American shad (Alosa sapidissima) is a migratory fish species with rich history in the Hudson and Delaware rivers. Indigenous peoples and colonial Americans relied on shad for sustenance, often smoking the flesh and consuming shad roe (eggs) as a delicacy.
American shad supported important recreational and commercial fisheries throughout the 20th century, however the Hudson River stock declined in recent years and as a result, all recreational and commercial fisheries for American shad closed in 2010.
American shad is one of five members of the Alosidae family (Shads), often referred to as river herring, documented for the watershed. The other four are blueback herring (A aestivalis), hickory shad (A. mediocris), alewife (A. pseudoharengus), and Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus). The five formerly belonged to the sub-family Alosine.
American shad is the largest of the river herrings. Their body is strongly compressed, bright silvery on the sides, blueish to greenish above, with silvery deciduous scales. Their native range on the Atlantic east coast stretches from Labrador south to the Saint John’s River in Florida.
Shad are anadromous, in that they spend most of their life in salt water, wintering offshore along the coast south to the Carolinas, but returning to inland freshwater, often their natal river, to spawn.
Their popularity as a food fish prompted a successful transport of 35,000 Hudson River shad into the Sacramento River (California) in July 1873, where the species became well established on the West Coast.
As the water warms in late March, shad, primarily males, enter the Hudson River Estuary estuary in pulses, each intent on reaching their spawning grounds. The shadbush (Amelanchier sp.) has been, at least colloquially on the East Coast, considered a harbinger of their arrival from the sea.
The males, or buck shad, begin nosing up the river, a sinuous journey, that allowed them to slowly acclimate to the lessening salinity.
In the weeks that follow, more females, or roe shad, ascend the river, all heading above the salt to a 70-mile freshwater spawning reach from Hyde Park to the head of tide at Green Island (at Troy).
Eventually, the run evens out — similar numbers of bucks and roe — before concluding in late May, dominated by roe shad.
American Shad Cultural History
American shad have been an important part of Hudson River lore, legend, history and culture, beginning in prehistoric times. Archaeological remnants of smoking huts for shad and sturgeon, dating to at least 5,000 years ago, have been excavated along the river. Smoking was a means of extending the shelf life of these springtime protein resource.
Smoking stations and processing refuse middens provide ample evidence that smoked, planked (baked), and pickled shad, have long been springtime favorites in our Hudson Valley. Shad have a well-earned reputation as being a bony and difficult fish to process — they have 769 bones, humans have 208.
Pickling shad (with vinegar) has long been appreciated as a bone-free product. Perhaps the major attraction with shad, however, has been its eggs; in historic times, shad roe has been a sought-after springtime culinary delight. Their scientific name comes from Latin as Alosa (shad) sapidissima (sapidus or savory).
Many excellent books have been written on the American shad. One of the best is The Founding Fish (2003) by John McPhee, a blend of personal history, natural history, and American history including the shad’s cameo role in the lives of George Washington and Henry David Thoreau.
There are also two excellent historical-fiction accounts of American shad’s indelible cultural influence.
Shad Run by Howard Breslin (1955). Set just six years after the American Revolution (1788), this historical romance novel is a story of remembrances. It tells of a time on the Hudson River in the “Town” of Poughkeepsie when spotters went up on Blue Point (400-foot elevation) in spring as lookouts for the possibility that British warships might come up the river.
Drifting down the river at the same time were hand-crafted wooden shad boats working the ebb tide every day with a weather eye for lantern-lit warning signals from Blue Point. Back in Poughkeepsie, fishmongers loaded their wagons and walked the streets selling fresh American shad.
Shad Haul by Paul Corey (1947) The story takes place on the Hudson River in Philipsville (a thinly, veiled Cold Spring) and the Philipsville High School (Haldane High School) in post-World War II Putnam County.
Two high school students join as apprentices with a couple of rugged river men to drift their shad nets in the shadow of the Hudson Highlands.
Current Status of Shad Fishery
American shad are managed through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) and DEC, which announced the release of the Recovery Plan for Hudson River American Shad in 2003.
After significant declines in coastal landings of American shad, ASMFC recommended a closure of all ocean fishing in 2005, which was followed by a 2007 ASMFC stock assessment showing the Hudson River American shad population was severely depleted.
This prompted a complete closure of recreational and commercial fishing in the Hudson River in 2010. Based on findings from the most recent 2020 ASMFC benchmark stock assessment, the Hudson River population has remained depleted since fishery closure.
The benchmark stock assessment also found the adult mortality for the Delaware River shad population to be unsustainable. Commercial and recreational fishing in the Delaware River Basin remains open but requires an ASMFC approved Sustainable Fishing Plan every five years.
The current Delaware River Sustainable Fishing Plan for American Shad was recently revised by DEC staff and other members of the Delaware Basin Fish and Wildlife Cooperative (Delaware Coop) for 2022-2026.
Read more about American Shad in New York State.
Illustrations, from above: Adult American shad photo courtesy DEC; shad fishermen shown in a painting by Jasper Francis-Cropsey, 1854; commercial shad fishing courtesy of Tom Lake; Lenape people fishing for and drying smoked shad; and the covers of The Founding Fish, Shad Run and Shad Haul.
A version of this essay was first published in the The Hudson River Almanac, a weekly natural history journal that covers the Hudson from the High Peaks of the Adirondacks to New York Harbor, compiled and edited by Tom Lake and emailed weekly by DEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program.
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