In April, American shad spawn in the rivers along the Chesapeake Bay.
Anadromous fish spend most of their life in salt water but migrate to fresh water for spawning.
American eels do the reverse, spawning in the Sargasso Sea but returning to spend most of their lives in fresh water. After depositing their eggs into the brackish estuaries, the shad swim downstream, exit the Chesapeake Bay between Cape Charles and Cape Henry, and turn left. They spend the summer in northern waters, such as the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of Maine . There, in the cold waters above the coastal shelf and Georges Bank and west of the Gulf Stream , the shad feed and grow. In the fall, they migrate south again and spend the winter off the Carolina coastline.