Juvenile Shad Return to Ocean to Perpetuate Stock

Thought this was a very cool video and article of when this years juvenile shad return to the ocean and how organization determine the strength of the spawn or young of the year index. Article in attached link:

https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/new...ease-them.html

Other benefit is there's millions of fry very similar to lake herring making the track downstream and if you locate the schools, everything in the river is feeding on them. You'll see them skipping on the surface, more early and late in the day, not hard to find. Find a plug that imitates 2-3 inch shad fry and you won't be disappointed. I use a shallow running Rap that's a perfect imitation and have had epic days with walleye and small mouths during their journey downstream.

Interesting read and video.

[Mark B.]

It is hard for me to believe that they are placed in a live well and later released. I ran that same show for years. We counted every one, measured the lengths of a subsample. If you looked at them cross-eyed, they were dead. Very fragile juvenile fish. At the Delaware Water Gap, we got in to trouble for dumping a pile of dead shadlings in the brush at the shoreline. After that we always took the load out to the middle of the river to dump. I used some as bait. It always bothered me that they all died.

Mark that's sad to hear. In the video I believe they mention multiple sets so the number of fry killed must be significant. I understand the importance of monitoring young of the year in fisheries management but if it comes at the expense of extensive mortality I'd question the sensibility. Don't think anyone really knows for certain where these fish go in the ocean so I'm assuming the reason they net the yearly age classes is to compare those statistics to returns a few years later as adults to determine mortality at sea and the survival rate of age classes in determining the recruitment strength and stability of the stock.

Just curious, when you got in trouble for dumping dead juveniles at the Gap, who did you get in trouble with? Park rangers or CO's? In today's day and age, wonder why some type of acoustic reading isn't an alternative.

The population that returns is ultimately what matters and I believe there's still a commercial operation in Lambertville that would give an indication in the spring of the strength of returning adults. Since I believe they don't know the migration patterns or extent of natural and fishing related mortality during their time at sea and with the extent of mortality you mentioned netting juveniles, you almost have to question the relevancy of the Fall nettings. Without knowing all the reasons why they do, it wouldn't be fair to judge but it's a shame seining as you say comes with apparently such a high mortality rate.

[Mark B.]

Originally Posted by dakota560

Mark that's sad to hear. In the video I believe they mention multiple sets so the number of fry killed must be significant. I understand the importance of monitoring young of the year in fisheries management but if it comes at the expense of extensive mortality I'd question the sensibility. Don't think anyone really knows for certain where these fish go in the ocean so I'm assuming the reason they net the yearly age classes is to compare those statistics to returns a few years later as adults to determine mortality at sea and the survival rate of age classes in determining the recruitment strength and stability of the stock.

Just curious, when you got in trouble for dumping dead juveniles at the Gap, who did you get in trouble with? Park rangers or CO's? In today's day and age, wonder why some type of acoustic reading isn't an alternative.

The population that returns is ultimately what matters and I believe there's still a commercial operation in Lambertville that would give an indication in the spring of the strength of returning adults. Since I believe they don't know the migration patterns or extent of natural and fishing related mortality during their time at sea and with the extent of mortality you mentioned netting juveniles, you almost have to question the relevancy of the Fall nettings. Without knowing all the reasons why they do, it wouldn't be fair to judge but it's a shame seining as you say comes with apparently such a high mortality rate.

The DWG Nat. Rec. Area Rangers reprimanded us.

All Atlantic Coast States are required by the ASMFC to have a sustainable plan for their shad fisheries.

See: http://www.asmfc.org/files/Shad%20SF..._SFMP_2020.pdf