* The American shad is the largest member of the herring family. Adults commonly reach four to eight pounds. The largest recorded shad caught in the Delaware River weighed eleven pounds, one ounce.

* Shad are among the strongest and hardest-fighting of all fish found in freshwater.

* American shad begin their lives in freshwater, like the Delaware River. After hatching in the spring, the young shad (called "fry") grow rapidly, feeding on freshwater plankton and aquatic insects. Decreasing water temperatures and cool fall rains trigger a mass downriver migration to the ocean. Once in the ocean, where they live most of their lives, shad will migrate up and down the coast, from their winter range off the mid-Atlantic to their summer range in the Bay of Fundy, off Nova Scotia.

* After three-to-five years at sea, American shad will return in the spring to the river of their birth to reproduce, or spawn.

* Fish that follow this migration pattern are called "anadromous." Fish like eels that live in rivers most of their lives and spawn in the ocean are "catadromous."

* An American shad may migrate 12,000 or more miles during an average life span!

* After living in the ocean, American shad are adapted to eating larger saltwater plankton and they feed heavily there in preparation for spawning. They do not eat during their return to freshwater, relying on stored energy to sustain themselves.

* Unlike Pacific salmon, not all shad die after spawning. However, it is believed that half or more perish in the Delaware because the spawning run is a long, difficult journey and high energy is exerted. Shad that survive will swim downstream very soon after spawning (these shad are referred to as "downrunners"). According to The Founding Fish author John McPhee, fewer than ten percent of the downrunners in the Delaware River will return another year to spawn again.

* Female shad are called "roes;" males "bucks." Often referred to as the "Poor Man's Salmon," the full-flavored meat of the shad is reflected in its Latin name sapidissima, meaning "most savory." Shad roe, or eggs from the female, likewise are considered a delicacy.

DID YOU KNOW?

* The number of American shad in the Delaware River has increased dramatically due in large part to pollution control programs conducted by the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) and other environmental agencies. There was a time not long ago when pollution robbed stretches of the river of all its oxygen, making it impossible for shad and other fish to breathe. Communities, like Lambertville, New Jersey and Easton, Pennsylvania, now hold annual shad festivals in the spring to celebrate the shad's return to their local waters. I would like to learn more!

* Some say George Washington and his troops feasted on shad caught from the Schuylkill River (the largest tributary to the Delaware) in the spring of 1778 following their bitter winter encampment at Valley Forge. They credit an early spring run of American shad that year with helping to save the Continental Army from starvation.

However, in his 2002 book about the American shad, The Founding Fish, author John McPhee disputes this account. He writes, "With respect to George Washington, it would not have been a leap of imagination for him to anticipate the spring shad run and choose a campsite accordingly. He was a commercial shad fisherman. Moreover, he did not require Daniel Boone to tell him that the Schuylkill was a prime fishery. While another river might be half a mile wide, this one was small enough to string a net across and by 1777 had long been synonymous with shad." However, as a result of his research, he concludes, "The famine of Valley Forge, in 1778, was not alleviated by 1777 shad arriving in barrels. Nor, in fact, did it end as a result of the 1778 spring migration . . . The emotive account of the nation-saving shad is a tale recommended by everything but sources."

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