Raritan river fish ladder numbers:

[AndyS]

Got to attend a meeting. Why are the American Shad numbers dropping like a rock ?? Hope to get the numbers on trout and SMB and LMB soon also.

[Dave B.]

Some depressing shad numbers there Andy! My first thoughts lean towards the impact our recent fairly dry springs may have had. As you know the shad prefer/require a fairly substantial flow volume and depth to make their move upriver from the estuary. In light of the sub-standard spring flows we've had the past many years running that would be my first speculation. The herring don't require quite as much depth and volume so they wouldn't see the same decline in numbers as the shad, which the data seems to reflect. Hopefully I'm on the right track with this speculation as I would very much hate to find out that some manmade environmental hazard was to blame! Please keep us posted as the info becomes available to you!

[shucker]

The correct answer here is fisheries science sucks..always has and always will. We continue to make restrictions,accusations,and allot of finger pointing based of flawed data.

[FASTEDDIE29]

Where are the numbers for 2017? There were more Shad caught on the Raritan this year than any other year I’ve been fishing it! The best run of Shad happened this year, 2017! Plenty of water this past spring. Those American Shad flew up
to Dukes at light speed!

[Jigman13]

They do a count on esox and any other species?

[thmyorke1]

Originally Posted by FASTEDDIE29

Where are the numbers for 2017? There were more Shad caught on the Raritan this year than any other year I’ve been fishing it! The best run of Shad happened this year, 2017! Plenty of water this past spring. Those American Shad flew up
to Dukes at light speed!

I support that claim. And the water heights for spring time match up perfectly with the shad numbers

2013, the year with the most shad complimented by a steady amount of above 6-foot flows, also some good late spring flows



2016, the worst year in terms of shad numbers complimented by worse flows. Compare late spring's 2013 with this one.




2017, booming water flows around April.



I expect 2017's shad numbers to be better than 2013.

[AndyS]

Yes American Shad do rely on one thing, WATER !! Dismal spring rains do play a large part on migration on the Raritan river as it is a very wide and for the most part a shallow river.
Graphs and charts were also presented showing the comparison between fish movement and water gauge height.
Could be a while for trout and bass numbers and they are still working on 2017 fish counts.

[Billfish715]

Originally Posted by shucker

The correct answer here is fisheries science sucks..always has and always will. We continue to make restrictions,accusations,and allot of finger pointing based of flawed data.

Surveys, reports, conclusions, scientific studies, whatever...........there is always something omitted from the data which, if included, would change the results. In this case, we are led to believe that there is something severely affecting the migration of American shad. What variables were included in the study? Was the water flow, or water temperature, or turbidity, or PH, etc, etc, etc. considered?

So the results of the tagging and tracking are in. Now what? I know! How about another scientific study? What have we learned from the first study? How that information will be used is the bigger question. Does anyone know the answer? I think we need a survey.

[AndyS]

Actually you are correct, we could STUDY this fish ladder for another 20 years or so and still draw no substantial conclusions.
Look at the data so far: New Jersey Freshwater Fisheries started doing a fish count on the ladder back in 1996 !!! Here we are in 2017 AND still doing fish counts etc. on the same fish ladder, some 20 YEARS LATER !!
Fish have now become a matter of "science" more than anything else and with additional "funding" the research will continue.

[AndyS]

The Lawrence Brook Watershed Partnership (LBWP) led the project’s initiation, public meetings, outreach, development of partners, review of the technical report, advisory to the study, volunteer monitoring, and overall management of the project. Princeton Hydro LLC was engaged as a contractor to undertake the technical study. The details of the partial feasibility study are described in more detail below.
A Start-Up Meeting was arranged for Monday, October 15th, 2012, at 11:30AM, at the New Brunswick Water Facility in Burnett Street, New Brunswick. Stakeholders were invited. Fourteen people attended, including five from the City of New Brunswick, Fish & Wildlife, Riverkeeper, two from E.J. Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy, Middlesex County Planning, Princeton Hydro, and three from LBWP. An overview of the project was given by LBWP’s Alan Godber, New Brunswick City Administrator Tom Loughlin discussed the impact on the New Brunswick Water Supply, Laura Wildman of Princeton Hydro outlined the project. A field trip was taken to inspect the dams and the surrounding area for the impact of the fish ladders and site observations were reviewed.