Coquille River S.T.E.P.

Shad

Shad

Background

The American shad is anadromous fish of the herring family which was artificially introduced into Pacific coast waters about 90 years ago.

American shad have supported recreational and commercial fisheries in the Coquille River system for years.  The commercial catch declined in recent years before it ended, but that may have been exaggerated by the reduction in commercial shad fisherman (Table 28).  Little is known about the Coquille River population of American shad since there has not been any recent sampling efforts of commercial catch, and the sport fishery is very limited.  The inventory basis for American shad in the Coquille River system is based on limited surveys and district annual reports through 1977.  The Coquille River population of American shad appears to be maintaining itself at a moderate level.  Annual recruitment surveys have shown consistent spawning success and substantial recruitment of juvenile American shad annually since 1978.  Limited observations and past catch data suggest that the Coquille River population of American shad is substantially smaller than the Coos River population (1992). The Coquille River population of shad is not well known to the public.  American shad utilize the same upper estuarine habitat for spawning and rearing that striped bass use.  This habitat appears to be adequate for spawning, larval development, and rearing of juvenile American shad.

Table 28.  Coquille River commercial shad landings in pounds from 1924 through 1949.

Year                Pounds                                    Years               Pounds

1924                119                              1937                270

1925                416                              1938                10,445

1926                2,782                           1939                5,830

1927                410                              1940                14,657

1928                1,052                           1941                8,816

1929                —                                1942                20,233

1930                —                                1943                2,588

1931                —                                1944                3,968

1932                —                                1945                15,450

1933                8,850                           1946                2,280

1934                23,325                         1947                3,092

1935                17,969                         1948                4,306

1936                9,341                           1949                1,601

The shad is an anadromous species native to the Atlantic coast of North America.  Shad were successfully introduced to the Pacific coast in the late 1800s when they where stocked in the Sacramento and Columbia rivers.  They soon became widely distributed along the Pacific coast and now have major reproducing populations as far north as the Fraser River in British Columbia and have a reported ocean distribution ranging from southern California to Cook Inlet, Alaska, and Kamchatka, USSR.

A commercial fishery for shad developed in the Coos system in the early 1920s.  Commercial catches peaked in the 1940s with the maximum landing of 373,000 pounds occurring in 1946.  For the 5-year period from 1974 to 1978, an average of 15,500 pounds of American shad was taken commercially from Coos Bay.  From 1979 until 1983, although the commercially seasons remained open, no fishing occurred in Coos Bay and no shad were landed.  The 1983 legislature closed the commercial fishery for shad in the Coos system, and the fishery remains closed.  Some of the reasons given for the closure were the lack of participation in the fishery, protection of downstream migrating steelhead, protection of spring chinook and striped bass, and conflicts between commercial fishery and the recreational fisheries for shad and striped bass.

Recreational fishermen take shad from the South Coos, Coos, Coquille and Millicoma rivers from April through June.  Most of the fishery is by trolling from boats, but some angling also occurs from shore at many locations.  A 1970 study estimated the recreational fishery at 10,362 angler hours.

Adult shad enter the bay in the spring and appeared in the commercial fishery when it opened in April.  Spawning generally occurs in May and June in the tidal portions of the rivers.   Shad are pelagic spawners that usually spawn on the surface of the water at night.  Spawning usually occurs when water temperature is between 57 degrees and 72 degrees F.

Juvenile shad begin to move downstream in early August and have appeared in lower estuary sampling as early as mid-August.  Most juveniles apparently enter the ocean in late summer and fall, but some shad remain in upper tidewater until the following summer before migrating to the ocean.  Estimates in 1968 and 1970 based on tagging studies indicated a population of around 58,000 adult shad in the Coos system. (ODFW, 1992)

Editorial

Starting in the late 90s the shad population has declined in the Coos.  This is when the department started releasing high numbers of Chinook pre smolt  up stream.  My hypothesis is that these millions of presmolt are eating shad fry as they rear in the river and estuary.  It appears as juvenile chinook numbers go up adult shad numbers go down.  In the 40s and 50s the salmon population was at a very low level while the shad level was very high in the Coos system.

Steve Pennington