Shad to get express route from Atlantic to Catawba
Passageways will give fish paths to spawning areas
JACK HORAN
Special Correspondent
American shad, a saltwater fish that once spawned in the Piedmont, might bump their noses against the Lake Wylie dam in 15 years.
If they do, the silvery, strong swimmers will have come more than 200 miles from the Atlantic to the rocky shoals of the Catawba River.
At present, shad and other migrating fish can go no farther than the Lake Wateree dam near Camden, S.C.
But federal agencies are expected to order Duke Energy to build fish passages in coming years. They could include elevators to lift shad and blueback herring over dams in spring to reach historic spawning grounds. The passages would be built after Duke wins a new license in 2008-2010 to operate its hydro plants on the Catawba-Wateree system. No timetable has been set.
Mark Cantrell, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist based in Asheville, said anglers in 2020 might catch shad on the Catawba 15 miles south of Charlotte. "We do know shad are returning to the base of the Wateree dam," he said.
Few shad arrive there, however, after a maze-like trek up the Santee and Cooper rivers and through lakes Moultrie and Marion in South Carolina. A 2004-2005 Duke study captured about 365 shad in the Wateree River along with about 50 blueback herring. The biologists also caught 59 elvers (juvenile eels).
While shad, herring and other anadromous fish live in the ocean and spawn in freshwater rivers, eels do the reverse. They live in rivers and go to the Atlantic to spawn. Elvers can scale dams if provided wet, artificial-grass carpets.
For shad and herring to reach the Rock Hill area, they must get by four dams on the Catawba-Wateree. Consultants in a 2005 Duke study suggested elevators for three high dams and a ramp-and-pool passage for a lower dam at Great Falls, S.C.
Fish elevators work. A 68-foot-high "fish lock" at the St. Stephen dam near the Santee River north of Charleston has passed an average of 253,000 shad a year since 1986.
The study estimated upstream passages as well as downstream (so fry can get to the ocean) on the Catawba-Wateree dams would cost $39 million. Another option, trap and truck, would consist of capturing fish and driving them around the dams in tanker trucks. Trap and truck would cost $10.1 million.
Fully restored, shad above the Wateree dam would number 500,000 fish; herring, 2.5 million fish, the study said. Hatchery-grown fry could jump-start the populations.
The restoration would create a springtime sport fishery for shad. On light tackle, shad fight like mini-tarpons. Herring would be forage fish for largemouth bass and striped bass.
The return of shad would benefit both the river and the ocean.
S.C. shad die after spawning. Their carcasses would feed other fish, turtles, osprey and bald eagles. Their offspring would migrate to the ocean to become prey for tunas, mackerel and red drum.
One such fish passage is under construction at Columbia. S.C. Electric & Gas is expected to complete a $5.25-million, ramp-and-pool passage on the Broad River in May.
The federally ordered passage will let shad and herring swim over the Columbia Lock and Dam, built in 1819, to reclaim spawning territory lost nearly 200 years ago.
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