The American paddlefish is certainly a strange looking fish. They are related to sturgeons and are the only surviving species of paddlefish, the other five known species now extinct. Even in the USA, paddlefish populations have been on the decline because of habitat destruction, overfishing, poaching and pollution.  They are not a large fish being typically about 1.5 metres in length, the biggest on record measured almost 2.2 metres. In contrast the largest know Chinese paddlefish, now sadly extinct, was 7 metres in length. They have electroreceptors on their rostrum's hair cells and sensory pores on half of their skin surface enabling them to detect the weak electrical fields of their primary diet, zooplankton.

One safe haven for the American paddlefish is a ten-acre quarry, Loch Low Minn, near Athens, Tennessee and the destination for my latest Big Fish Expeditions trip. Our BFE Trip Leader, Jennifer Idol, collected the BFE group from Nashville Airport and drove us east to Athens, which is near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. She had organised everything perfectly, even the ideal weather! We then enjoyed two days diving Loch Low Minn with the paddlefish. They were a little skittish, but it wasn’t hard to get shots and I thoroughly enjoyed my brief time in the US.