Featured Image: Longnose gar
Yep, you read that correctly, this week, November 6-11 is gar week. And yes, I’m talking about the fish, not some random dude named Gar.
The celebration of all things gar is brought to you by the fine folks behind my favorite Twitter account, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.
Here are a few gar facts for your enjoyment:
Gars are members of the family Lepisosteidae, which are the only surviving members of the Ginglymodi, an ancient holosteian group of ray-finned fish, which first appeared during the Triassic, over 240 million years ago. Gars comprise seven living species of fish in two genera that inhabit fresh, brackish, and occasionally marine waters of eastern North America, Central America and Cuba in the Caribbean.
There are 5 species of gar found in US waters, the alligator gar, the largest of the gar species, the shortnosed gar, the long nosed gar, the spotted gar and the Florida gar.
The name “gar” was originally used for a species of needlefish found in the North Atlantic and likely took its name from the Old English word for “spear”.
Gar have a primitive lung that allows them to live in de-oxygenated water.
The largest alligator gar ever caught and officially recorded was 8 ft 5 in long, weighed 327 lb, and was 47 inches in girth.