GRAPHS, PHOTOGRAPHS, LINKS, NOTES and QUOTES

AMERICAN SHAD AND SUSQUEHANNA RIVER

Google July 16, 2006: 7.2 million re SHAD, 73,801 images
Definition: shad, fish, Alosa sapidissima, of the family Clupeidae (herring family), found along the Atlantic coast from Newfoundland to Florida and successfully introduced on the Pacific coast. The shad is one of the largest (6 lb/2.7 kg average) of the herrings and has delicious but bony flesh; its roe is valued as a delicacy. Shad ascend rivers to spawn in the spring; water pollution and indiscriminate netting have cut down their numbers. The gizzard shad, Dorosoma (named for its muscular gizzardlike stomach), a swift, silvery fish, 1 ft (30 cm) long, is found along the Atlantic coast from New Jersey to Texas and up the Mississippi to the Great Lakes. Shads are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Osteichthyes, order Clupeiformes, family Clupeidae.
Stream Miles Opened to Migratory Fish ; Living Resources in 1997 (Fact Sheet Chesapeake Bay Foundation, October 1997)
quote from page 2 - " Fish Passage Miles Add Up":
: The 1993 Chesapeake Executive Council directive on fish passage goals commits Chesapeake Bay Program partners to restore migratory fish passages at dams and other stream blockages. The directive established five-year and 10-year targets for the number of stream miles to be opened. In 1996, watershed states opened 76 miles of potential fish spawning habitat. An additional 120 miles were opened by September 30, 1997. To date, a total of 392 miles have been opened, of which 330 miles have been opened for anadromousfish, like shad, and 62 miles have been opened to resident fish, such as smallmouth bass. In 1997, Maryland opened the last remaining barrier on Patapsco River’s mainstem, Simpkins Dam. Pennsylvania completed fish lifts at Safe Harbor and Holtwood Dams on the Susquehanna River (the largest lifts of this kind in the nation) and a fish passage at RockHill Dam, on the Conestoga River. Virginia began construction on a fish passage at Boshers Dam in Richmond, a project that will open 138 miles on the mainstem of the upper James River. Stocking efforts and a moratorium on shad fishing in the Bay have helped increase the number of American shad, a historically important fish for the Bay. Shad lifted over Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River increased from fewer than 10,000 in 1980 to almost 104,000 in 1997. Also, 374,000 river herring bypassed the dam in spring 1997. The percentage of wild shad seen at Conowingo increased from 16% in 1995 to 60% this year. That means shad transported upstream by truck in previous years successfully reproduced and their offspring returned to spawn.

Croton Point Park, Croton on Hudson, NY Sunday, May 21st ?
3:00pm Riverlover's Shad Festival A public performance






LINKS:
Migrating Fish Restoration and Passage on the Susquehanna River
Hilsa Shad in Bangladesh
Shad of the Shat-Al Arab Region
The Fishermen of Raritan Bay
It's the Founding Fish: Seven things to know about shad
Swimming upstream - and succeeding!
Pennsylvania leads the nation in dam demolition. Detter’s Mill Dam was one of a dozen that were removed in 2004 under the careful oversight of R. Scott Carney and the Commonwealth’s Fish and Boat Commission.

Today, in an effort to establish new fish populations in areas that have been isolated for generations, hatchery-reared fish are being stocked into new habitat areas. Over the past ten years more than 340 million shad have been stocked in rivers in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.

The Valley Forge Fish Story:
It should be noted that the fishery on the Delaware River was long established. In April 1779, Prisoner of War Thomas Hughes observing shad fishing at Easton commented "they often catch three or four thousand at a sweep." As many as 4,000 shad are reported to have been caught in one day at Burton’s Ferry in Bucks County. Gloucester County, New Jersey alone was reported to have 40 fisheries that employed about 900 men in 1829.

The Shad Foundation
1830s by Samuel Ladd Howell, M.D., whose family owned the Howell and Fancy Hill fisheries downstream of Lambertville [see side-bar, "Haul-seining the Delaware"]. "It is an interesting sight to witness these operations...," wrote Howell, "to see the water within the seine black with their backs and bristling with their fins-to witness the animation and bustle of the fishermen, and behold their eagerness and anxiety to secure their booty, are circumstances calculated to excite in the spectator of such an enlivening scene, emotions of delight, and cause him to participate with the successful fisherman in all his joy and hilarity." Although the catches do not number in the thousands as they did in Howell's day (Howell once witnessed the landing of 10,800 shad in a single haul),
Shad fishing on the Delaware used to be a big business back in the late 1800s," said Lewis. "They caught as many as 50,000 right out of this pool. There were five fisheries in here at that time." He shows us their locations: one on both ends of Lewis Island, one directly across the river from the island, and one on each bank below the bridge at Bridge Street which we had just crossed. "Five of them," he repeated. "When all of these fisheries were in operation, you had to watch when you mis-started your haul-you'd be fishing in somebody else's water. In 1896 they each caught more than 10,000 shad apiece. At that time they shipped them to New York and Philadelphia. We don't do that anymore."

Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) Report: 2003
American Shad in PA:
In 1881, there were some 40 permanent seine fisheries in the North Branch alone. Each commonly took 300 shad per haul and up to 10,000 shad per day. These fisheries were an integral part of the growing economy of central Pennsylvania.

PA Fish Passages - 2000
Gratefully acknowledging all sources ! BLO fecit 20060716_30 - stories