PREFACE 



This report is the result of one of several studies being made 

 to obtain basic information required for the design of fish-ways that 

 will successfully pass shad. 



The catch of shad along the Atlantic Coast has fallen from some 

 $0 million pounds in l8°6 to about lU million pounds in 19u6. Thus, 

 within a period of 5>0 years the catch declined to less than 30 percent 

 of its former size and because of this continued decline, the Atlantic 

 States Marine Fisheries Commission sponsored legislation authorizing 

 funds for a six year study of shad along the Atlantic Coast. (Public 

 Law 2h9> 8lst Congress) . These studies will provide the Commission 

 with information which will enable it and its member states to restore 

 the shad fisheries to a greater and more stable yield. 



Although the causes for the decline in the shad fishery are many, 

 one of the most prominent factors has been the construction of numer- 

 ous dams which prevent shad from reaching their native spawning grounds. 

 Many of the dams had fishways but, unfortunately, they were poorly de- 

 signed and ineffective. Recently, however, the numbers of shad con- 

 sistently observed ascending the Bonneville fishways on the Columbia 

 River and a fishway at Lawrence, Massachusetts demonstrate that shad 

 will use fishways if the proper hydraulic conditions exist. As a part 

 of our shad program, we must define those hydraulic conditions 



Much of the information contained in this report was obtained 

 through the interested cooperation of the Massachusetts Department of 

 Conservation and especially Mr. Francis Sargent, Director, Division of 

 Marine Fisheries, and Mr. John Burns, Supervisor of Fishways, Mr. 

 Ernest Barnes, a former aquatic biologist with the Massachusetts Depart- 

 ment of Conservation, and Mr. Howard Dobransk, Essex Company;, Lawrence, 

 Massachusetts, have supplied particularly valuable information on the 

 movement of shad in the fishway, and Mr. Harry Goodwin, regional super- 

 visor, Office of River Basin Studies, Fish and Wildlife Service, has 

 given valuable advice on many occasions. The shad investigations are 

 under the immediate supervision of Mr. Gerald B. Talbot. 



Clinton E. Atkinson 

 Chief, Middle and South Atlantic 

 Fishery Investigations 

 April 18, 19^1 Fish and Wildlife Service 



