Thirty pound nets concentrated in the Raritan 

 Bay section of Lower New York Bay caught 

 93,300 lb. of shad in 1960. These nets were 

 not set especially for shad and depended prin- 

 cipally on the catch of other fishes. The annual 

 shad yield by this fishery depends on the size 

 of run to the Hudson River (Nichols, 1958). 



Hudson River 



Many shad are caught each year in the New 

 Jersey section of the Hudson River. The I960 

 yield was 449,636 lb., most by stake gill nets. 

 This fishery is prosecuted by residents of 

 New Jersey and New York; a description of 

 the fishery is given in the section on the fish- 

 eries of New York. 



TRENDS IN PRODUCTION 



The shad fisheries of New Jersey have un- 

 dergone extreme fluctuations in production 

 (table 41), The catch increased from 750,000 

 lb. in 1880 to more than 14 million pounds in 

 1901. The catch declined to 4 million pounds 

 by 1904 and to 168,000 lb. by 1921. The pro- 

 duction continued low until 1935, when 818,000 

 lb. were landed. From 1937 to 1945, production 

 was relatively high; the annual average yield 

 was about 3.5 million pounds. Production again 

 decreased, and in 1947-60 the annual average 

 yield was slightly more than 1 million pounds. 

 The I960 production was less than 5 percent 

 of the 1896 catch. 



To protect the fishery. New Jersey initiated 

 management measures and enacted laws re- 

 stricting the fishing season and certain types 

 of gear. Artificial propagation and stocking 

 of shad, practiced as early as 1875, continued 

 until 1941. Stocking did not, however, increase 

 the commercial yield. 



Table 41. --Shad catch for certain years. 

 New Jersey, 1880-1960^ 



[In thousands of pounds] 



Year 



Catch 



1880 750 



1887 6,495 



1888 6,523 



1889 10,424 



1890 10,623 



1891 10,225 



1896 13,910 



1897 13,001 



1901 14,031 



1904. 

 1908. 

 1921. 

 1926. 

 1929. 

 1930. 

 1931. 

 1932. 

 1933. 

 1935. 

 1937. 

 1938. 



4,338 



3,004 



168 



553 



342 



224 



257 



224 



458 



818 



3,340 



2,492 



Year 



Catch 



1939 2,699 



1940 3,365 



1942 4,826 



1943 3,348 



1944 4,314 



1945 2,917 



1947 1,574 



1948 1,853 



1949 1.407 



1950 1,072 



1951 682 



1952 1,402 



1953 679 



1954 826 



1955 1,326 



1956 1,316 



1957 1,384 



1958 964 



1959 1,026 



1960 694 



Statistics 1880-1959, U. 

 Wildlife Service (1958-61). 



S. Fish and 



The success of shad rehabilitation in the 

 Delaware River must depend on the reduction 

 and continued control of pollution and the 

 prevention of dam construction on the main 

 stem of the river or provision of main- stem 

 dams with fishways (Sykes and Lehman, 1957). 

 In the Hudson, the most important single fac- 

 tor of fluctuations in stocks is the number of 

 shad escaping the fishery to spawn (Talbot, 

 1954). Factors of fluctuations in abundance of 

 shad in these rivers are discussed in the sec- 

 tions on fisheries of Delaware and New York. 



SHAD FISHERIES OF NEW YORK 



The 1896 shad fisheries of New Yorkyielded 

 2, ZOO, 546 lb.; Hudson River and New York Bay 

 produced more than 98 percent. The river 

 produced 1,703,066 lb., of which drift gill nets 

 caught 71 percent, stake gill nets 13 percent, 

 seines 16 percent, and miscellaneous gear 

 less than 1 percent. The Bay produced 461,865 

 lb., of which drift gill nets caught 56 percent, 

 stake gill nets 26 percent, pound nets 14 per- 

 cent, and miscellaneous gear 4 percent. Great 

 South Bay, Long Island Sound, and Gardiner 

 Bay and tributaries produced 35,615 lb., but 

 most was incidental to the catch of other 

 species. 



The shad fisheries of New York in 1960 

 yielded 472,261 lb., of which the Hudson River 

 and New York Bay produced 95 percent. The 



river produced 328,711 lb., of which drift gill 

 nets caught about 41 percent, stake gill nets 

 58 percent, and seines 1 percent. The Bay 

 produced 118,200 lb., all caught by pound nets. 

 Great South Bay, Long Island Sound, and Gar- 

 diner Bay yielded 25,350 lb. incidental to the 

 catch of other species. A map of the Hudson 

 River from Castleton, N.Y., to the Atlantic 

 Ocean is shown in figure 24. 



The extent of the fisheries by water area in 

 1896 and 1960 is given in tables 42 and 43. 

 Formerly, most shad were taken by drift gill 

 net, but in recent years pound nets have be- 

 come relatively more important. The amounts 

 of drift gill net and seines decreased, and 

 yards of stake gill nets and numbers of pound 

 nets increased. 



72 



