{"id":221158,"date":"2025-10-13T09:19:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T09:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/221158\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T09:19:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T09:19:12","slug":"american-shad-are-declining-in-delaware-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/221158\/","title":{"rendered":"American shad are declining in Delaware River"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

American shad were a major food source for early European settlers and Native Americans who lived along the Delaware River.\n<\/p>\n

Known as \u201cAmerica\u2019s founding fish,\u201d the species were so abundant that it was said people could \u201cwalk across their backs.\u201d In 1896, more than 4 million shad were caught in a single year. But by the 1900s, overfishing caused a steep decline.\n<\/p>\n

A new study<\/a> published this month indicates that American shad, as well as river herring, have failed to recover in the Delaware River, which could threaten the aquatic ecosystem.\n <\/p>\n

Today, the migratory fish face threats such as dams that impact their ability to travel and reproduce, as well as low oxygen levels caused by ammonia discharges from wastewater facilities into the river. As a result, populations of the fish are close to record lows in eastern North America.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cShad and river herring are iconic species in the Delaware estuary, and seeing them in such low numbers, as an ecologist, is concerning,\u201d said LeeAnn Haaf, estuary science director at the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary.\n<\/p>\n

The study was a collaboration between the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Philadelphia Water Department, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and PSEG Nuclear<\/a>, which operates the Salem and Hope Creek nuclear power plants along the river in Alloway Township, New Jersey.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThese populations will still exist in some capacity, but in terms of people being able to recreate or enjoy these species, there\u2019s going to be so many regulations on their populations to keep them functional that people aren\u2019t going to be able to be allowed to fish for them,\u201d said co-author Ella Rothermel, urban resilience assistant manager at the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople used to be able to witness these migrations, but that\u2019s not really feasible to do at this point, either because of dams or low population numbers,\u201d she added.\n<\/p>\n

American shad, along with alewife and blueback herring, collectively termed \u201criver herring\u201d, migrate to the Delaware River\u2019s tributaries to spawn. They are a critical food source for larger fish like striped bass, as well as bears, raptors, cormorants and gulls. They help with nutrient cycling and act as a host fish for freshwater mussels.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[77397,192,18211,79,19771,34969],"class_list":["post-221158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-delaware-river","tag-environment","tag-fish","tag-science","tag-u-s-fish-and-wildlife-service","tag-watershed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}