THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 12, 1996 TAG: 9603120263
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBBIE MESSINA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
Each spring, a few residents along Lake Pembroke would venture into the water with waders and dip nets and scoop up dozens of shad struggling to get upstream and release them into the freshwater lake to spawn.
The silvery shad needed the boost because a steep concrete dam thwarted their traditional migration from the western branch of the Lynnhaven River to their Lake Pembroke breeding ground.
The residents hope their help won't be needed this year. On Monday, they teamed up with city and state officials to construct a rudimentary fish ladder to ease the shad's journey.
Concrete bumper stops, used in city parking lots, were placed along the spillway slope in a V-pattern to slow the water, create resting pools and reduce the incline that the fish must jump.
The fish should now be able to negotiate the 6-foot high spillway incrementally, almost like climbing rungs (hence the term fish ladder).
The test of its effectiveness will come in the next few weeks when the shad start their annual spring run.
Since 1992 when the city reconstructed the deteriorating dam with a taller and steeper profile, the fish would get badly battered in their attempted journey over the spillway.
``It was really sort of poignant to see them come up here in large numbers and beat themselves to death trying to get up that inadequate stream,'' said Jim Willenbrink, a defender of nature and resident who orchestrated the project.
``They struggled, and flipped and flopped,'' he said. ``Many of them completely exhausted themselves and fell dead on the rocks.''
The residents want to save the shad, not necessarily for their food value as the bony fish are not widely consumed by humans (although their roe or eggs are delicacies). Instead, shad are an important food source for bass, perch and other game fish that populate the lake. Plus, young shad eat mosquito larvae, which helps keep the number of biting bugs in check.
Once a bountiful species of anadromous fish - fish that migrate upriver to spawn in freshwater - shad are suffering significant population losses.
At the turn of the century, more than 17.5 million pounds of shad were harvested from the Chesapeake Bay. On many tributaries of the Bay, it's been said shad boats were so numerous you could cross the river stepping from boat to boat.
Today, less than 1 million pounds are harvested. The sharpest declines have occurred since the 1960s.
A telling sign of the troubled shad fishery is that the Wakefield Shad Planking, an old Virginia custom, has had to import their fish from other states in recent years.
Several factors have contributed to their demise:
Pollution has destroyed some shad spawning grounds.
Overfishing, aided by more efficient fishing techniques, have reduced the population. The drastic decline forced Virginia to ban shad harvesting from the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries beginning in 1994.
And numerous dams were constructed for hydropower and water supplies, blocking spawning areas upstream. In Virginia, shad are blocked from historic spawning waters in 15 rivers by at least 78 dams that have no fish ladders or elevators.
``There's a large movement on the East Coast to get the fish over the dams and up the rivers,'' said Mitchell Norman, regional fisheries manager for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. To achieve that, the fisheries department, as well as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, are involved in building and funding fish ladders and fish elevators across the state.
Many of those structures are engineered, sophisticated and costly.
But the Lake Pembroke project was none of that.
No engineers were involved as it was conceived on a scrap piece of paper by Willenbrink, a retired Navy officer and oceanographer, with consultation from fisheries expert Norman.
It cost nothing as city agriculture director Louis Cullipher offered unused concrete bumper stops from city parking lots.
And physical labor was supplied by neighborhood volunteers, as well as Cullipher and Norman, for a couple hours Monday afternoon.
The project was so informal that the design was changed and evolved on the spot Monday as the concrete blocks were placed into the water.
``It shows the public-private partnership between the city and civic organizations who want to enhance the environment and the fisheries,'' Cullipher said. ``And it's something that doesn't take much effort.''
Norman said the project could easily be duplicated in other areas.
``We were happy to offer our advice and get our hands dirty,'' Norman said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot
Louis Cullipher works a strip of concrete into place under the
supervision of Mitchell Norman, left, and Jim Price. They made up a
ladder designed to help spawning shad get upstream.
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[What is shad? ]
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KEYWORDS: SHAD by CNB