Spawning shad on the Potomac River. credit: USFWS

The Maryland Fishery Resources Office (MFRO) provided more than 7.5 million shad eggs to the state of Pennsylvania for their larval stocking program in the Susquehanna River.  The Susquehanna River once boasted large runs of migratory fish. The most important of these were members of the herring family, primarily American shad.  However, by the late 1800's, construction of canal dams coupled with overfishing, severely impacted the American shad population in the Susquehanna River.  Subsequent construction of four hydroelectric dams in the early 1900's put an end to spawning runs.  Although the implementation of several passage-ways has increased access to spawning grounds for migratory fish, stocking efforts are still needed to reestablish a stable American shad population. 

A major component of shad restoration in the Susquehanna River is the production of hatchery-reared larvae at the PA Fish and Boat Commission's Van Dyke Fish Hatchery in Juniata County, PA.  The MFRO supplies a large portion of the eggs needed for this restoration effort.  In April and May of 2007, the MFRO collected 184 liters of fertilized eggs from spawning American shad in the Potomac River. Gill nets were used to capture ripe adults from natural spawning grounds on the Potomac River. Ripe females were spawned using sperm from ripe males. Eggs were then packaged and delivered within 24 hours to the Van Dyke Hatchery. Forty-nine percent of eggs shipped from the Potomac to the Pennsylvania state hatchery were viable.

The Susquehanna River shad restoration program has seen dramatic increases from 5000 adult spawners returning to the river in 1985 to 200,000 in 2001. Much of this increase is attributed to the stocking of an average of 8 million larvae each year.