Figure 1.Past and present distribution of North American paddlefish,Polyodon spathulaand locations of sport fisheries (adapted from
Carlson & Bonislawsky 1981). Map drawn by W. E. Bemis.
cation from category3Ctoacategory 2 under au-
thorityof the EndangeredSpecies Actof 1973,as
amended. Category3Cis intended for taxa that
have proventobemoreabundant orwidespread
thanpreviouslybelievedand/orthose that arc not
subject to any identifiablethreat.Category 2 indi-
cates taxa forwhich informationnowin the posses-
sionoftheU.S.Fish and Wildlife Service indicates
that proposing tolistasendangered or threatened is
possibly appropriate, but forwhichconclusivedata
on biologicalvulnerability andthreat are not cur-
rently available to support proposedrules.The U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Servicebelieves this classification
will encourage furtherinvestigation andbiological
research of the species’ status throughout its range.
Additionally,paddlfishwere added to the list of
Appendix IIof the Convention on International
TradeinEndangered Speciesof WildFauna and
aboutillegalpoaching for theinternational caviar
Thispaper reviewsmajor changesinpaddlefish
statusinthe United StatessinceGengerke’s(1986)
report,illustrateshistoricalchangessince theturn
of the 20th century,discusses majorreasons for de-
clines, defines current rangeof paddlefishinthe
UnitedStates, describes current statusofpaddlef-
ish in the UnitedStates, and predicts their futureas
a fisheriesresource.DistributionHistorically,paddlefish were abundant throughout
the MississippiRiverbasin andadjacentGulfdrain-
ages,with a few records from the Great Lakes
(Gengerke1986).Neill e t al.^1 reported thatseveral(^1) Neill, W.H.. B.R. Murphy, C.R. Vignali, P.W. Dorsett & V.M.
Flora (CITES) in 1992 primarily because of concern Pitman. 1994 Salinity responses of paddlefish. Texas Parks and
Wildlife Department Dingell-Johnson project F-31-R-20, Pro-
trade. ject 81. Final Report. 38 pp.