Populations also persist in the Pascagoula River drainage of Mississippi and the Mobil River drainage of Alabama. The Alabama shad is often misidentified as the Skipjack herring. The average age of spawning fish is two years. Young remain in fresh water for the first six to eight months of their lives. Thirty-eight percent are repeat spawners, as is apparent by spawning marks on the shad's sides.
Adults leave the spawning area soon after spawning is complete.
The Alabama shad lives to about six years. The great decline in the status of the Alabama shad in Alabama is mostly due to a series of high lift navigating dams in the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers which block spawning migration to the Mobile Basin. Other threats to the shad include poor water quality and commercial and navigational dredging of sand bars used for spawning. In the past, commercial fishing was a threat to the shad. During the 1800's, this species supported a commercial fishery on the Ohio river.