May 29, 2008 6:30 pm US/Eastern
American Shad Population Is In Trouble
CONOWINGO, Md. (WJZ) ―
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The struggle to bring American white shad back to the bay has taken an alarming downtown, and no one knows why.
The struggle to bring American white shad back to the bay has taken an alarming downtown, and no one knows why.
Alex DeMetrick reports on the search for answers.
Between the Susquehana River and the bay stretches the Conowingo Dam. Every May, Exelon Power lifts fish over the dam for one purpose.
The company is searching out American shad in an effort to increase the species that was fished to the edge of extinction.
While numbers climbed for a short time, that isn't happening anymore.
"Precipitous decline in just a very short period of time," said Dale Weinrich, DNR Finfish Program.
At Conowingo Dam, the number of shad dropped from 190,000 in 2001 to just 17,000 so far this year.
"Striped bass and other predators could be taking some of the fish. Also, there could be some changes in bay currents," said Weinrich.
The Department of Natural Resources says it's not just the bay. American shad are vanishing up and down the east coast.
"It's a mystery," said Weinrich.
The number of adult shad migrating back from the ocean is not keeping pace with the large schools of young fish that left the bay.
As efforts continue to bring the shad back, diminishing returns are still being reported.
American shad have been protected from fishing in Maryland since 1980 and along most of the East Coast since 2005.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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