A detailed plan for a 2 ½ year study program to determine the feasibility of restoring shad runs in the Susquehanna River has been released by the Department of the Interior and the States of Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania.
The study program, developed by a Federal-State technical committee, would determine the advisability of constructing fish passage fish passage
Fish passage is the ability of fish or other aquatic species to move freely throughout their life to find food, reproduce, and complete their natural migration cycles. Millions of barriers to fish passage across the country are fragmenting habitat and leading to species declines. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Fish Passage Program is working to reconnect watersheds to benefit both wildlife and people.
Learn more about fish passage facilities over four dams along the Susquehanna to allow shad and other anadromous fish to reach historical spawning areas upstream.
The study is expected to being this spring with the planting of two million shad eggs in 39 floating-type hatching boxes distributed at Falls, on the North Branch of the Susquehanna River, at Sunbury and Clarks Ferry, on the main river, and at Lewiston, on the Juniata River, all in Pennsylvania.
At each of the hatching sites, water would be sampled daily to detect any factors in quality that might influence the survival of naturally spawned shad eggs in the river. This part of the study would be repeated in 1964.
An additional 50 million shad eggs from other rivers would be planted in the Susquehanna in July of 1963 and 1964 to provide young fish for studies of downstream migrations.
Annual transplanting of 2,000 adult shad above Conowingo and York Haven dams would be another phase of the study. Each year, 500 of these adult fish would be tagged, some with a newly developed sonic tag, to trace their movements. Fishermen taking such fish would be asked to report their catches.
Estimated cost of the study is $196,500 to be spent over a three-year period.
The study force would include biologists from the Fish and Wildlife Service and the fishery agencies of Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York.
Plans for financing the study were discussed at a meeting, which included representatives of the power companies owning the dams in Pennsylvania and Maryland. The representatives were George S. Wallace Jr., and Richard Van Vliet, Pennsylvania Power and Light Company, Allentown; Stanley Moyer, Hendrik B. Koning, and Dr. Edward C. Raney, Philadelphia Electric Company, Philadelphia; G.L. Master Metropolitan Edison Company, Reading; and Paul M. Hess, Safe Harbor Water Power Coporation, Conestoga.
The representatives constitute a committee of the utility companies with Mr. Moyer as chairman, that was established to consider fish passage matter.
“The power companies recognize the need for this scientific study and moreover feel that the proposed study program is sound,” Mr. Moyer said. “Dr. Raney, as our consultant, is in agreement with the scientific validity of this study.”
Copies of the detailed study report are available from the Office of Information, Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, D.C.
