THE SHAD OUTLOOK (Alosa sapidissima). 



BY J. P. SNYDER, 



Cape Vincent, N. Y. 



During the spring of 1917, while assisting the Maryland 

 Conservation Commission, the writer spent several weeks among 

 the fishermen along the following rivers: Pocomoke, Wicomico, 

 Nanticoke, Choptank, Tuckaho, and Chester. Particular atten- 

 tion was paid to those parts of these rivers that are the natural 

 spawning beds of shad. This was done with a view to getting 

 some definite idea as to the number of shad that spawned on 

 these beds as compared with fifteen or twenty years ago. In this 

 report no reference is made to men who were not actual fishermen 

 for shad, either with pound nets or with gill nets, and who had 

 not fished successively for fifteen or more years, and every effort 

 was made to impress upon them the necessity of being honest 

 and conservative in their answers. The men individually were 

 asked to give, as near as they could recall — and quite a few had 

 records to which to refer — the smallest, the largest and the average 

 catch made per day's fishing during the springs of 1916 and 1917. 

 Then they were asked to go back in retrospect and give as near 

 as they could recall their smallest, largest and average catches 

 per day's fishing in 1902 and 1903. All this information was 

 taken down and tabulated and from these tabulations averages 

 were worked out. 



On the Pocomoke River, from Pocomoke City to Snowhill, 

 seventeen fishermen were interviewed. It was shown from the 

 testimony of these men that only one-tenth as many shad reached 

 their natural spawning beds on that river in 1916 and 1917, as 

 compared with 1902 and 1903. 



On the Wicomico River from Salisbury to eight miles below 

 that city, according to the testimony of nineteen fishermen, but 

 one-twelfth as many shad returned in 1917 as did fifteen years 

 before that date. 



Twenty fishermen were interviewed along that part of the 

 Nanticoke River from Woodland, Del., to Sharptown, Md. 

 According to the information given but one shad was taken per 

 net in 1916 and 1917 as compared with fifteen during the springs 

 of 1902 and 1903. 



113 



