{"id":663,"date":"2013-12-15T11:49:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-15T16:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/?page_id=663"},"modified":"2024-09-26T12:24:53","modified_gmt":"2024-09-26T16:24:53","slug":"naturalists-notebook-silver-spawners-restoring-shad-to-the-cape-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/naturalists-notebook-silver-spawners-restoring-shad-to-the-cape-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"NATURALIST’S NOTEBOOK: Silver Spawners: Restoring Shad to the Cape Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
Ocean-dwelling American shad face daunting obstacles each spring when they try to reach historic spawning grounds on the middle Cape Fear River in southeastern North Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For nearly 100 years, three U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, or USACE, dams between Fayetteville and Wilmington have blocked migrations of shad and other fish, sharply reducing their populations, according to studies by various state agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the silvery shad, a favorite of anglers, should find the Cape Fear a bit more welcoming these days. Returning spawners will discover fish-friendly improvements advanced by the Cape Fear River Partnership \u2014 a coalition of 23 state and federal agencies, municipalities and conservation groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, as shad come upstream from the Atlantic Ocean, they will no longer bump against the inclined wall of Lock and Dam No. 1, which is 39 miles north of Wilmington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, they can swim up a staircase of channels formed by a designed array of rocks to get over the dam. The $13-million rock arch rapids fishway, or a path over the dam, was completed in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next stop on the river is 33 miles away at Lock and Dam No. 2 at Elizabethtown. There, just below the dam, arriving shad will find a newly placed, enhanced spawning habitat of underwater gravel beds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Within the next few years, Locks and Dams No. 2 and No. 3, the partnership hopes, will get their own fishways. These would let legions of shad \u2014 and striped bass \u2014 return to optimum spawning grounds upstream in Harnett County and boost now-depressed fish numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That reconnection could transform the river into one that teems with migratory fish. Biologists say more eggs might hatch, causing more young fish, called fry, to swim downstream to the ocean. Anglers could catch more shad and more stripers in more places; birds, catfish and turtles could feed on carcasses of adult shad that die after spawning; young shad could be forage for prized saltwater fish such as flounder, spotted seatrout and red drum; and fishing-related businesses in the lower Cape Fear region might see an economic boom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I think you’re going to see ecosystem benefits,” says Kemp Burdette, Cape Fear Riverkeeper. “Having a healthy shad fishery would benefit towns up and down the river” \u2014 as would the winter striped bass fishery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The proposed fishways and the spawning beds are major elements of a comprehensive plan to restore populations of shad, striped bass, river herring, and Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon in the Cape Fear. The Cape Fear River Basin Action Plan for Migratory Fish, drawn up by the Cape Fear Partnership, seeks to reopen river reaches by installing fishways or by taking down dams. Their plan also seeks to decrease nutrients that cause oxygen-robbing algal blooms, reduce the amount of toxic metals such as mercury and chemicals that are harmful to fish, and improve spawning and nursery habitats by rehabilitating or enhancing riparian buffers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The actions in this plan are important for Cape Fear residents who rely on improved fish access, water quality and habitat to support fisheries, tourism and recreation,” the action plan notes, “as well as provide clean drinking water.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ambitious plan gives no overall cost or timetable for achieving restoration but it likely will add up to millions of dollars and could take more than a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The main problem is dams. They block or disrupt 40 percent of the remaining historic spawning habitat in the basin. That includes habitat in the Deep and Haw rivers and other tributaries. The entire watershed, which extends above Greensboro, contains 1,100 dams. Among them are the USACE dams erected from 1915 to 1935 so commercial vessels could ply the river. The barriers force most shad and stripers to spawn in inferior habitat in the lower Cape Fear, producing fewer fry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n