Spring shad harvest: a ritual renewed
Spring shad harvest: a ritual renewed
They return each spring, an ancient migration that slips upriver like a silvery plume of mercury. Once, the annual shad run meant full bellies after the lean of winter. Now, it’s more about extra income and the renewal of an old bond. A river runs deep through just about every Virginia tribe – its ancestral artery to food, transportation and escape, when necessary.
Fresh water and sandy shallows in the Pamunkey and Mattaponi rivers draw the American shad – a fish that averages about 3 pounds and is prized for its bon y meat, strong enough to require little seasoning. Shad roe is also considered a treat, fetching about $12 for the twin, palm-size egg sacks carried by a single female.
It’s those pale-pink eggs that send a shad upriver. Most of an adult’s life is spent at sea, but the eggs need a more suitable nursery. So when the spring sun warms the water, the shad come home to spawn.
Unlike the better-known salmon of the North, shad don’t necessarily die in the spawning process, unless they’re caught in the drift net of a native.
Indians are the only Virginians allowed to harvest American shad. Over fishing and pollution threaten the stock, restricting other anglers to catch and release.
The Indians themselves practice conservation. Hatcheries on the Pamunkey and Mattaponi reservations have returned millions of young shad to the tribe’s rivers.
Netted fish are milked for sperm and eggs, which are mixed together in a pan, incubated and hatched. Each female carries enough eggs to produce 100,000 offspring, but left on their own, few will ever see adulthood.
A hatchery improves their odds by providing shelter and food through the first crucial weeks. When fry reach about 1 inch long, they’re tagged with oxytetracycline, a chemical that stains an inner ear bone and makes it possible to identify them later, helping a hatchery track its own success.
Finally, the fry are flushed down a pipe directly into the river, where they’ll remain until fall, then gradually head for saltwater.
Shad are a big reason the tribes spent 15 years fighting a massive reservoir planned to supply drinking water to the Peninsula. The project, now on hold, would have flooded 1,500 acres between the two reservations and drawn up to 75 million gallons a day out of the Mattaponi River.
Shad have been known to vanish from areas where man has altered nature’s delicate balance.
- Posted on June 10, 2009
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Oh yes, and if you want good information on shad fishing, and soon an accurate article on shad biology go here, to my blog:
Anglingandrew.blogspot.com
Look in the archive for my shad article.
"Unlike the better-known salmon of the North, shad don’t necessarily die in the spawning process, unless they’re caught in the drift net of a native.
Indians are the only Virginians allowed to harvest American shad. Over fishing and pollution threaten the stock, restricting other anglers to catch and release."
First of all, that's incorrect on two levels. American Shad are eaten by all the predators in the river, not just Humans, the introduced Blue (Ictlarus furcatus) and Flathead Catfish (Pylodictis Oilvaris) are major predators. Most anadromus fish do not die during spawning runs.
Secondly, yes the Indians can harvest them, but not sell them. The article conveniently avoids the whole fact that the Hickory Shad(a close relative to the American) is replacing the American and is trying to be fished down to allow for the American stock to come back.
And thirdly, you didn't mention that the Indians don't stock the fish, and they don't squeeze anything. The VDGIF (Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries) runs the Shad Restoration project, they catch fish out of the York drainage, and temporarily keep them in tanks at hatcheries before they deposit the fry in the James(above Bosher dam), Potomac and Rapp' river. I believe they are at 176,000,000(million) fry are stocked from the hatcheries.
why are Indians the only ones aloud to catch this fish but we outer humans need food to so why do the Indians have special treat to catch this fish and not to throw them back like we have to do it is not fair for some people to eat and others just to stand around and watch them catch and eat the fish.
That is a good thing that not only Americans but native Americans are conserving the catches of shad. It can benefit everyone.A hatchery improves their odds by providing shelter and food through the first crucial weeks. The project, now on hold, would have flooded 1,500 acres between the two reservations and drawn up to 75 million gallons a day out of the Martini River. WOW that is alto of water but if it benefits conservation it is worth it.
When the commercial fisherman that just want the eggs are messing up the fish population for the natives its screwing up their heritage and then another fish species is extent because of the fisherman who are not natives. If people mess with the fish population its messing with the food chain with other animals too. The division of wildlife says that over fishing is not good for fish species in any part of the world its not good with all of the other species that eat that particular species.
That is a big fish,but its sad that the fish has to lose its life because of the fishermen who catch them. I like salmon it taste really good.