THE RESTRICTED INLAND RANGE OF SHAD DUE TO ARTIFICIAL OBSTRUC- 

 TIONS AND ITS EFFECT ON NATURAL REPRODUCTION. 



BY CHARLES H. STEVENSON, 

 Of the United States Fish Commission. 



There is no species of fish more important to residents of the Atlantic seaboard 

 than the shad, and none whose preservation so immediately concerns a larger number 

 of persons 24,768 men being actively engaged in this fishery in 1896. True, the yield 

 of codfish is heavier and sells for a greater value, but the fishery for that species is 

 confined to one section of the coast, gives employment to less than half as many men, 

 and its prosecution requires costly vessels and appliances, necessitating lengthy trips 

 from port, with much exposure and loss; whereas, shad occur more or less abun- 

 dantly along the entire coast, ascending the rivers as far as they permit, almost to the 

 very doors of fishermen and consumers, several hundred miles from the sea, and are 

 caught by all forms of apparatus, from the costly pound nets and seines near the coast 

 to the roughly constructed bownets and falltraps in the headwaters. Yet, there are 

 few species whose geographical range and local abundance are more easily affected by 

 artificial agencies or which require greater attention for their maintenance, and as 

 most of the important shad streams border or traverse two or more States and are 

 thus subject to more than one jurisdiction, the agencies affecting their range and 

 abundance present an appropriate subject for consideration in a gathering of repre- 

 sentatives from the different States. 



No river on the Atlantic seaboard appears too long for shad to ascend to its head- 

 waters, provided they meet with nothing to bar their progress. They ascend the St. 

 Johns in Florida a distance approximating 375 miles ; the Altamaha, 300 miles; the 

 Edisto, 281 miles; the San tee, 272 miles; the Neuse, 300 miles, and the Delaware River 

 a distance of 240 miles from the sea. However, these distances do not equal the 

 extreme ranges in the early part of the present century. Then shad ascended the 

 Savannah to Tallulah Falls, a distance of 384 miles, instead of 209 miles as at present. 

 They ran up the Pee Dee to Wilkesboro, a distance of 451 miles, whereas the present 

 limit on that river is Grassy Island, 242 miles from the sea, and only one shad was 

 reported from that point in 1896. On the James Eiver the former run was 350 miles 

 in length, while the present limit is Boshers Dam, 120 miles. The greatest decrease 

 exists in Susquehanna River, in which shad formerly ascended to Binghamton, 318 

 miles from the mouth and 513 miles by water-course from the sea, whereas at present 

 they do not appear to pass beyond Clarks Ferry, 84 miles from the mouth of the river. 



From Table A, on page 270, it appears that in 23 of the principal Atlantic coast 

 rivers, aggregating 8,113 miles in length, shad formerly existed throughout 6,052 miles, 



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