Saving Seafood

Biologists use trucks to help shad reach spawning ground

September 23, 2021 — The long-running effort to get American shad back to their historic spawning grounds this year enlisted a tool that had been abandoned two decades ago: trucks.

With operation of the multi-million dollar fish lifts halted at Conowingo Dam, biologists resorted to capturing shad below the dam and trucking them upstream before releasing the fish back into the Susquehanna River to continue their spawning migration.

By the time the trucks stopped running on June 5, they hauled more than 6,300 shad upstream. That’s a fraction of the number that swam upriver during historic shad runs, but it’s the most that got past the first three dams on the river in more than a decade.

And it wouldn’t have happened without the trucks. Fish lifts at the 94-foot-high dam have not operated for two years because of concerns that invasive species such as northern snakeheads and blue catfish were moving upstream through the fish lifts, too.

“From a shad perspective, we feel like in the short term it is best to get as many to the spawning grounds as we can,” said Sheila Eyler, who coordinates fish restoration efforts on the Susquehanna for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

American shad definitely needed the helping hand.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

 

Climate Change Impacts On Cold Water Fishing

August 23, 2018 — Each year, more than 49 million Americans fish recreationally in freshwater rivers and lakes. Some fish to relax, and some for the thrill. But in a changing climate, a new generation of anglers will have to get used to conditions far different from those of their parents and grandparents. Warming water in streams, rivers, and lakes is changing the habitats and behavior of fish, and resulting in a wide range of impacts in different parts of the U.S.

Cold water fish, like trout and salmon, struggle in warmer water. The amount of dissolved oxygen in the water drops as the water warms, causing the fish to become less active. For these fish, that critical temperature is about 70°F. In the Northwest, a general decline in snowpack has led to lower streamflows and warmer water in spring and summer, meaning that the 70°F threshold is exceeded more often. Montana has recently closed some rivers to recreational fishing, even for catch-and-release, because of physical stress on the fish.

Although smallmouth and largemouth bass do just fine at water temperatures above 70°F, which are more common in the Southeast, the warmer water creates a more active breeding ground for bacterial infections and parasites. In the Northeast, a 2005 die-off of smallmouth bass in the Susquehanna River was traced to a bacterial disease called Columnaris, which becomes more contagious at higher water temperatures. And in the Great Lakes, warmer water has increased the size and feeding rates of the parasitic sea lamprey, which latches onto and devastates trout, salmon, perch and catfish. Just one sea lamprey can kill 40 pounds of fish during its 12-18 month feeding period.

The best time of the year for fishing is also changing in a warming climate, which has an economic impact on communities across the country. Bass, salmon, and shad in the Pacific Northwest and trout in New England are migrating or spawning earlier in the year. Anglers who plan vacations based on the best time year to fish may find the peak of the season has passed by the time they arrive. In addition to the disappointment, this mistiming can affect everything from businesses selling fishing equipment and operating field guides to housing and hospitality revenues. All told, freshwater fishing contributed $41.9 billion to the to the U.S. economy in 2016.

Read the full story at KBZK

With droughts and downpours, climate change feeds Chesapeake Bay algal blooms

August 11, 2016 — Nitrogen-rich agricultural runoff into the Chesapeake Bay presents an ongoing environmental and economic concern for the bay’s massive watershed. Pollution from fertilizer application feeds algal blooms that poison humans and marine life, and devastate fisheries.

 While efforts to restore the bay have been successful during the past several years, a study led by Princeton University researchers shows that weather patterns tied to climate change may nonetheless increase the severity of algal blooms by changing how soil nutrients leach into the watershed.

Extreme rainfall cycles caused by increased climate variability flush larger amounts of nitrogen-containing nutrients from fertilizer and other sources into the Susquehanna River, which carries them into the Chesapeake Bay, according to a report in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Moreover, a spike in rainfall can increase nitrogen levels in the bay even if the amount of fertilizer used on land remains the same.

These chemicals feed explosive algae growth that can produce toxins that harm people, fish, wildlife and drinking water. Decaying algae also suck oxygen from the surrounding water, creating a low-oxygen state known as hypoxia that results in “dead zones” that suffocate fish and other species important to the aquatic food chain.

The researchers constructed a model that they say provides the most complete picture to date of how nitrogen moves from place to place in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. It connects weather and pollution in places as far away as upstate New York to the water conditions in the bay.

Read the full story at Phys.org

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