After the young shad leave the rivers in the 

 fall, and during their stay of 2 to 6 yr. in the 

 ocean, many are victims of predaceous fishes -- 

 sharks, bluefin tuna, kingfish, and many others 

 (Leach, 1925). North Carolina fishermen have 

 observed porpoise feeding on adults in coastal 

 waters. Although white pelican, Pelecanus 

 e rythrorhynchos , feed extensively on dead 

 and dying spawned-out adults in the St. 

 Johns River (Nichols, 1959a), in general, 

 adult shad are comparatively free from 

 predators other than main once they are in 

 the river. 



Parasites 



Whether parasites cause or contribute to 

 mortality of shad is unknown, but available 

 evidence indicates that they have no signifi- 

 cant effect. Although parasites have been ob- 

 served in shad, the fish are generally free 

 from severe infestations. Nematodes and dis- 

 tomes were found in the alimentary tract of 

 young collected in the Shubenacadie River, 



Nova Scotia (Leim, 1924). Roundworms, Aga- 

 monema capsularia , frequently were encap- 

 sulated upon the ovary, intestine, or liver of 

 adults caught near New York (Leidy, 1857; 

 1879). Fish taken in the Carolinas usually 

 were free of parasites with the occasional 

 exception of sea lice (Yarrow, 1874). Internal 

 parasites (the roundworm, Ascaris adunca, 

 and the acanthocephalan, Echinorhynchus acus ), 

 and an external copepod parasite ( Caligus 

 rapax ) were found in shad in the Woods Hole 

 region (Sumner, Osburn, and Cole, 1913). 

 Spawning shad taken in Scotsman Bay and 

 Annapolis and St. Johns Rivers were infested 

 with distomes, nematodes, aind Acanthocephali 

 (Leim, 1924). HoUis and Coker (1948) found 

 that 25 percent of 519 fingerlings had cysts 

 of a tren-iatode parasite, Clinostomum mar- 

 ginatum . Ectoparasitic copepods, Argulus 

 canadensis , were found on adults passed over 

 the Hadley Falls Dam in the Connecticut River 

 at Holyoke, Mass. (Davis, 1956). Both sea 

 lamprey, Petromyzon marinus , and fresh, 

 water lamprey, Ichthyomzyon sp., were at- 

 tached to adults taken in the Connecticut River. 



HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF FISHERY 



HISTORICAL NOTES 



When New England was first colonized, shad 

 and other fishes abounded in season in the 

 rivers and tributaries, and the Indians had 

 long used them for food. The headwater por- 

 tions of rivers were, for the most part, ac- 

 cessible to anadromous fishes, amd prior to 

 the erection of obstructions on the streams, 

 shad provided profitable fisheries from Maine 

 to Chesapeake Bay. 



When the English settled along the Connecti- 

 cut River, shad were plentiful; they rejected 

 this species, however, for nearly 100 yr. 

 (McDonald, 1887e). Fishermen took the salmon 

 from their nets and usually returned the shad 

 to the streams. Reports indicated that shad 

 were taken in large numbers in many places 

 in Connecticut before 1760, but did not appear 

 on the market until the early 1770's. At that 

 time they sold for a penny each. From 1778 to 

 1781, thousands of barrels of shad were salted. 

 The falls at South Hadley was one of the fa- 

 vorable places on the Connecticut River for 

 taking fish, and many shad were caught in 

 seines below the falls and in scoop nets on 

 the falls. An account of 3,000 shad taken in 

 one seine haul at East Haddam was reported 

 in 1766 (Stevenson, 1899). In the early fishery 

 on the Connecticut, mainly haul seines were 

 used. Gill nets and pound nets gradually sup- 

 plainted haul seines and were in general use 

 by 1850. 



In early Massachusetts, a great variety of 

 fish abounded in the bays and rivers and their 

 tributaries (True and Wilcox, 1887). As early 

 as 1753, however, the people living along the 

 banks of the river, particularly the Wareham 

 River, observed that several fish, including 

 shad, were not as plentiful as before. 



The original range of shad in Maine included 

 almost every large river, but in the smaller 

 rivers they never had been plentiful (Atkins, 

 1887). From the first settlement of the country 

 until 1825, there were big annual runs of shad, 

 salmon, and alewives. The limits of the up- 

 stream migration of these fish were unknown 

 because the entire upper portions ofthe rivers 

 were wilderness until long after the occupation 

 of the lower rivers and the construction of 

 dams that blocked the upstream nnovement of 

 anadromous fish. Shad were caught in great 

 numbers in the Saint Croix River and its 

 branches. Vessels of 100 to 150 tons from 

 Rhode Island fished on this river and were 

 never known to leave without full cargoes of 

 fish. The Penobscot and Kennebec Rivers also 

 were productive of shad. 



As the demand for shad was limited, the 

 early Maine settlers along the streams caught 

 shad only in small weirs and salmon nets (gill 

 nets, either drifted in midstream or set out 

 from shore on stakes); later, however, the 

 demand for shad rose, and special nets were 

 set for them. Shortly after 1800, weirs with 

 three pounds (enclosures) were introduced. 



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