The Penn's Grove record., 1899-04-07
shad Fishing and Their Value.

tIO i'hoiy NJ ldu0pd, ria
which the Fishing Gazette has been
publishing of late, places the Delaware
Bay and River as the greatest shad pro-
ducing stream in the United States.
The catch in the Bay is placed at Ito"
SCI, all caught in salt water and W. /
at SlO4,761 The catch in the river is
placed at 2,77S, 1903, of which 35.13 per
cent. are taken in salt water, and the
value at SS00,55s. This makes a total
3,SS2,624 shad caught annually at a
total value of s405, 1853. The next
largest shad producing water. the only
other producing over a million is Ches-
apeak Bay. The catch is placed at
1,639,S44, and valued at S167, 1929.
Mr.. Stevenson in his article says:
There is no species of fish more impor
tant than shad, and none whose pre-
5ervation so Immediately concerns a
larger number of persons, 24,76S men
being actively engaged in this fishery in
1896. Shad occur more or less abun-
dainty along the entire Atlantic coast,
ascending the rivers as far as they per-
nit, almost to the very doors of fisher
men and consumers several hundred
miles from the sea, and are caught by
all forms ct apparatus from the costly
pound nets and seines neal the coast to
the roughly constructed bow nets and
fall traps in the headwaters
They ascend the st. Johns River 375
miles; the Altamaha, 300 miles; the
Edisto, 2S1 miles, the Santee, 272 miles
the Neuse. 800 miles and the Delaware
240 miles. These distances do not
equal the extreme ranges in the early
part of the present century. Then
shad assembled the Savannah 3S4 miles,
instead Of 209 miles as at the present.
They raj up the Pee Dee 457 miles,
whereas the present limit is 242 miles
from the sea. On the James River the
former ran $50 miles, while the present
limit is 100 miles. The greatest de
cease exists in the Susquehanna River
in which the shad formerly assembled
to Binghampton, 318 miles from the
mouth, and 513 miles from the water
course from the sea, where as at present
they do not appear to pass beyond
Clark's Ferry, 81 miles from the mouth
of the River.
The limitation in the range of shad
has been caused by artificial dams,
pollution of the water, agricultural
operations and extensive fisheries.
Numerous attempts have been made
by the erection of fshways to enable
shad to pass above the obstruction, yet
none of them have appeared to be sue
cessful for shad, this fish being so timid
that it will not enter fishways readily
used by salmon and fish of the herring
family.
SIT has been the common experience
in all the shad rivers that whenever II
high dam or other obstruction has heen
erected across the stream the fisheries
above that point have at once ceased
and those Immediately below have fol a
year or two, flourished on the large num-
Der whose assent has been stopped by
the barrier and then they too have de-
cllned. 1t also appears that the extent
of this decrease below the dam is large
ly dsp~ht on the distance of the
obstruction from the mouth of the river
and the proportion of the spawning
grounds to which they are denied ac-
cess, and if all the breeding grounds
have been cut off in a definite coastal
region the shad have almost entirely
disappeared"
This is proved by the Connecticut
river. Since the dam was built at
Holyoke the catch below has decreased
from nearly half a million annually to
one-tenth.
This shows what will follow when
the Delaware River is damned at Tren-
ton.
Mr.. Stevenson further states that
sawdust, chemicals and other refuse
and agricultural operation have great
" impaired the utility of the spawning
acreas ever now available, and the eX-
~tensive fisheries have very largely de
| creased the number of shad reaching
those areas. They SO affected the
abundance of shad that during the
seventies the turn of the fisheries reach
ed a minimum. The results of artifi-
cial propagation has greatly increased
the abundance.
The total shad yield on the Atlantic
coast and rivers in 1880 numbered
5.162. 315, in 1888 it increased 20 10
Isl, sos, and in 1896 to 1906, 469. AT
20 cents each, which is the average
price paid by consumers this represents
an increase of S1,5Sl,02S.
Formerly the great bulk of the yield
was obtained from the middle and
upper sections of the rivers, while at
present nearly all the catch is obtained
in the lower section and in the salt
water of the estuaries. The extension
of The fisheries into the estuaTies dates
from the middle of the present century
and their development has been princi-
pally during the last 20 years.
With the exception of drift nets In
Delaware Bay. New York Bay and one
or two less important places, pound
nets and stake nets are the only forms
of apparatus employed in catching shad
caueht in salt water. Over 80 per cent
of sbad caught in the salt water of the
Chesapeake region are taken in pound
nets. AT present nearly one-half of the
total shad yield on the Atlantic sea-
board is obtained in salt water.