CHARLES RIVER WATERSHED ASSOCIATION IS ASSISTING MA DIVISION OF MARINE FISHERIES AND U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE IN RELEASING OVER 1.5 MILLION SHAD FRY THIS SUMMER

Waltham, MA – July 13, 2006 - During the week of July 10^th, hundreds of thousands of half-inch long American Shad fry are being released into the Charles River at the Woerd Avenue Boat Launch in Waltham. The release of the juvenile shad is a major step in a multi-year collaboration between the Charles River Watershed Association (CRWA), MA Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Central New England Fisheries Resource Office to restore populations of the fish in the Charles and create a local sport fishery.

“This is a great start to our long-term efforts to bring back shad to the Charles River, and assist in restoring the ecological health of the river,” said Kristen Ferry, MA DMF Aquatic Biologist. “We also look forward to creating a local sport fishery for anglers.”

Currently, only small numbers of adult shad are observed in the river each year, although the Charles should support a large, viable shad population of up to 30,000 adult fish. The collaborative restoration project seeks to increase the number of shad to this target population over the next decade. Following this year’s release of shad fry, there will be subsequent propagation and stocking efforts for the next several years, with the hope that adult fish will return to the Charles to spawn starting in 2009.

The donor population of adult shad, used to propagate the juvenile shad, comes from the Merrimack River near the Essex Dam in Lawrence, MA. The fish larvae were raised at U. S. FWS hatchery in Nashua, New Hampshire. The leader of the project is MA DMF, who secured funding and contracted FWS for the spawning, rearing and stocking efforts of the program.

American Shad were plentiful in the Charles until the mid-1800s, when the population began to decline due to construction of dams and the degradation of water quality.  One of the largest members of the herring family, it can reach up to 30 inches in length and typically weighs 7-8 pounds.  The shad is one of five species of anadromous fish found in the river – fish that are born in freshwater, spend the majority of their lives in the ocean, and return to their native freshwater to spawn in the late spring.