PoughkeepsieJournal.com - Shad run is dud, fishermen claim

Shad run is dud, fishermen claim [By Dan Shapley, Poughkeepsie Journal]

John Mylod found nothing in his nets Wednesday and gave up fishing for shad early. He turned to working out knots and repairing holes in hopes they catch more next year.

"It's not so much the season. It's the few shad that are out there," the Poughkeepsie fisherman said. "We used to fish past Mother's Day."

Shad fishing on the Hudson River reached new lows this year. The number of crews trying to catch the Hudson's only remaining commercial fish declined. Most who did fish didn't catch much.

Coastwide, the story was the same, said Christopher Letts, an educator for the Hudson River Foundation. He buys shad for the annual shad festivals, and his suppliers reported slim harvests from South Carolina to Connecticut.

"The season is terrible. I've never seen it so bad," said Kevin Coons, a Hyde Park resident who for 15 years has taken time off each spring to fish for American shad. "I've had a lot of people stopping by. I've had restaurants stopping by. Restaurants can't get them from their suppliers."

Last year, about a dozen boats fished for shad, the largest of the river herring. This year, it was closer to 10.

Roe is coveted

Shad's Latin name means "most delicious herring." Its notoriously bony flesh deters many. It takes an expert to fillet a shad and remove the bones. Its roe is a delicacy as passionately loved by enthusiasts as it is reviled by its detractors.

Bill Collier, a Wappingers Falls resident, has looked for the fresh catch from the river ever since tasting roe at a VFW dinner in Cold Spring. He was sorry to hear about the early end to the season, since he hadn't had a meal yet.

"I'm disappointed to hear the news," he said.

Commercial fishing on the Hudson has been in decline for decades. PCB pollution makes most species of fish illegal to sell, and unsafe to eat, according to state advisories.

Shad are the exception because they spawn briefly in the river, eat little, then return to the ocean or die. Yet, a number of insults have contributed to a decline in shad numbers.

PCBs and other pollutants may harm fish directly. Acres of spawning habitat have been destroyed. Thousands of eggs and larvae are killed by power plants drawing cooling water from the river. Zebra mussels invaded the river 15 years ago and have since filtered so much plankton from the water that young shad leave the river smaller, weaker and more prone to predation. Intense industrial ocean fishing at the river mouths was only banned last year. And fisheries managers have favored the striped bass, the voracious predator at the heart of a recreational fishery that now eclipses the commercial.

This is the second year since interstate fisheries managers banned off-shore fishing that had decimated the shad population. Whether it results in a resurgence in Hudson River shad remains to be seen, since shad born in coastal estuaries mature for four or five years in the Atlantic before returning.

"It'll be another couple years before we see," Mylod said.

Bobby Gabrielson Sr., whose family has fished out of Nyack for decades, catches the smaller river herring, bluebacks and alewives that striped bass anglers use for bait. They hardly fished for shad this year, but caught them when they tried. He was the lone fisherman of several interviewed who said shad were abundant.

"I'm telling you, the shad were there. They were there last year too," Gabrielson said. "They stopped the intercept fishery on the coast. Now, I'm getting calls from Cape May, N.J. A guy from Philadelphia came all the way up here for shad. That's the demand for this stuff now."

Restoring shad coastwide is a goal of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. On the Hudson, it's a priority for the state's Hudson River Estuary Program.

"This is one of our signature species, and it is our goal to restore them to their historic high levels," said Fran Dunwell, coordinator of the estuary program. "We have our work cut out for us."

There are no shad festivals scheduled in Dutchess or Ulster counties this year. The Hudson River Foundation will host a festival Saturday at Memorial Park, Depew Avenue in Nyack, Rockland County. Next weekend, festivals are planned in Catskill, Greene County and Croton, Westchester County. Visit www.hudsonriver.org for information.