Running Silver: Restoring Atlantic Rivers and Their Great Fish Migrations

That one could “walk drishod on the backs” of schools of salmon, shad, and other fishes moving up Atlantic coast rivers was a not uncommon kind of description of their migratory runs during early Colonial times. Accounts tell of awe-inspiring numbers of spawners pushing their way upriver, the waters “running silver,” to complete life cycles that once replenished critical marine fisheries along the Eastern Seaboard. This is a hugely important, fascinating, and unique look at the fish of North America whose history and life-cycles and conservation challenges are poorly understood. Despite these primordial abundances, over the centuries these stocks were so stressed that virtually all are now severely depressed, with many biologically or commercially extinct and some simply forgotten. Running Silver will tell the story of the past, present and future of these sea-river fish. This important book will elevate public consciousness of the contrasts between the historical and the present to show the enormous legacy that has already been lost and to help inspire efforts to save what remains.

 Drawing on the author's thirty-year career as a scientist and educator with a passion for the native river fish of the North East, Running Silver tells the story of these endangered fish with a mix of research, historical accounts, anecdotes, personal experience, interviews, and images.

1116508598
Running Silver: Restoring Atlantic Rivers and Their Great Fish Migrations

That one could “walk drishod on the backs” of schools of salmon, shad, and other fishes moving up Atlantic coast rivers was a not uncommon kind of description of their migratory runs during early Colonial times. Accounts tell of awe-inspiring numbers of spawners pushing their way upriver, the waters “running silver,” to complete life cycles that once replenished critical marine fisheries along the Eastern Seaboard. This is a hugely important, fascinating, and unique look at the fish of North America whose history and life-cycles and conservation challenges are poorly understood. Despite these primordial abundances, over the centuries these stocks were so stressed that virtually all are now severely depressed, with many biologically or commercially extinct and some simply forgotten. Running Silver will tell the story of the past, present and future of these sea-river fish. This important book will elevate public consciousness of the contrasts between the historical and the present to show the enormous legacy that has already been lost and to help inspire efforts to save what remains.

 Drawing on the author's thirty-year career as a scientist and educator with a passion for the native river fish of the North East, Running Silver tells the story of these endangered fish with a mix of research, historical accounts, anecdotes, personal experience, interviews, and images.

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Running Silver: Restoring Atlantic Rivers and Their Great Fish Migrations

Running Silver: Restoring Atlantic Rivers and Their Great Fish Migrations

by John Waldman
Running Silver: Restoring Atlantic Rivers and Their Great Fish Migrations

Running Silver: Restoring Atlantic Rivers and Their Great Fish Migrations

by John Waldman

eBook

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Overview

That one could “walk drishod on the backs” of schools of salmon, shad, and other fishes moving up Atlantic coast rivers was a not uncommon kind of description of their migratory runs during early Colonial times. Accounts tell of awe-inspiring numbers of spawners pushing their way upriver, the waters “running silver,” to complete life cycles that once replenished critical marine fisheries along the Eastern Seaboard. This is a hugely important, fascinating, and unique look at the fish of North America whose history and life-cycles and conservation challenges are poorly understood. Despite these primordial abundances, over the centuries these stocks were so stressed that virtually all are now severely depressed, with many biologically or commercially extinct and some simply forgotten. Running Silver will tell the story of the past, present and future of these sea-river fish. This important book will elevate public consciousness of the contrasts between the historical and the present to show the enormous legacy that has already been lost and to help inspire efforts to save what remains.

 Drawing on the author's thirty-year career as a scientist and educator with a passion for the native river fish of the North East, Running Silver tells the story of these endangered fish with a mix of research, historical accounts, anecdotes, personal experience, interviews, and images.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781493001231
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date: 10/15/2013
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 304
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

John Waldman is a professor at the City University of New York and a leading voice in aquatic conservation biology. He is the author of the award-winning, Heartbeats in the Muck: the History, Sea Life, and Environment of New York Harbor (Lyons), The Dance of the Flying Gurnards: America’s Coastal Curiosities and Beachside Wonders (Lyons), and One Hundred Weird Ways to Catch Fish (Stackpole), as well as the editor of Stripers: An Angler’s Anthology (Ragged Mountain). He has also published numerous scientific papers (mostly on river-sea fishes) and a number of technical books.

Table of Contents

Map viii

Preface: Who Hears the Fishes When They Cry? ix

Prologue: Dammed-Nation xi

1 Running Silver and Ghost Fishes 1

2 Diadromy 101: Swimming the Great Migratory Circuit 6

3 The Seasonal Parade 18

4 On the Nature of Rivers 48

Interlude I A Shad's Journey, circa 1600 59

5 On Natural Abundances: Remembering Not to Forget 63

6 Spearfish Moon 72

7 Providence and Plenitude 83

8 Floating Caskets and the Pennsylvania Navy 96

9 Billions of Fish in Hot Water 106

10 Precautionary Principle vs. Principally Not Cautious 113

11 Concrete Crimes against Rivers 124

12 Climate Change: Latitudes and Attitudes 141

13 Migration and the Exotic Species Gauntlet 156

14 Giants of the Rivers: Gone Forever? 167

15 Peering into the Black Box 176

16 Hatchery Stocking: Subtraction by Addition 186

17 Dam Removal: Fish vs. Ignorance and Inertia 202

18 Fish Passage, or Not 212

Interlude II A Shad's Journey, circa 2013 229

19 Favorable Currents, Fortunate Confluences 234

20 Toward a New Stewardship 253

Epilogue: Keep a Stiff Fin 260

Acknowledgments 261

Endnotes 263

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