Nanticoke River Shad Festival

By Alan Girard, Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Nanticoke Tributary Action Team

On Saturday, April 24, 2004, the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) and partnering organizations hosted the Ninth Annual Nanticoke River Shad Festival on the banks of the Nanticoke River in historic Vienna, Maryland.  Drawing a crowd of over 2,000 from throughout Delmarva, the festival, planned to coincide with the spring spawning runs of American shad, brings attention to the species and efforts to restore its population.

From colonial times until the 1930s, the American shad was one of the most dominant fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay.  Spring historically brought migrations of huge schools of shad to their rivers of origin, an amazing biological event and an important part of Chesapeake culture.  Yet as the colonial period progressed, land-clearing activities degraded water quality needed to support the species and dams blocked the essential spawning grounds in tributaries throughout the Nanticoke River Watershed.

Today, efforts are underway to restore populations of American shad.  Fishing moratoriums are in place in several mid-Atlantic states, and government, industry and citizens groups are actively engaged in projects to remove stream obstructions and install fishways at dams for re-opening native spawning grounds to American shad and other species.

Education and outreach about American shad also helps re-connect citizens with the once dominant Chesapeake Bay fishery.  Those who attended the Nanticoke River Shad festival learned from resource professionals, citizens groups, and industry representatives about a variety of efforts underway to bring back the American shad.

The festival is held each year on the last Saturday in April, and is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Alan Girard by e-mail or by phone at (410) 543-1999.

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Shad: the Forgotten Fishery

"Just as the sacred cod of Massachusetts is the accepted emblem of the Bay State, so the shad may rightly be considered the piscatorial representative of the states bordering the Chesapeake."

- Rachel Carson, Baltimore Sun, 1936

The Great Shad Fishery

One early account described the importance of shad throughout the watershed:  "There were no dams barring access to the highest reaches of the rivers and no cities and factories to discharge pollution, so that the river herring and shad made their way far inland even to the Blue Ridge mountains.  There the pioneers awaited them eagerly each spring and salted down a supply to tide them over till next run."

Virginia was compelled as early as 1761 to pass "an act to oblige the owners of mills, hedges, or stone-stops, on sundry rivers therein mentioned, to make openings or slopes therein for the passage of fish."  Another early account suggested, "The clearing of the country, and the consequent muddying of the streams, had destroyed [shad and herring]."

Overfishing was a problem particularly during the last century when fishing methods became more efficient.  A report on the decline of shad by the Maryland Conservation department in 1939 included the grim statement that,  "The Bay is literally strewn with fishing gears, most of which are set to catch fish all day and all night, throughout the season, thus not giving [shad] access to the breeding grounds."

The decline of the shad fishery over many decades resulted in closure of shad fishery in Maryland in 1980 and closure in Virginia in 1990. 

The loss of this highly regarded "first of the year" for recreational anglers, commercial watermen, and seafood connoisseurs has also resulted in a loss of cultural identity.

Because these traditions finally faded with the shad in the 1960s and the 1970s, few people today under the age of 40 have ever even heard of shad.

CBF efforts to restore shad

CBF's 2001 State of the Bay Report lists the Bay's shad abundance at 5 out 100.  Public support is needed in the following areas to rebuild shad stocks:

• Continue removal of stream obstructions and installation of fishways at dams is need.  CBF is working to see that an additional 1,000 miles will be reopened by the year 2003 through the continued efforts of government, industry, and citizen groups.  Already, more than 344 miles of spawning habitat has been restored. 
• Restore wetlands and forest buffers and address sources of water pollution (sewage treatment plants and agriculture).   This will have a direct impact on improving water quality and will improve shad spawning habitat.
• Conserve remaining shad populations through the new coastal fishery management plan, which was developed under a federal law that will require all states within the shad's migratory range to comply.
• Improve the efficiency of shad hatcheries production to expand the restocking programs on Chesapeake tributaries.