SPRINGFIELD – Illinois officials have released detailed plans for how they'll reintroduce a giant fish that was thought to be extinct from the state's waters.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources announced Monday that it's published a management plan for alligator gar, which includes goals and objectives.

Last fall, Illinois officials stocked about 1,600 alligator gar. Biologists are restocking the fish in several states and some hope that it might be a weapon against Asian carp, an invasive species.

The fish is the second largest freshwater fish in North America, after the white sturgeon.

Illinois officials said in a news release that the last known catch before the reintroduction effort was in 1966 in southern Illinois' Cache River basin. It was about 130 pounds and seven feet long.

The alligator gar has been documented as far north as the middle Illinois River, generally south of Peoria, according to the state's planning document.

The alligator gar will be stocked in public access areas under IDNR management, such as state fish and wildlife Areas, that are in the fish's historic geographic range.

Some identified bodies of water are the Big Muddy, Cache, Illinois, Kaskaskia, Mississippi, Ohio, and Wabash rivers.

"Man-made lakes and isolated waters that best reflect management goals for the site, research needs, and angling opportunity for the general public will be considered by the Fisheries Division on a case-by-case basis," the plan states.