CHITTENDEN: PRESENT SPAWNING GROUNDS OF SHAD 



NURSERIES 



The chief nursery in 1966 was apparently lo- 

 cated upstream from Dingmans Ferry and was 

 especially centered near Tusten and Lordville 

 (Table 1). Areas downstream from Tusten gradu- 

 ally decreased in relative importance. The chief 

 nursery extended into the lower East Branch; 

 many young were captured near Hancock on 7 

 August, but none were taken at Downsville and 

 few were collected at Fishs Eddy, N. Y. No fish were 

 captured in the West Branch near Hancock on 8 

 August, suggesting that the lower West Branch 

 was an unimportant nursery in 1966. 



Two seemingly aberrant catches affect interpre- 

 tation of relative abundance upstream from Bel- 

 videre. The catch was small at Tusten on 30 

 August and very large at Dingmans Ferry on 17 

 August. Hundreds of young were attracted to the 

 lights on 10 and 21 August at Tusten which agrees 

 with the magnitude of catches on 4 and 16 August. 

 The Tusten catch on 30 August probably reflects a 

 seaward exodus offish after 21 August. A plateau 

 in size formed at Tusten by August 30 (Chittenden 

 1969, figure 47) when mean total length was 62 

 mm (Table 1). A plateau represents seaward 

 movement of larger fish, and seaward movement 

 of the young is probable when they reach 64 mm 

 (Chittenden 1969:248). Mean size at Dingmans 

 Ferry was 62 mm on 4 August and 67 mm on 17 

 August, so that the very large catch at Dingmans 

 Ferry on 17 August probably reflects an influx of 

 seaward moving young from farther upstream. 



The Delaware River downstream of Belvidere 

 appears to be a relatively unimportant nursery. 

 Catches during July and August 1966 at 

 Riegelsville and Scudders Falls were consistently 

 much smaller than at stations farther upstream, 

 and a catch at Erwinna, Pa., in July was also 

 small. The largest catch in these 10 collections was 

 16 young. This is much smaller than the smallest 

 catch in 14 collections at Belvidere, Dingmans 

 Ferry, Tusten, and Lordville. 



My collections and observations in 1963-65 gen- 

 erally agree with the nursery patterns of 1966. In 

 1963, young shad were observed and captured 

 from Dingmans Ferry to the lower East and West 

 branches; many were repeatedly observed and col- 

 lected in the lower East and West branches at 

 Hancock, and hundreds were observed near 

 Matamoras, Pa., on 19 July and at Skinners Falls 

 on 30 August. In 1964, young were captured from 

 Erwinna upstream to Cochecton, N.Y. (km 354): 



hundreds were observed or captured at Belvidere, 

 Delaware Water Gap, Worthington Tract (km 

 217), Flatbrookville (km 235), Dingmans Ferry, 

 Sparrowbush, Pond Eddy (km 301), and Cochec- 

 ton. No collections were made upstream from 

 Cochecton in 1964 except on 18 August when no 

 young were captured using lights in the West 

 Branch at Hancock. In 1965, young were observed 

 or captured from Belvidere upstream to Pond 

 Eddy; hundreds were observed and captured at 

 Delaware Water Gap on 8 July, at Belvidere on 15 

 July, and at Dingmans Ferry, Sparrowbush, and 

 Pond Eddy on 21 July. No trips were made up- 

 stream of Pond Eddy in 1965. 



GENERAL DISCUSSION 



Historical Spawning and Nursery Areas 



Shad migrated 68 km up the East Branch to 

 Shavertown (Bishop 1936) and 24 km up the West 

 Branch to Deposit in the early 1800's (Gay 1892). 

 A dam constructed at Lackawaxen, Pa., however, 

 blocked access upstream after 1823 (Slack 1874; 

 Smiley 1884; Gay 1892). Spawning grounds then 

 extended downstream from Lackawaxen for 

 about 70 yr until a fishway permitted upstream 

 access in 1891 (Bean 1892, 1903). 



Apparently the chief spawning grounds were 

 historically downstream from Lackawaxen. The 

 shad catch along the Atlantic coast is primarily 

 age IV or older fish (Walburg and Nichols 1967). 

 Few Delaware River shad migrate upstream until 

 age III, and most now first do so at ages IV and V 

 (Chittenden 1975). No records exist of size or age 

 composition in the late 1800's-early 1900's when 

 Delaware River landings reached their zenith, 

 except that average weights about 1896 were 3.75 

 and 3.50 pounds (Stevenson 1899), 3.75 pounds 

 (Townsend 1901), and 4.2 pounds based upon 

 Smith's (1898) report on the numbers and pounds 

 caught. These weights are reasonably similar to 

 the mean weights of males (1,107 g) and females 

 1,737 g) captured at Lambertville from 1963 to 

 1965 (Chittenden 1976), so that recent Delaware 

 River data probably closely represent the age 

 structures near the turn of the century. There- 

 fore, renewed access to spawning grounds up- 

 stream from Lackawaxen could not have fully af- 

 fected landings until 1895 or 1896. Except for 

 1892, annual landings were about 13-14.5 million 

 pounds in the period of 1889-95 and about 13.9- 

 16.8 million pounds from 1896 to 1901 (Chitten- 



347 



