Shad

an excellent table fish of the hering type. It is a sea fish from twenty-four to thirty inches long, and weighs from three to four pounds. There are four species. Two are found on the Atlantic coast of Europe, one in the waters of the Gulf, and the fourth, the common American shad, is a native of the North American coast waters from Florida to Newfoundland. The last named ascends our Atlantic rivers in early spring to spawn. Shad are taken with nets or by casting. They are marketed extensively, fresh. The fishermen put them down also with salt in barrels for winter sale. The alewife, a smaller fish of similar appearance and formerly supposed to be a young shad, is taken likewise with nets and salted down for commercial purposes. Both are bony. The flesh of the shad ranks next to that of the trout in excellence. In point of commercial value to the American fisherman, the shad is surpassed by the salmon and the cod only. In the year of our last census, 49,780,530 pounds of shad were taken, worth $1,519,946. The shad is prolific. A single fish produces as high as 150,000 eggs in a season.

In 1871 the California State Fish Commission employed Mr. Seth Green of Rochester to place 10,000 young shad in the Sacramento River. The United States Fish Commission followed up the experiment with 60,000 more, and, in 1885-6, 910,000 shad fry were placed in the Willamette and Columbia rivers. As a result shad now range from southern California to Alaska and supply the cities of the Pacific coast with a million pounds of meat annually.

The shad bush, a small bush with fruit of the crabapple order, is so called because it blooms when the shad are running. Its blossoms in May or June are the welcomed signal for shad fishing.

See Herring