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The Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission published their 2015 American shad run findings on the Delaware River. It can be summed up as a ho-hum average run comprised of primarily younger age fish.
Young of the year surveys were decent, not great, but as it's called in the fisheries world, "sustainable".
I have a problem when using averages to determine the sustainability or heath of a fishery, and that's because averages change. Lower returns over the years will reduce the average leaving us to continually settle for fewer and fewer returning fish. They need to get the average out of the picture and replace it with available habitat and utilization of that habitat.
In the case of American shad, how much habitat is available for spawning and how that habitat is utilized is a far more important piece of data than counting heads at predetermined points. I do understand that's how it's always been done and that's the benchmark of comparison. But, if we continue to try and measure fishery health the same way as before while continuing to see diminished returns we can expect to continue to experience the same results of diminished fish returns.
More detailed info on the 2015 Delaware River Shad Monitoring can be found here: http://fishandboat.com/images/reports/2016bio/delaware-shad.pdf
