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"SHAD HARVEST 1905"
Digital image
from the Barbara PowersCollection
Abundance- To listen to the old-timers talk the lower Susquehanna was a delta
rich in marshes that feed all kinds of river life. When Captain John Smith
ascended the Susquehanna in 1608 he wrote that at first he thought the river was
boiling. He soon realized that the waters were teaming with migratory fish
fighting to go up river to spawn
Back in 1905 nets hauled thousand of pound
of shad from the river during their season Some of the nets were over 100 yards
long. Hundreds of men would be employed with that many boats taking part in the
annual harvest. It would not be until after the Conowingo dam was put in place
that the harvest diminished and the great harvest were no more. It has only been
in the past decade that fish lifts were introduced at the dam to attempt to
transfer spanning fish to the upper river. But this effort however noble is only
a slight success since it depends on fish to swim into the right area at the
time the lifts are operating.
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