Saving Seafood

Long slog ahead for new attempt to move shad past Conowingo, other dams

June 15, 2016 — Leon Senft remembers a time when he and other fishermen lined the shore of the Susquehanna River below the Conowingo Dam and hooked American shad almost as fast as they could cast their lines in the churning water.

“We really had a bonanza there for a while,” recalled Senft, 85, who’s been angling for the big migratory fish longer than most people are alive. “It was not unusual to catch 50–100 a day. My personal best was 175.”

That catch-and-release heyday for Senft was maybe 20 years ago, when American shad appeared to be on the rebound from a severe decline in their springtime spawning runs. Optimism abounded, as a big new fishlift hoisted more and more of them over the 94-foot dam on their way upriver to reproduce.

But the rebound went off the rails. Although the number of American shad getting a lift over Conowingo rose steadily for a decade, it then dropped and kept dropping.

Now, after years of study and negotiations, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Exelon Corp., Conowingo’s owner, have come up with a new plan for rebuilding the Susquehanna’s runs of American shad and river herring — related species that are even more depleted. In a press release announcing the deal in April, a federal wildlife official called it “a victory for everyone who lives or recreates on the Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Bay.”

But those close to the situation are still cautious. Given the discouraging track record so far, they say, bringing these fish back will take a sustained effort for decades — if it can be done at all.

“I was around when we did this last time, 25 years ago,” said Bill Goldsborough, senior fisheries scientist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. “We thought that was going to do a lot more than it did.”

Read the full story at the Chesapeake Bay Journal

Susquehanna River: Deal reached on fish, eel passage at Conowingo Dam

May 3, 2016 — Exelon Corp. has pledged in a deal announced last Monday to work to enhance spawning fish passage at Conowingo Dam over the next 50 years, seeking to revive the Susquehanna River’s meager stocks of American shad and river herring.

The Chicago-based company and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said they had reached agreement to improve at least one of two fish lifts at Conowingo and meanwhile start trucking migratory shad and river herring upriver past it and three other dams in Pennsylvania.

The agreement comes after years of negotiations between the company and wildlife agencies and conservation groups, which were seeking to revive the once-legendary spawning runs of shad and herring. The number of returning fish each spring has been trending downward since the 1980s, and wildlife agencies and conservationists wanted Exelon to make potentially costly upgrades to fish lifts there as a condition of renewing its federal license to operate the hydroelectric facility.

The company’s license to operate Conowingo expired in 2014, but the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has extended the permit while the parties — including Maryland —attempt to hash out their differences. An even more contentious issue involves what Exelon may have to do about the buildup of nutrient-laden sediment in the dam’s reservoir, which studies have shown could complicated efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay’s water quality.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

PENNSYLVANIA: Exelon reaches agreement to restore fish in Susquehanna

April 29, 2016 — Efforts to improve American shad and river herring populations in the Susquehanna River have increased thanks to a 50-year agreement announced on Monday by Exelon Generation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Josh Tryninewski, a biologist for the state Fish and Boat Commission who manages the shad restoration effort, said the river’s shad population has been declining since 2001 because of limited access to adequate spawning habitats.

Shad and river herring are returning to their spawning on the Susquehanna at their lowest numbers since the 1980s, according to Exelon’s news release. The population peaked in 2001, when hundreds of thousands of shad and river herring passed Exelon’s Conowingo Dam, but that number has dwindled to 1,500 shad and 1,000 herring per year.

Read the full story from The York Dispatch in Bloomberg

‘Landmark agreement’ reached to restore American shad to Susquehanna

April 26, 2016 — The owners of the Conowingo Dam and the federal government have signed what they call a “landmark agreement” in long-struggling efforts to restore American shad to the Susquehanna River.

The agreement between Exelon Generation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calls for up to 100,000 shad and 100,000 river herring to be transported and released to native spawning water above four hydroelectric dams in the Lower Susquehanna, including two in Lancaster County.

The agreement came out of efforts to pressure Exelon to improve the shad’s chances as part of the utility’s quest to obtain a federal license to operate for another 46 years.

Shad was once the iconic fish in the Susquehanna. It was a major food source, an economic driver and a way of life in Lancaster County when they made spawning runs from the Atlantic Ocean.

Read the full story in Lancaster Online

Conowingo Dam fish-lift overhaul urged to restore Susquehanna’s shad, eels

August 12, 2015 — Federal wildlife officials are calling for Exelon Corp. to overhaul its fish lifts at Conowingo Dam, arguing it’s the only way to revive the Susquehanna River’s depleted stocks of the iconic American shad, eels and other once-important fish.

In comments submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended the lifts be rebuilt and enlarged as a condition of renewing Exelon’s license to generate hydroelectric power at Conowingo.

The service also wants the power company to help more eels get upriver — by truck for now.

Rebuilding the dam’s fish lifts could cost millions of dollars. Exelon is reviewing the wildlife service’s prescription for improving fish passage, said Robert Judge, a spokesman for the Chicago-based parent of Baltimore Gas and Electric.

The service’s proposal comes after years of negotiations between Exelon and officials from Maryland, Pennsylvania and federal agencies over the dam’s relicensing, which has been hung up in part by debates over how to deal with a buildup behind the dam of bay-fouling sediment and nutrient pollution washed down the river.

The company’s license to operate Conowingo expired last year, but the federal commission has extended the permit while the parties attempt to work out their differences over the sediment buildup, fish passage and other issues.

“We’ve reached a crucial period,” said Genevieve LaRouche, supervisor of the wildlife service’s Chesapeake Bay field office. “It’s a 46-year license. It’s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something.”

LaRouche said the service hasn’t costed out the upgrades yet. But state and federal officials have previously said current fish passage facilities could be tweaked for less than $1 million, while replacing both fish lifts could run $24 million or more.

Read the full story at The Baltimore Sun