Two UCAprofessors will be featured on KUAR’sradio showArts & Letters(89.1 FM) onJuly 30,2015 at 8:30 p.m. Fish writer and writing professor Mark Spitzer and biology professor Dr. Reid Adams will appear on the 30-minute program.
Hosted by J. Bradley Minnick, the special program will focus on Spitzer’snonfiction book,Returnof the Gar, recently published by theUniversity of North Texas Press. Spitzer, who has written two books on gar,and Adams, who specializes in gar research,are recognized as leadingspecialists in the study of this species, especially in regard to the alligator gar, a fishwhich can reach lengths of 10 feet long.
Weavingexcerptsfrom Spitzer’sbook withsound bites fromAdams and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service garauthority Lindsey Lewis, the collage format of the show incorporatesoriginalmusic by the Sioux City Kid (Jared Griffin) and Know Who’s a Robot.Produced and edited by Chris Hickey and Minnickat KUAR, the show paints a portrait of a fascinating native species and current conservation efforts to bringbacksome nearly extinct populations.
According to Spitzer, “The theme of gar returning happens on a few different levels. On one hand, there’s a lot of collaboration now between federal and state agencies, universities, private and public labs and hatcheries, commercial fisheries and aquariums all over the world. Basically, we’ve had some success in resurrecting gator gar in the United States, which will be good for environmental balance, but there’s still a lot of work to do.”
In other countries, the outlook is much bleaker for the gar family. InReturn of the Gar, Spitzer investigates gar farms in Mexico and tropical gar in Costa Rica and Nicaragua to assess the global gar situation. He also fishes for alligator gar in Thailand, where the alligator gar is considered a trophy fish and stocked along with Mekong catfish and Amazonian arapaima.
Arts &Lettersshowcases aspects ofthe humanities andliterary artsin Arkansas and beyond. The show ends on ahighly personalnote as Spitzer, reflecting on various eco issues, releases his pet gar of 10 years into the wild.
“Thisshow will be rebroadcast with dates to be announced later,” Minnick remarked. “The podcast will be available at KUAR.org and also on iTunes. Check out the supplementalsection of the webpage for excerpts from interviews.”
In Conway,Return of the Garisavailable at Hastingsandthe 51¥ Bookstore. It is also available online.For more informationon thisgar episode ofArts& Letters,contact Hickey at(501)569-8485or Minnick atjbminnick@ualr.edu.
Theradio interview on KUARcan be heard .
