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Originally appeared at: http://www.telegram.com/article/20100608/COLUMN10/6080457/1009/sports
Telegram.com
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Outdoors: Pursuit of shad is disappointing on Merrimack
Fishing for shad on the Merrimack has been terrible all spring. Barely 5,000 have passed through so far. Factors largely responsible for the disappointing returns include low, warm water combined with the effects of the great Mother’s Day flood there four years ago.
The hundred-year event of 2006 damaged the fishway at Lawrence, rendering it inoperable until the very end of migration. Consequently, only 1,200 shad passed over the dam to spawn. Comparatively fewer fish hatched and returned to the sea that year. Since shad are four years old before they come back to spawn, the fish returning this year from that severely diminished class are in short supply.
The overall trend on the Merrimack, though, has not been good recently. Caleb Slater, anadromous fish project leader, points out that from 69,000 shad in 2000 and 75,000 in 2001, numbers have precipitously declined every year since. The big crash actually began in 2005 with just 6,500 shad returning. From 2007 to 2009, shad numbers have varied from only 16,000 to 25,000. There’s definitely something wrong on the Merrimack.
On the Connecticut River, in contrast, more than 150,000 shad have been lifted over Hadley Falls Dam, right on par with last year, but just a shadow of near-million counts in the 1990s. It’s further disappointing to see that just over 100 blueback herring and 35 Atlantic salmon have passed through Hadley Falls Dam.
For the complete article: http://www.telegram.com/article/20100608/COLUMN10/6080457/1009/sports
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