Operational Plan for the Restoration of Diadromous Fishes to the ...

Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island have used fish transfers
or hatchery supplementation for shad with most fish originating from the Merrimack
or Connecticut Rivers. In the Mid-Atlantic states, shad restoration has primarily
focused in the Susquehanna River and the tributaries to the Chesapeake Bay, which
include both fish transfers and hatchery supplementation through federal and state
programs in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. Delaware, Hudson
and Connecticut River shad stocks were used in the Susquehanna River restoration
efforts. New Jersey also has conducted a stocking program in the Raritan River.
The South Atlantic states do not have alosine restoration programs that involve fish
transfers or hatchery supplementation except for North Carolina, which has stocked
shad into the Roanoke River. The most recent account of these activities is included
in ASMFC (2008b) and documents the hatchery supplementation of over 22 million
shad in seven states and 12 rivers.
Shad are known to be present in 9 rivers in Maine, however active restoration is
occurring only in the Saco, Androscoggin and Kennebec Rivers (Lary 1999; ASMFC
2007a for a full account on the status of shad in Maine). A multi-government
strategic plan was developed for shad restoration on the Penobscot River in 2001,
however few measures were ever implemented from the plan because of the lack of
resources except for the group’s work in initiating the multiparty settlement
agreement to improve fish passage (FWS et al. 2001). Restoration is currently
achieved through natural recovery in the Saco River and Narraguagus River.
Restoration in the Kennebec and Androscoggin includes fish transfers and/or
hatchery supplementation. These restoration efforts were initiated in the mid-1980s
and primarily use exogenous stocks from the Connecticut and Merrimack, although
the Cathance and Narraguagus River stocks were also used on a very limited basis.
In the Androscoggin River a total of 5,374 and 2,234 adult fish have been transferred
since 1985 from the Connecticut and Merrimack Rivers, respectively. Hatchery
supplementation has occurred since 1999 with a total of 4.8 million larvae released
of a primarily Merrimack River origin. In the Kennebec River a total of 7,420 adult
fish have been transferred from the Connecticut River since 1988. Hatchery
supplementation has occurred since 1992 with a total of 30 million larvae released
primarily Merrimack River.
The primary management challenge when restoring shad through fish transfers
and/or hatchery supplementation is obtaining fish from donor sources. The sources
of broodstock for Maine are limited because of the low population size in most Maine
Rivers; difficulty in collecting fish at fishways because they are poorly functioning
(Brunswick Project fishway) or they have recently been constructed (Benton Falls
and Lockwood Projects); and/or that the shad numbers are used as management
triggers to construct future upstream fishways so there is a reluctance to use those
stocks for supplementation (Kennebec River). Donor sources currently available to
Maine that are of sufficient population size are runs in the Merrimack and
Connecticut Rivers.
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