Shad
Fishing (con't)
In the early 1800s, the
construction of the three dams hurt the shad fishing. The Shawmont and Reading Dams
on the Schuylkill River were built to make the river more travelable by boat.
The Fairmount Dam also on the Schuylkill made a reservoir for a water works
company that provided water for Philadelphia.
The dams prevented Read More
the shad from spawning in the Schuylkill River, the best place to fish for shad at that time. Likewise, the building of the canal system during the same period inhibited the shad from coming up the Susquehanna River.
the shad from spawning in the Schuylkill River, the best place to fish for shad at that time. Likewise, the building of the canal system during the same period inhibited the shad from coming up the Susquehanna River.
To provide a place for the shad to
go upstream beside the dams, the government tried constructing fishways. Fishways
provided water-filled steps that the fish could leap. Unfortunately, the
fishways did not help the shad because they had already quit migrating up the
Schuylkill. For a reason, experts point to the pollution caused by a gas works
built on the lower part of the Schuylkill in 1830.
The government also attempted
raising shad in hatcheries and putting them into streams but gave up this
project in the 1930s.
In 1890, commercial fishermen
harvested sixteen million pounds of shad from Delaware River. The 1905 figure dropped to three million. The
last time a million pounds were caught in the Delaware was in 1916. The
Delaware River had a bit longer success with shad fishing, but overfishing,
pollution, and other environmental factors decreased the number of fish. Thus,
the Pennsylvania shad industry couldn’t survive and closed down in the middle
of the 1900s. Many fishermen went to work in the World War II shipyards.
A viable fishing business resurfaced
in the Delaware River after the water from two hurricanes in August 1955
removed the pollution barrier at Philadelphia. Fish are again able to migrate
up this river, and the American shad have come back as a marketable fish. Shad
are being stocked from fish hatcheries and now use the fish ladders to get past
dams.
Buying fresh
fish at an outdoor market is again popular in Philadelphia especially at the Italian Market, the oldest and largest outdoor market in the United States and
at the Reading Terminal.
To be continued...
References
Commercial Fishing in the Estuary.” Estuary News, Summer 2013, Vol. 23, Issue 4. Web 24 April 2017 <http://udel.edu/~spyzguyz/images/CommercialFishingPDE.pdf>
Fisher, MD, George R. “Philadelphia Fish and Fishing.” Philadelphia Reflections, 2004 - 2017 Web 24 2017 <http://www.philadelphia-reflections.com/topic/33.htm>
Jenk, Torben and Remer, Rich. “American Shad Timeline Along the Delaware River.” Workshop of the World.com. 2006. Web 15 Jan 2018 <http://www.workshopoftheworld.com/resources/shad_timeline.html>
“The River as an Employer.” Delaware Riverkeeper Network. Web 16 May 2017 <http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/sites/default/files/Environment_&_Economy.pdf>
Wegmann, Edward. The
Design and Construction of Dams: Including Masonry, Earth, Rock-fill, Timber,
and Steel Structures, Also the Principal Types of Movable Dams. New York:
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1918. Google
Books. Web 28 April 2017
<https://books.google.com/books?id=L6AgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA289&lpg=PA289&dq=felix+dam+built+in+reading+pa&source=bl&ots=ocKAWkQLxJ&sig=23stvBpGeB6ayg_NX17mTSC16F4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-1suA0MjTAhUr04MKHWfhAuUQ6AEIVDAL#v=onepage&q=felix%20dam%20built%20in%20reading%20pa&f=false>
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