've been out here pretty intensively sampling the last three years and have only caught one larval paddlefish. If you had to guess what was happening, what would you say? Our evidence right now is pointing to flow effects from the dam. Paddlefish really key in on a big spring rise and float to trigger spawning, and because of that dam, we really don't see that. The dam controls the current like a faucet, turning the water on and off around the clock. The flow might change by 100% or 200%, 20-foot drops in the river over a 24-hour period. Paddlefish will not spawn in such an irregular flow. Across their range, thousands of dams keep them from reproducing, and it's causing populations to plummet. One solution is to build passageways so the fish can swim through. Other species use these mechanisms, but paddlefish have been seen avoiding them. Answers can be found in an unlikely place, St. Louis, Missouri, perched along the Great Mississippi River. At a local aquarium, I meet biologist Lon Wilkins to find out why paddlefish steer clear of some dams even when they could get through. Lon thinks the reason lies in their huge rostrums. The purpose of the paddlefish's snout, it was a mystery for a long time, right? They were misunderstood to use the paddle to shovel up the substrate looking for prey, when in fact these are plankton feeders. And so they're using their paddle to detect food. Absolutely. To figure out how they find their tiny prey, Lon staged an experiment. He placed juveniles in a tank lit with invisible infrared light, then dropped plankton in. Most every time, the paddlefish snagged its meal. They weren't relying on sight to find prey, but their very own sixth sense. All creatures amid electrical fields, you, me, even tiny plankton, and the paddlefish can detect them. The secret lies in their paddles, which are loaded with nerve endings and appear as dark clusters of pores. Like electric receivers, they pick up and process the weak fields generated by plankton. The signals are sent through the central nervous system and into the brain, triggering the paddlefish to open wide. But some objects give off much larger fields than plankton. The signal from metal is huge. And so you think if we put some metal into this tank, these paddlefish are gonna behave differently? Oh, absolutely. I think we should give it a try. You ready? Yeah. Okay. Wow, so the immediate response. They're moving away from the pole, they're darting in the tank. It's almost like they're feeling an electric current in the water. For these fish, it's total sensory overload. The electrical signal from metal is so intense that larger structures and rivers may cause them to halt their spawning runs. It may seem like another setback for the species, but breakthroughs like these are steps toward solutions. With continued research, engineers may be able to design dams that are more paddlefish friendly. Until then, humans will have to help them reproduce. And that's what I'm going to do next. I'm headed to one of the most imperiled populations in the country. Central Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks. A weekender's paradise. But not so welcoming for paddlefish. Here, they're trapped between two dams and unable to spawn. Alongside a team from the Missouri Department of Conservation, I'm trying to catch paddlefish for a local breeding program. Okay, Zip, go to float. Slow down, Clark. We're after females. If we find them, we'll retrieve and fertilize their eggs. Then repopulate the lake with the hatchlings. That's it. Cross our fingers. Ready to go. Bring it all the way up, you can see the float line. Hopefully, in one of our nets, we'll land a big female. Come on, fish. I don't feel anything yet. Forward, Clark. But our first ones turn up empty. What do you guys think? All we can do is try. This is all part of it. We're right in the sweet spot of the season for harvesting these fish. If we don't get anything right now, I don't know what the hatchery's gonna do. We've found no fish. And things are about to get even worse. Oh, s***. Hang on, you're pulling a lot of weight. Man, the wind's blowing. The wind has really come up. So, boat doesn't feel real stable. Just gotta try to stay steady on my feet. Can I get up here? You can, but I'll be careful. Just sucked the net into our prop. It's like a bad dream. The wind wouldn't let me keep the boat straight. Went underneath the boat, got in the prop. We free the net, but we're falling behind schedule. We need to get moving, because this is getting worse. It's tough, lifting up this net, and they're all coming up empty. I was feeling good about our chances when we laid these nets, but we're halfway through, and no fish. Forward. Finally. Fish. Yeah, nice. Fish on. Oh, that's a good size fish. Oh, look at that. We're hoping it's a female. When I say zip, what we're gonna do is pick her up. We're gonna bring her in and drop her right in front of us. I'm gonna try to get her up. Oh, yeah, nice. Nice fish. Wow, oh, that is great. Okay. Big, fat, definitely an adult, potentially a female. It is a female. A 60-pound behemoth. Filled with eggs. She's perfect for the breeding program. That's great. This is exactly what we need. Oh, that makes me feel better. Oh, here's another one. We got another fish. We're on a roll. Beautiful fish, man. So cool. Male or female? Looks like a female, and it is. Another female. That's great. Perfect. These two huge females will help save the local population from dying out. Now it's off to the hatchery, as fast as we can. Clark, let's head back to the dock. It's not an easy ride. We got our two fish. We're heading back to the dock at full speed. We're gonna get to the truck and get these fish back in the water. Our hopes for the lake of the Ozarks' population rests with our new charges. Chances are, these paddlefish have never reproduced. But with our help, their offspring will flourish. Easy as that. Two fish in the truck, ready to go to the hatchery. Hey, Bruce. Hi, Zeb. Nice to meet you. Good to meet you. Welcome to Blind Pony. Thanks. How are the fish doing? They're good. They're getting there. So let's go have a look. Okay, sounds good. Biologist Bruce Drechtra monitors our catch around the clock, checking for signs of ovulation. These are the females here? Yep, these are our brood fish tanks. So we'll get you into some waders. We'll see if we can't get you wet. Okay, sounds good. All right. My job today, wade into a holding tank, catch a paddlefish, and squeeze out her eggs. I think they're gonna splash quite a bit. The things I do for the love of fish. You guys ready? So, we've been waiting on you, Zeb. Yeah, I'm ready to get wet. I think there's one right below me here. Catch her by the bill, hand her off to me, I'll hold onto that end, and then you grab ahold of the tail, and then cover up the vent. You grab the vent. Why am I covering up the vent? If we don't, when they fight like she's getting ready to, any eggs that she has, they'll just come out all over. Oh, I just felt a release of eggs. Oh, she's ready. So this female's ready. Oh, shoot. We did get eggs? Yeah, I think we're gonna get some. You confident? I'm confident. Lift up on the tail, there you go. It's gonna be right in my face. Just take it, there you go. Oh, wow, look at that. It's like turning on a faucet of black gold. They just come right out when she's ready, huh? Pretty cool. This female can produce up to a half million eggs. Okay, I got her. We've got to keep up. Oh, there's another one between my legs. Look at that. Now it's time for the most important step. They're very fragile. Take one bowl of eggs, add a few drops of paddlefish sperm. Go ahead and squirt it in there. Then feather stir to avoid breakage. What it looks like and what it feels like is making blueberry muffins. I'm serious, I made blueberry muffins last week and it looks just like this. What's impossible in the Lake of the Ozarks takes 20 minutes in a plastic bowl. These eggs, in about a week's time, they'll hatch into baby fish. And then in about six months' time, they'll be fingerling about a foot long and that's when they go back into the reservoirs and rivers. Year after year, these are the lengths researchers take to sustain troubled populations. Thankfully, hatcheries are only necessary in a few ecosystems. In much of their range, paddlefish are able to spawn naturally. But in many of those places, they face even greater threats. It turns out their precious eggs are big money. Paddlefish eggs can actually be sold as caviar and retail, just four ounces of eggs sell for about $200. So just one night of fishing can yield a couple thousand dollars. Until recently, the most prized caviar came from the beluga sturgeon, once widespread in the Black and Caspian Seas. But rampant over-harvest wiped out spawning females and the species collapsed. In need of a replacement, dealers turned to the Mississippi paddlefish. Since 2000, the price of their caviar has almost quadrupled. Those big bucks bring in droves of commercial fishermen, but also attract criminals. Right now, I'm on my way to meet some enforcement officers from Indiana. They've been preparing a sting against paddlefish poachers, some commercial fishermen who are fishing in an illegal spot. And tonight, I'm gonna meet up with them and help them with the operation. Along the Ohio River, wildlife police discovered fishing nets in a protected breeding ground for paddlefish. Now, conservation agents are staking out the area. After nightfall, I join officer Corey Norred for stage one of the sting. Corey? Yes. Hey, okay. We're gonna be pit tagging? To make a bust, we need to prove that the men are harvesting fish. So we're headed to the nets to see if we can find any. You guys ready? Tonight, I'm not just an observer. I'm lending my skills in tagging fish to the operation. Zeb, is this what you're familiar with using? Oh, yeah. Tags are in here. Yeah. So that looks like what I'm used to using. Very good. If the case goes to court, our tags will help prove the fish were caught illegally. We have to work fast. You see all these buoys up through here? Yeah. This one looks like it run in parallel. It still looks like it's gonna be illegal. It's still pretty close. Our suspects could arrive at any moment and discover us at their nets. Someone, is that someone parked over there? Not quite sure. Oh, hey, here we go. We got one. We got a big one. Got a big fish. This looks like a female to you? Actually, it looks like a young female. She's got a little bit of a pooch there. I'll work her in the boat. Yeah, for sure. So this is one we'll want to go ahead and tag this one. Poor girl. We need to put the tag someplace the fishermen won't find it. So wherever we put this tag, it's got to be meaty, right? It's got to be fleshy, right? I don't know if he can get under there. I mean, that's sort of the area you do with the sturgeon. Right, right. Give it a try. You won't see that, huh? So let's make sure it's working. This animal is now official evidence in a police investigation. We have to put it back in the water and wait for the suspects to retrieve it. Hard to put them back in the net like that. Yes, it is. It's the oldest, largest females that are the most valuable. Oh, here's another fish. Wow. Just pull on them. Up to 25% of their body weight is eggs. That is definitely an egg. Oh, look at that belly. So how many pounds of eggs do you think you- This one here, she's pretty good size. I would say these would probably get about five, six pounds of eggs out of this one. Over $500 a day. Yeah, easily, easily. Five people were out here, huh? Yeah, yep. In all, we pit tag eight females. Don't make it more. Sorry, buddy. That'll wake you up. Now we have to get to shore before daybreak. Rather not be out here when it gets light. Got it? It's getting light now. Now we're gonna go out, start watching those nets and see if anyone picks them up. If they do, we're moving in. Along the river, a team of undercover officers take their places. A federal fish and wildlife agent stakes out the boat ramp with a direct view of the nets. He'll keep an eye on everyone that comes and goes. I'm downstream with the officers who will make the bust, led by Corporal Steve Kinney. We gotta get this issue settled now before any more fish are depleted from the population. Most folks that launch from this dock are legal fishermen, but on a day like today, everyone's a suspect. Got some fishermen that are going in the direction of the nets that we're interested in. 20 foot flat bottom, green John Boat, the Mercury, the Black Motor. You see him? Is it this boat out here? Yep. They're over on the other side of the river now. These guys aren't the guys. Another truck shows up at the launch. Information, we got another boat at the ramp. Are these the guys? We will find out soon. Same green, 20 plus or minus foot John Boat. Yeah, that's the one we're looking for. The officers suspect they're preparing for a quick exit. Trailer's still in the water. Truck's still at the ramp. Sure enough, they head straight for the illegal nets. We're about to witness these guys run their nets. The guys who have the eye need to keep track of every fish, as best you can, and call it out. It's 1121, one. So far, they have two fish on it. Another fish, that's a spoonbill. Four spoonbills. Four? Four fish. With the trailer parked at the ramp, the poachers could gun it to shore and escape into Kentucky, out of the officer's jurisdiction. When they begin to check net number four, as soon as they start to pull net four, advise and that's when we're gonna move in. We just got a fifth fish up too, by the way. They're on five. I don't wanna give them a chance to get back to the, to beat us to the right ramp. Yeah, right. I don't want them occupied on that last net when we pull up. The suspects start moving toward their last net. Traffic, we should move in now. We should move in now. It's time. We're going. Good luck, you guys. Thanks. Steve and Corey split off in the lead boat. Our suspects may be armed. For my own safety, I'll follow at a close distance. We're on the move now. We're trying to get as close as we can without these guys, without the fishermen seeing us. And then once we get to a certain point, I think we're just gonna have to gun it and they're gonna try to catch these guys red-handed. Steve still wears our microphone. We're able to listen in. He's gonna see us real soon here. Just make sure he doesn't pull the nets. The suspected poachers, they're right in front of us now. We're gonna get as close as we can. And then I'm gonna jump off at the boat ramp here and get out of the way as these guys make contact. Even as the police close in, the suspects continue to take fish. Believe we have our sixth fish. Contact. Leave the fish where they are. So they've made contact with the fishermen. They're separating them into two boats. They're gonna try to get an explanation of why they're fishing illegally and then make a determination of what to do next. It's illegal to set nets within 50 yards past the mouth of a tributary. The suspected poachers argue that they were outside that perimeter. I wouldn't have done it if I didn't in my heart know I was leaking. I will take this to any level you want to in court. He'll surely get his wish. Charges will be filed once all evidence is reviewed and the violations counted. Until then, the officers release the suspects. Let's line them up here and scan them up here. But they confiscate the fish. So this is one of the fish that we tagged in the nets last night. One of the nets that we confirmed was inside the river mouth. This is a fairly large female. She probably has a couple pounds of eggs inside of her. She sure has a big belly on her, doesn't she? To determine the severity of the offense, we have to remove the eggs and weigh them. And now we just need to be very careful, remove all the eggs. The finished product, about five pounds here. Officers will retrieve over 12 pounds of caviar, enough for a felony charge. The men face up to eight years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines. Such strong enforcement helps keep the paddlefish harvest sustainable, benefiting legal fishermen who rely on healthy populations and ensuring we don't lose one of our planet's most extraordinary monster fish. The future for paddlefish may seem uncertain, but there are a few places left where the species flourishes. I want to know how old and how big paddlefish can get when living in a healthy river. I'm entering the land of giants. Now I'm headed to the upper Missouri River in central Montana. This stretch of river is special because there's no commercial harvest, no poaching, no dams to block the spawning migration of these fish, and no need for hatcheries because this is a self-sustaining population. This could be my best chance yet to find a six-foot fish. I'm teaming up with biologists Cody Nagel and Shannon Miller to catch and tag paddlefish. What's the plan today, you guys? Well, we're going to run upriver here a couple miles and we'll set out some drift nets and hopefully we get some paddlefish in them. With no dams for nearly 300 miles and a permanent ban on commercial fishing, about 20,000 paddlefish swim here. Just going to set the net alongside this cut bank here and then string it out. The more fish we tag, the better researchers can monitor and protect this unique population. As soon as we set our net, we get a fish. Got a fish? Oh, look at that. Oh, right in the middle of our net. It's twisting, it's jumping. It's a paddlefish for sure. I see the paddle. Should I pull the net in? Yeah. Oh, nice. Pretty good side one. Light color. Oh, look at that. Nice. It's a recapture. Oh, that's great. We've tagged this one. Oh, yeah. I got it. White tag, 488. Okay. This jaw tag helps us estimate the fish's age. How old would you say this fish is? You know, it's at least 20 years old probably. Here, this species can live a full life. In this stretch of river, the oldest documented paddlefish lived for more than 60 years. So, is this a male? It is. 24 pounds. Should we get it back in the water? Yeah, just put it on that side. He's a little guy. Males don't grow very large. If I want to catch a real monster, I need to catch a female. Fish. Small male. Oh, it's nice to get him back in the water. Look at that. This is a fairly small male. Paddlefish. Whoa. It's like a male, huh? Little guy, but yes, has some fight, doesn't he? The males are out in force, looking for mates. But they're not the giants I'm hoping for. Our next fish is gonna be a huge female. I can feel it. We'll get one. I don't see anything right now. But a big girl isn't in the cards today. We're starting to hear some thunder. We want to get off the river. We're in metal boats, it's not safe. We got about over 20 fish today, but a lot of small males. We're gonna go after the bigger females tomorrow. Let's get out of here. With daybreak comes clear skies. I'm ready for the morning. I hit the river with one goal in mind. Find a paddlefish that represents this thriving ecosystem. Old, healthy, and huge. Second day now. We're a little bit further down river. We're hoping the females are sitting down here. Gonna try to catch a few. There's a bite. Bingo. Got one. The float down, right out in front of us. Oh, that float's staying down. There's two floats down. There's big fish rolling. Oh, I can feel her pulling on the net. It's a bigger fish. Oh, look at that. Female, she's jumping. This is the moment I've been waiting for. Whoa, that's a big fish. It's a monster. It's a hog. Oh, she's beautiful. God, they're so much bigger, aren't they? Yeah, look at them. An enormous spawning female. Huge. Look at this. You wanna get a weight? A big fish, big female. Oh, I can't even lift her. You ready? 77 pounds. 77. Total, she's longer than tape measure. She's almost six feet long. This is a huge, beautiful female fish. We bring her back to shore for a closer look. This is evidence right here of what a healthy river this is, what a special place this is. This is a female fish, six feet long, close to 80 pounds, and she's headed upriver right now to spawn. But even this massive fish pales in comparison to the giants of the past. At one time, these were the monsters that swam America's rivers. The standing record, 198 pounds, six feet, five inches. That was in 1916. Will this ancient beast survive another century? She's ready to go. In wild rivers like these, paddlefish can thrive. This female, she could be over 30 years old. I mean, the fact that she was able to move up into this river where there's still spawning habitat for and spawn successfully, it makes me really happy. Goodbye, girl. Awesome.