Mississippi
KILLGORE: Mississippi River’s Largest Freshwater Fish – The Alligator Gar – The Vicksburg Post
KILLGORE: Mississippi River’s Largest Freshwater Fish – The Alligator Gar
Published 7:54 pm Wednesday, November 6, 2024
You may be surprised that the largest, freshwater fish in North America may be swimming in the Mississippi River under the I-20/Hwy. 80 bridges at Vicksburg as you are reading this. The Alligator Gar is a monster-sized fish, capable of exceeding 300 pounds described as a beautifully grotesque fish in Mark Spitzer’s book “Beautifully Grotesque Fish of the American West.” Many scientists refer to Alligator Gar as a “living fossil” because they have remained relatively unchanged for over a 100 million years. The broad snout and double row of upper teeth resemble an alligator, hence their name.
During most of the 1900’s, Alligator Gar were considered a “trash fish,” essentially useless, and possibly damaging to the environment, similar to carp. Because of their size and voracious appetites, fisherman assumed they were eating their prized sportfish, like Largemouth Bass, crappie, and Bluegill. They were targeted for elimination by state wildlife agencies and the numbers of Alligator Gar quickly diminished. More recently, scientific studies have shown that this species primarily eats forage fish, like Gizzard Shad, and also occasionally enjoys an unwary duck or a feisty beaver swimming along the surface.
Modern ecology has warned us not to eliminate apex predators from the environment without unintended consequences. Maybe that is one reason invasive carp continue to spread throughout the Mississippi River basin – there are no natural predators large enough to consume that many carp to make a difference in their growing numbers, except maybe the Alligator Gar. Now, state and federal agencies are stocking these fish back into their native ranges and numbers are steadily increasing.
Who wouldn’t want to catch a 300-pound fish? Actually, the Mississippi state rod and reel record is 215 pounds, bow and arrow record is 234 pounds, but the largest Alligator Gar caught in the state was in Lake Chotard in 2011, right upstream from Vicksburg, weighing 327 pounds!
Not only are Alligator Gar fun to catch, many people enjoy eating them like Cajun gar balls, usually fried, and I have heard that the backstrap is delicious. A word of caution – do not eat the greenish eggs for they are toxic to humans. But there are other uses. For those of you who live close to the Mississippi River during the spring, I recently read that gar oil was used by the people of Arkansas as a repellant for those pesky buffalo gnats coming from the river to bite you and leave week-long sores on your skin after they consume your blood to nourish their developing eggs. On a lighter note, the serrated ganoid scales that cover the fish, resembling a coat of armor, are used to fashion jewelry such as necklaces.
Folks sometimes ask if it’s safe to swim in the Mississippi River. During the summer, the Louisiana shore across from Vicksburg often resembles the Mississippi Gulf coast during spring break with boats tied together, umbrellas lining the beach, and people wading, swimming, and riding their jet-powered water bikes. The Mississippi River may have more sandy beaches than all of the beaches in Florida combined.
So other than an occasional bull shark (that’s another story), I am not aware of any other fish in the Mississippi River that will intentionally attack a human including Alligator Gar. In fact, Jeremy Wade of “River Monsters” concluded in one of his shows that there has never been any evidence that Alligator Gar attacked or killed humans.
Alligator Gar are a keystone species roaming around in America’s greatest river providing recreational fishing opportunities, food for humans, and control of invasive species. Maybe you will encounter one of these “beautifully grotesque” fish one day.
Jack Killgore, Ph.D., is a resident of Vicksburg. Prior to retirement, he was a long-time employee of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ERDC). He also serves as an enrichment speaker on the Viking Mississippi and teaches river science courses at Tulane University. He can be reached at kjkillgore@gmail.com.
Read his first column, “How Deep is the Mississippi River?,“ by clicking here.
Mississippi
What channel is Mississippi State football vs Missouri on today? Time, TV schedule to watch Week 13 game
Mississippi State football comes off a bye week with a chance to earn a win over nationally-ranked Missouri on Saturday.
The Bulldogs (2-8, 0-6) last played on Nov. 9 in a loss at Tennessee and have two more games against SEC opponents this year.
The Tigers (7-3, 3-3) lost a back-and-forth game at South Carolina last weekend.
Here’s how to watch the Mississippi State football vs. Missouri game today, including time, TV schedule and streaming information:
Mississippi State vs. Missouri will broadcast nationally on SEC Network in Week 13 of the 2024 college football season. Taylor Zarzour and Matt Stinchcomb will call the game from the booth at Davis Wade Stadium, with Alyssa Lang reporting from the sidelines. Streaming options for the game include FUBO, which offers a free trial to new subscribers.
- Date: Saturday, Nov. 23
- Start time: 3:15 p.m. CT
The Mississippi State football vs. Missouri game starts at 3:15 p.m. CT Saturday from Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville.
Clarion Ledger reporter Sam Sklar’s prediction: Missouri 37, Mississippi State 20
The Bulldogs are allowing 41 points per game in SEC play, and it’s difficult to see Missouri not having the same level of success. Expect big days from Burden and/or Wease, plus running back Nate Noel as MSU loses another game by double digits.
Odds courtesy of BetMGM as of Friday, Nov. 22
- Odds: Missouri -7.5
- O/U: 61.5 points
- Money line: Missouri -300, Mississippi State +240
- Aug. 31: EKU, W 56-7
- Sept. 7: at Arizona State, L 30-23
- Sept. 14: Toledo, L 41-17
- Sept. 21: Florida, L 45-28
- Sept. 28: at Texas, L 35-13
- Oct. 5: OPEN DATE
- Oct. 12: at Georgia, L 41-31
- Oct. 19: Texas A&M, L 34-24
- Oct. 26: Arkansas, L 58-25
- Nov. 2: UMass, W 45-20
- Nov. 9: at Tennessee, L 33-14
- Nov. 16: OPEN DATE
- Nov. 23: Missouri, 3:15 p.m. on SEC Network
- Nov. 29: at Ole Miss, 2:30 p.m. on ABC and ESPN+
Record: 2-8 (0-6 SEC)
- Aug. 29: Murray State, W 51-0
- Sept. 7: Buffalo, W 38-0
- Sept. 14: Boston College, W 27-21
- Sept. 21: Vanderbilt, W 30-27 2OT
- Sept. 28: OPEN DATE
- Oct. 5: at Texas A&M, L 41-10
- Oct. 12: at UMass, W 45-3
- Oct. 19: Auburn, W 21-17
- Oct. 26: at Alabama, L 34-0
- Nov. 2: OPEN DATE
- Nov. 9: Oklahoma, W 30-23
- Nov. 16: at South Carolina, L 34-30
- Nov. 23: at Mississippi State, 4:15 p.m. on SEC Network
- Nov. 30: Arkansas, TBD
Record: 7-3, 3-3 SEC
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Mississippi
SMU drops nonconference game at home as Mississippi State finds bench-led boost
Reserve KeShawn Murphy scored 16 points and led a quartet of Mississippi State bench players in double-digit scoring and the Bulldogs beat SMU 84-79 on Friday night.
Reserves RJ Melendez scored 15 points, Riley Kugel 13 and Claudell Harris Jr. 10. Josh Hubbard was the lone Mississippi State (5-0) starter in double figures with 14 points on just 4-for-18 shooting. The Bulldogs’ starters went 10 for 33 from the floor compared to the 18-for-35 effort from the bench.
Cameron Matthews made a layup with 5:13 remaining to break a tie at 66. Murphy made a 3-pointer and Kanye Clary made 1 of 2 free throws and Mississippi State led for the remainder.
Reserve Kario Oquendo scored 13 points for the Mustangs (4-2), Matt Cross, Boopie Miller and Samet Yigitoglu all had 12 points and B.J. Edwards scored 10.
Mississippi State will get almost a full week off before returning to action on Thanksgiving night at the Arizona Tipoff in Tempe. The Bulldogs play their first game of the event against UNLV.
The Mustangs will head to Palm Springs, California, for the Acrisure Holiday Invitational, where they face Cal Baptist on Tuesday.
Find more SMU coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
Mississippi
Attorneys want the US Supreme Court to say Mississippi’s felony voting ban is cruel and unusual
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court should overturn Mississippi’s Jim Crow-era practice of removing voting rights from people convicted of certain felonies, including nonviolent crimes such as forgery and timber theft, attorneys say in new court papers.
Most of the people affected are disenfranchised for life because the state provides few options for restoring ballot access.
“Mississippi’s harsh and unforgiving felony disenfranchisement scheme is a national outlier,” attorneys representing some who lost voting rights said in an appeal filed Wednesday. They wrote that states “have consistently moved away from lifetime felony disenfranchisement over the past few decades.”
This case is the second in recent years — and the third since the late 19th century — that asks the Supreme Court to overturn Mississippi’s disenfranchisement for some felonies. The cases use different legal arguments, and the court rejected the most recent attempt in 2023.
The new appeal asks justices to reverse a July ruling from the conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which said Mississippi legislators, not the courts, must decide whether to change the laws.
Stripping away voting rights for some crimes is unconstitutional because it is cruel and unusual punishment, the appeal argues. A majority of justices rejected arguments over cruel and unusual punishment in June when they cleared the way for cities to enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outside in public places.
Attorneys who sued Mississippi over voting rights say the authors of the state’s 1890 constitution based disenfranchisement on a list of crimes they thought Black people were more likely to commit. A majority of the appeals judges wrote that the Supreme Court in 1974 reaffirmed constitutional law allowing states to disenfranchise felons.
About 38% of Mississippi residents are Black. Nearly 50,000 people were disenfranchised under the state’s felony voting ban between 1994 and 2017. More than 29,000 of them have completed their sentences, and about 58% of that group are Black, according to an expert who analyzed data for plaintiffs challenging the voting ban.
To regain voting rights in Mississippi, a person convicted of a disenfranchising crime must receive a governor’s pardon or win permission from two-thirds of the state House and Senate. In recent years, legislators have restored voting rights for only a few people.
The other recent case that went to the Supreme Court argued that authors of Mississippi’s constitution showed racist intent when they chose which felonies would cause people to lose the right to vote.
In that ruling, justices declined to reconsider a 2022 appeals court decision that said Mississippi remedied the discriminatory intent of the original provisions in the state constitution by later altering the list of disenfranchising crimes.
In 1950, Mississippi dropped burglary from the list. Murder and rape were added in 1968. The Mississippi attorney general issued an opinion in 2009 that expanded the list to 22 crimes, including timber larceny, carjacking, felony-level shoplifting and felony-level writing bad checks.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in a 2023 dissent that Mississippi’s list of disenfranchising crimes was “adopted for an illicit discriminatory purpose.”
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