95% Drop in Conowingo Dam Shad Passage ( 2001-2015 )

I read at least a dozen articles about the Susquehanna River and related environmental issues every week. 

 

This recent headline about the Conowingo Dam caught my attention, but these numbers stopped me dead in my tracks:

"In earlier attempts to reverse the declines, Conowingo's operators built lifts in 1972 and 1991 to hoist migrating fish up and over the 94-foot dam. The elevators seemed to be working for a while, and the number of American shad passed upriver peaked at 193,000 in 2001. The tally has been declining since, with a record low of just 8,341 picked up this spring."

 

That's a 95% drop in shad passing the dam since 2001.

 

 

 

 

Another canary in the coal mine?

  

Later.