[1] Shad, which are members of the herring family, are widely distributed, and many are anadromous, meaning that they migrate from fresh to salt water as juveniles and return to freshwater for the express purpose of spawning.
[2] In the summer of 1995, Rich Hinrichsen and Curtis Ebbesmeyer peered into a fish ladder through an algae-stained window, hoping to witness a great biologic event: the return of the Columbia River's Pacific salmon.
The journal publishes letters, commentaries, histories, scientific articles, interviews, reviews, and philosophical and methodological items related to shad the world over.
Conte Anadromous Fish Laboratory in Turner's Falls, Massachusetts, for "Paradox of the Dammed -An American shad Workshop."
A 2013 article on the role of impoundments, temperature, and discharge on the colonization of the Columbia River Basin, USA, by nonindigenous American Shad benefitted from collaborations fostered at this workshop.
[7] A symposium was held 6 September 2011 at the American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington, USA, to share new information on the distribution, status, and trends in abundance, etc.
The remaining presentations focused on the Columbia River population and covered spawning migrations, the effects of increased water temperature, decreased flow, and dam construction on upstream distribution and abundance, American Shad migration timing and distribution in the Columbia River estuary, verification of a `freshwater-type' life history variant of juveniles and the effects of American shad on parasite and disease dynamics in Oregon waters.
Whether or not the introduction of American Shad has had a negative impact, positive influence or benign effect on Pacific coastal ecosystems is unknown.