The Children are all Grown Up

Type: Nontidal
Region: Northern
Location: Hatching Facility

American Shad from eggs to 30 day old

Photos from left to right:

AS egg hatch. American shad eggs are collected from broodstock on the Potomac River and hatched at Manning hatchery in Brandywine, MD..

AS larvae. This is a six day old American shad larvae. Note the absence of the yolk sac. Eggs are incubated for seven to ten days then moved to a culture tank where shad are fed brine shrimp. At this stage, larvae are marked with oxytetracycline and stocked in the river. In 2010, 2.8 million American shad larvae were stocked in the Choptank River.

15 Day AS. This is a 15 day old American shad. All shad that are stocked into Maryland Rivers are first marked with a unique OTC mark to differentiate socking strategies. Larvae are marked at day three post hatch then stocked. Shad scheduled to be stocked as early juveniles (day 30) are OTC marked at day 3 and 6 post hatch. Early juveniles are held and cultured in ponds at Manning State Fish Hatchery and Mirant Mid Atlantic power company (Aquasco, MD). Thirty days later these fish are removed from culture ponds and stocked into state waters. By using these two stocking strategies, larval survival, mortality and abundance estimates can be generated with a mark/ recapture statistical model.

30 Day old AS. This is a 30 day old American shad. OTC marked American shad early juveniles are seined from culture ponds and stocked. In 2010, 300,000 early juvenile American shad were stocked in the Choptank River.