Spotted gar (Lepisosteus oculatus) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 10

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Existing Protection or Other Status Designations

The Global, National (US and Canada), Subnational (State and Provincial) ranks for spotted gar are given in Table 1. Spotted gar was designated as Special Concern in 1983 by COSEWIC and this status was reconfirmed in 1994. The status was re- examined and uplisted to Threatened in 2000 (COSEWIC 2003). It is currently listed as a Threatened species on Schedule 1 of the Canadian Species at Risk Act, which makes it an offence to kill, harm, capture, take, possess, collect, buy, sell or trade a spotted gar, as well as damage or destroy its residence.

*G/S ranks: 1=critically imperiled; 2=imperiled; 3=vulnerable to extirpation or extinction; 4=apparently secure; 5=demonstrably widespread, abundant and secure; X = extirpated; NR = unranked, not yet assessed.

Spotted gar is considered secure (S5) or apparently secure (S4) in much of its range, particularly in the southern United States (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Indiana, and Kentucky).  However, at the margins of its United States distribution, including the Great Lakes basin, it is ranked S2S3 (Michigan, Illinois), S1S2 (Kansas), and S1 (Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Georgia) (NatureServe 2005).

Populations found in Long Point Provincial Park and National Wildlife Area, Rondeau Provincial Park, and Point Pelee National Park are partially protected by their location in these public parks. The spotted gar is one of eight fish species being addressed under the ecosystem-based Sydenham River Recovery Strategy. The goals of this strategy are to maintain existing populations and restore each species to areas of the river where they formerly occurred thereby sustaining and enhancing the native aquatic community (Dextrase et al. 2003).