Credit: (Andrew S. Lewis)
For Steve Meserve of the Lewis Fishery, the preferred method of setting the seine is by rowing, because he has found that a motor affects the shad hauls.
Steve Meserve wasn’t feeling optimistic. A storm front had moved in overnight and a cold, west-northwest wind was running down the river. The 54-degree water temperature, he said, “makes the shad want to sit down in an eddy somewhere and wait for warmer weather.”
But here in Lambertville, on a wide and deep reach of the Delaware River, this spring’s shad run has been good, even promising. As they have done most every night from late March through May since 1888, fishermen from Lewis Fishery slipped on hip waders and prepared a battered flat-bottom and seine for the evening’s haul.
WHYY
By
Andrew S. Lewis, NJ SpotlightApril 28, 2021
For Steve Meserve of the Lewis Fishery, the preferred method of setting the seine is by rowing, because he has found that a motor affects the shad hauls. (Andrew S. Lewis/NJ Spotlight)
This story originally appeared on NJ Spotlight.
Steve Meserve wasn’t feeling optimistic. A storm front had moved in overnight and a cold, west-northwest wind was running down the river. The 54-degree water temperature, he said, “makes the shad want to sit down in an eddy somewhere and wait for warmer weather.”
But here in Lambertville, on a wide and deep reach of the Delaware River, this spring’s shad run has been good, even promising. As they have done most every night from late March through May since 1888, fishermen from Lewis Fishery slipped on hip waders and prepared a battered flat-bottom and seine for the evening’s haul.
Credit: Susan Allen/Supporting Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration (SOAR)
The oysters bought back about 50 tons worth were brought by barge to a designated restoration reef in Tuckerton Bay.
For the small-scale oyster growers of Barnegat and Delaware bays, the challenge of finding enough customers to buy their harvest is growing more difficult by the day, as the still-surging pandemic converges with winter, forcing restaurants to scale back orders or shutter altogether.
But a partnership recently forged between The Pew Charitable Trusts and The Nature Conservancy is working to counter the ongoing economic impact of the pandemic on the oyster aquaculture industry, which supports around 3,000 jobs nationwide.