abundance of shad in the Delaware River and 

 Bay were not determined with certainty, but 

 Sykes and Lehman (1957) stated that: (1) the 

 decline was brought about, at least in part, by 

 overfishing; (2) increased pollution of the Dela- 

 ware estuary had beconne an important and 

 apparently dominant cause of the diminution 

 of the stock (Adults migrating upstream through 

 the industrial sections of the river during 

 April and May sometimes were killed by pollu- 

 tion blocks as was witnessed in May 1951.); 

 (3) heavy mortality occurred annong young 

 downstream migrants in and near the indus- 

 trial sections where the water was most 

 heavily polluted; and (4) legally operated eel 

 racks in the river destroyed young fish. 



The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Com- 

 mission and the Interstate Commission on the 



Delaware River Basin recommended in 1949 

 to Delaware authorities certain measures 

 designed to nnanage a restored fishery to 

 produce maximum continued yields. These 

 measures, similar to the Maryland Manage- 

 ment Plan, would be implemented by New 

 Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Pres- 

 ervation of the rennnant shad population that 

 spawns in the upper reaches of the Delaware 

 River depended upon freedom from dams that 

 would prevent access to spawning and nursery 

 grounds (Sykes and Lehman, 1957). The suc- 

 cess of shad rehabilitation programs on the 

 Delaware also depends on the reduction and 

 continued control of pollution. If these ob- 

 jectives are accomplished, there appears to 

 be no reason why the shad runs in Delaware 

 could not be rehabilitated. 



SHAD FISHERIES OF PENNSYLVANIA 



The shad fisheries of Pennsylvania formerly 

 were limited to the Susquehanna River, the 

 Delaware River and Delaware Bay, and their 

 tributaries. The estimated catch in 1896 was 

 2,501,143 lb., of which gill nets caught about 

 48 percent, seines 50 percent, and bow nets 

 and spears the remainder. The catch by gear 

 and amount of gear are given by water area 

 in table 37. 



There was no commercial shad production 

 in Pennsylvania waters in 1960. 



FISHERIES BY WATER AREA 



Susquehanna River 



The Susquehanna River is situated partly in 

 Maryland and New York, but principally in 

 Pennsylvania; it traverses that State from 



north to south. The Susquehanna flows south 

 for 422 miles into the head of Chesapeake Bay. 

 Eighty-three miles upstreann from its mouth, 

 the Susquehanna receives the Juniata River, 

 and 126 miles above its mouth (at Sunbury, 

 Pa.), it receives its principal tributary, the 

 West Branch, 175 miles long. Above Sunbury, 

 the Susquehanna is called the North Branch. 

 The Susquehanna drains an area of 27,500 

 square miles--the largest drainage of any 

 United States Atlantic coast river. 



The original limit of the shad run in the 

 Susquehanna was 318 miles from the mouth 

 of the river and 513 miles fronn the coast 

 (Stevenson, 1899). Fish spawned in the upper 

 reaches of the river and its tributaries. In 

 the early part of the 19th century, at least 2 

 million pounds of shad were caught each year 

 in Pennsylvania waters of the Susquehanna. 

 This abundance continued until a canal with 

 dams was constructed during the 1830's. 



Table 37. --Shad catch, by water area and gear, Pennsylvania, 1896 



67 



