Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-04-14
THE TOOTHSoME SHAD
MYSTERIOUS SALT WATER FISH
KNOWN ONLY IN FRESH WATER.
Splendid Work of the Fish Commits
sion in Propngating the Species
Introduced on Pacific Coast

/
| spring brings to the Atlantic coast is the
| annual run of shad. the king of American
food fishes. As soon as winter is fairly
| gone this splendid creature appears in
| countless myriads, and from Florida to
| Maine it furnishes one of the most valu-
able of the 'harvests of the sea- 1t may
| be considered an American fish, for the
| European "maifisch' that represents it on
| the other side is far inferior to it. The flesh
| of our shad is rich without being oily. and
has flavor unequaled even by the salmon.
| unimaginative science has recognized this
quality in the technical name given to 1t.
and knows it as the alosa sapidissima, the
most toothsome alosa, and no one who has
tasted ''planked" shad will criticise the
| title. Alosa is an old French name for the
fish
The shad is member of the herring fam
lily, an immense tribe that includes the
sardines. the alewives, river herrings."
and many well-known fishes. and. like them,
1t is salt water fish. Little or nothing is
known of its ocean life. The parts of the
sea to which it resorts. the food it eats
and its movements when in its true home
have not been determined and it presents
the strange anomaly of fish known
only in fresh water Like its kindred, it
moves in great shoals. and to this fact the
/ family owes its name, for the word her
ring comes from an old German term mean
ing army, The movements of the shad
seem to depend on the temperature of the
water, and late spring will delay their
coming very materially.
The Shad Season.
The annual run into the rivers is solely
for spawning, and they appear in almost
regular succession according to latitude.
About the middle of November the run
commences in ST Johns river, In Florida,
and the first or second week in January
finds them in the Savannah and Edisto.
Somewhat later they enter the streams of
North Carolina, while April is usually the
month in which they are most abundant
In the Potomac. BY the middle of MAY
they have reached New Bruins wick and their
season is over The time they stay in
fresh water varies, and it seems that un-
der some circumstances they may remain
in the rivers throughout the year. and oc-
casionaily one is taken in midwinter. but
as a rule they are found only in the
spawning season
Shad were formerly very abundant and
went for long distances up the rivers in
search of spawning grounds. The reck-
less building of dams cut them off from
the spawning beds and so diminished their
numbers until they seemed Threatened
with extinction and the shadows on which
the eggs are laid became cIogged up by
the SaWdust and other refuse that a short
sighted public policy allows to be thrown
into streams. The fear of the loss of this
important industry was one of the causes
that led to the establishment of the United
States commission of fish and fisheries
and it is mainly by the efforts of this br-
reau that it has been restored to its i'm
portance.
This has been effected by artificial cui-
ture. The fish commission has several STA
tfons situated on noted shad streams and
q steamer. the Fish Hawk that is practi-
cally floating hatchery that follows the
hsh' and IN these millions of Young shad
are Matched. The ripe fish are captured
on the way to the spawning beds. and the
spawn IS gently pressed or stripped into
tin pans and fortified by milt gotten from
the males by mixing eggs and mflt toge, her
the eggs are then put into the Matching
Jars, and then the fry develops The lars
are arranged so that the water flows in
through tube that reaches nearly to the
bottom and flows out through the top the
current keeping up a boiling motion in the
mass of eggs. All the dead eggs rise to the
top and are carried off into the waste mines
so that they are not dangerous TO he living
ones The living eggs are heavier than the
dead ones and stay near the bottom so the
Matching jar sorts them out automatically.
Matching the Fry.
In from three to fifteen days according
to the temperature of the water the fry
begin to hatch. A young shad is about one
third of an inch long and Is almost trans
parent. and to this inviSibiIity it owes its
escape from enemies. As soon as 1t matches
the young fish rises to the top of the jar
and is carried by the current of water into
a large collecting tank. where il stays until
the whole lot is Matched The fish commits
sion gets about 9S per cent Of fry from the
eggs 1t procures. including unfertilized and
dead eggs in the count, and this record
cannot be eXcelled. a pair of shad yield
from 1500o to 10000 fertile eggs so if but
two in this number reach adult age the
number will be maintained. This means
that in nature only from lilo to 1-15 of
per cent survive.
As soon as possible after Matching is COM
piete the young shad are planted The fish
commission cars are loaded with tanks
filled with fry and dspa tched to the rivers
Into which the tiny fish are put to reappear
some four or five years later as fine. lus-
cious food.
Richly endowed by nature as is our Pa
cific coast one valuable gift was missing
The shad is not native of the Pacific, and
soon after the fish commission was or
ganized it was urged to try to introduce
the fish into these new waters. No such
feat had been attempted before. but Prof
Baird. aided by DR.. Turleton II. Bean and
Livingston Stone finally succeeded in car
rying the Atlantic fry across the continent
and planted them in the Sacramento river
Other plants have followed. and the fish is
now abundant from Mexico to Alaska Had
the commission done nothing but this il
would have more than paid for its cost