taken. Impassable dams at Alna, Maine, the 

 head of tidal waters, blocked movement offish 

 for many years. The Sheepscot River, below 

 Alna, has maintained a small run through the 

 years, and a few shad were taken by gill nets 

 in 1950 (Taylor, C.C. 1951). 



the head of tide. A few fish were caught each 

 year in herring weirs of the lower river. In 

 1896, 46 pounds were taken in the Saint Croix. 

 None has been reported in recent years. 



TRENDS IN PRODUCTION 



Penobscot River and Bay 



This stream is the largest on the Atlantic 

 coast of the United States north of Connecticut. 

 Its sources are in extrenne western Maine near 

 the Canadian boundary, from whence it flows 

 over 200 miles to its entrance into Penobscot 

 Bay, 30 miles below Bangor, Maine, 



Originally, shad was the most abundant fish 

 in the Penobscot. In the early 1800's more 

 fish were taken than could be locally con- 

 sumed. Abundance declined rapidly after the 

 construction of the dam at Bangor in 1830 be- 

 cause of the decrease in the extent of spawning 

 grounds. Only 114 fish (436 lb.) were taken in 

 1896. 



Pleasant and Harrington Rivers 



Neither of these rivers maintained shad 

 populations. A dam at Colunnbia Falls on the 

 Pleasant River is only a few feet from salt 

 water. The Harrington River is small and has 

 a steep gradient (Taylor, C.C. 1951). Shad 

 fisheries in these areas depended on annual 

 runs entering bays and estuaries during their 

 coastal migrations. The 1896 catch in the 

 Pleasant River was 34,466 lb.; in the Harring- 

 ton River it was 11,489 lb. 



Some shad were taken in the Pleasant and 

 Harrington River estuaries each year by drift 

 nets that were fished in late May and early 

 June (Taylor, C.C. 1951). Fish caught were 

 consumed locally, and no estimate of the catch 

 was available in 1960. 



Saint Croix River 



The Saint Croix River, for a portion of its 

 length the boundary between Maine and New 

 Brunswick, Canada, formerly abounded in shad 

 and other anadromous fishes (Atkins, 1887). 

 Beginning in 1825, the fishery declined when 

 the river was closed off by dam construction. 

 The first dam was at Calais, Maine, just above 



The catch records for shad in Maine are 

 available for most years 1887 to 1960 

 (table 53). The highest recorded catch was in 

 1912, 3,296,000 lb.; the lowest was in I960, 

 311 lb. The catch was high between 1887 and 

 1919, from 414,000 to 3,296,000 lb. Later, 

 except for 1,107,000 lb. in 1946, the annual 

 catch has been small, ranging from 311 to 

 441,000 lb. Since 1948 the annual catch has 

 averaged 15,000 lb. 



The disappearance of shad in Maine was 

 due almost entirely to their exclusion from 

 spawning areas by dam construction (Taylor, 

 C.C. 1951). The major exceptions were the 

 Kennebec River and Merrymeeting Bay sys- 

 tems, where pollution was believed to be the 

 major cause. Very few shad have been taken 

 in Maine rivers since 1918. The catch has 

 been composed largely of fish from Atlantic 

 coast streams that spend the summer in the 

 Gulf of Maine. 



Table 53. — Shad catch for certain years, Maine, 1887-1960^ 

 [in thousands of pounds] 



^ statistics 1887-1959, U. S. Fish Commission, U. S. Bureau of 

 Fisheries, and U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, except 1914, 1916, 

 and 1960. 



2 Taylor (1951). 



2 Catch 311 pounds (U. S, Fish and Ulldlife Service, 1961b). 



TRENDS IN SHAD PRODUCTION OF THE ATLANTIC 

 COAST OF THE UNITED STATES 



The shad catch in each river or State fluc- 

 tuates independently with local conditions, and 

 only by comparing the yield from the entire 

 coast or a large area of the coast can changes 

 in total production be demonstrated. Complete 

 catch statistics for the Atlantic coast of the 



United States are available only for certain 

 years. The long-range trends are neverthe- 

 less evident (table 54 and fig. 28). 



According to Stevenson (1899), 1880 was the 

 earliest year for which reliable data were 

 available on shad production for the entire 



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