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Common Shad; American Shad — Part 2
Images coming soon.
The shad is the most valuable river fish of the Atlantic Coast, and, next to the Chinook salmon, the most important species inhabiting the fresh waters of North America. Among all the economic fishes of the United States only the cod and the Chinook salmon exceed it in value. In 1896 the shad catch of the Atlantic seaboard numbered 13,145,395 fish, weighing 50,847,967 pounds, and worth to the fishermen $1,656,580.
Head 4 1/4; depth 3; D. 15; A. 21; scales 60; ventral scutes 21+16. Body comparatively deep; mouth rather large, the jaws about equal, the lower fitting into a notch in the tip of the upper; gillrakers extremely long and numerous, usually about 40+68, the total varying from 93 to 119; fins small, the dorsal much nearer the snout than base of caudal; peritoneum white. Colour, bluish above, sides silvery white; a dark spot behind opercle, and sometimes several along the line dividing the colour of the back from that of the side, these evident when the scales are off; axil dusky. The shad reaches a length of 2 to 2 1/2 feet, though the average weight is less than 4 pounds.