American shad

[edit] Species Name:

American shad

[edit] Common Names:

The American shad or Atlantic shad,

[edit] Scientific Name:

Alosa sapidissima is a species of anadromous fish in

[edit] Family or Group:

family Clupeidae of order Clupeiformes.

[edit] Basic Description:

The American shad is the largest member of the herring family. Shad have silver bodies and a green back, with large scales and a deeply forked tail. The males (or "bucks") are smaller than the female,

[edit] Size:

weighing about 1 to 3 pounds when spawning; females are generally 3 to 8 pounds. Both genders tend to run a little larger on the East Coast of the United States.

[edit] Distribution and Habitat:

The shad spends most of its life at sea, but swims up fresh rivers to spawn. Unlike salmon, the fish survive breeding and can return to the sea; they do not inhabit fresh water except to spawn. At sea, shad are schooling fish; thousands are often seen at the surface in spring, summer, and autumn. They are hard to find in the winter, as they tend to go deeper before spawning season; they have been pulled up in nets as deep as 65 fathoms.

[edit] Habits:

Like other herrings, the American Shad is primarily a plankton feeder, but will eat small shrimp and fish eggs. Occasionally they eat small fish, but these are only a minor item in their general diet.

The fish select sandy or pebbly shallows for spawning grounds, and deposit their eggs mostly between sundown and midnight. Females release eggs in batches and produce about 30,000 eggs per batch, though as many as 156,000 have been estimated in very large fish. Total annual egg production is 200,000 - 600,000 eggs per female with larger fish producing more. In rivers north of Cape Fear the spent fish, now very emaciated, begin their return journey to the sea immediately after spawning. In southern rivers, shad die after spawning.

The eggs are transparent, pale pink or amber, and being semi-buoyant and not sticky like those of other river herrings, they roll about on the bottom with the current. The eggs hatch in 12 to 15 days at 52° (12°C), in 6 to 8 days at 63° (17°C), which covers the range characteristic of Maine and Bay of Fundy rivers during the season of incubation.

[edit] Angling Value:

Shad are also valued as a sport fish that exhibit complex and little-understood feeding behavior while spawning. Unlike salmon, shad retain the ability digest and assimilate food during the anadromous migration. Like other fish, their feeding instinct can be triggered by a variety of factors such as turbidity and water temperature. Anglers use both spinning and fly fishing tackle to pursue shad. In the north, April through June is when shad spawn in coastal rivers and estuaries.

[edit] Best Angling Methods:

[edit] Table Quality:

It has a rich, delicate, fatty flesh, prized by some and despised by others. The flesh is full of small bones. It can be boiled, filleted and fried in butter or baked; baking shad at a low temperature for an extended period will dissolve the tiny bones, although the texture of the flesh will suffer.

[edit] Commercial Value:

The shad was enormously important as a food fish and protein source in early coastal settlements due to its great numbers and ease of taking when spawning; in 1789, an estimated 830,000 shad were caught from the Merrimack River alone. By 1888, shad were almost completely gone from the Merrimack, as dams cut the shad off from their spawning grounds.) Traditionally it was caught along with salmon in set nets which were suspended from poles driven into the river bed reasonably close to shore in tidal water.

[edit] Notes:

Shad are very high in omega 3, and in particular contain nearly twice as much per unit weight as wild salmon. They are also very low in toxins.