THE SHAD WORK ON THE DELAWARE RIVER IN 

 t907 AND ITS LESSONS 



BY W. E. MEEHAN, 

 Commissioner of Fisheries of Pennsylvania 



There is little that the people living along the line of the 

 Delaware valley are more interested in or guard more jeal- 

 ously than the shad industry in the Delaware Elver. From the 

 lowermost point of Delaware Bay to the shallows of the river in 

 New York state, the people look forward to and seek with gi-eat 

 eagerness the delicious shad as they ascend in the spring to 

 spawn. In comparison with this magnificent food fish any other 

 industry sinks into significance in the minds of the men and 

 women who are within reach of the supply. If any man in his 

 own financial interest talks of constructing a dam, however 

 small, across the river, there is an uproar raised ahout the matter 

 at once. 



If any corporation with plausihle declaration that it is char- 

 tered for the purpose of benefiting humanity and the conven- 

 ience of the public, attempts to secure legislation for the purpose 

 of harnessing the river to provide light and power, the news- 

 papers are up in arms at once and the voters along the entire 

 district are out on the warpath among the representatives in 

 the legislature to prevent the passage of any bill which will pre- 

 vent the free and unobstructed migration of the shad. 



The shad industry on the Delaware river has been subject to 

 many interesting and almost wonderful fluctations. It is said 

 that in the early part of the last century the annual catch was 

 worth about $135,000 including the fish which were kept by the 

 farmer fishermen above Trenton for winter use. In those days 

 people came for a distance of fifty or more miles in wagons pur- 

 chasing or trading goods, especially salt, for shad. About 1860, 

 owing to a rapid growth of population, the drain on the river 

 became very great, especially since all manner of destructive de- 

 vices were employed for catching of fish. As a consequence be- 

 fore 1880, it is claimed, that the industry had shrunk to a value 

 of only about $80,000 a year. 



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