Status of Hudson River Fishes:
Local and Regional Perspectives
Karin E. Limburg, SUNY-ESF
Kathryn A. Hattala, Amanda L. Higgs,
Andrew W. Kahnle, Hudson River Fisheries
Unit, NYSDEC
Robert E. Schmidt, Simon’s Rock of Bard
John R. Waldman, CUNY Queens College
From Benson Lossing’s
The Hudson From the
Wilderness to the Sea (1866)
“The Big Three”
“The Big 7”
Sturgeons
Sturgeons are long-lived, irregular spawners
Makes them extremely
sensitive to overfishing
(Kahnle et al 1998, Pikitch et al. 2005)
Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus)
250
150
1998 – ASMFC
closed all other state
fisheries
100
2012 NMFS lists as
Endangered
200
Kg x 1000
1996 – NYSDEC
closed state fisheries
50
Monday – new report
out!
0
1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990
Reported landings in NYS (NYSDEC)
Shortnose sturgeon –
Federally protected by ESA since 1971
Maryland DNR
The American shad (Alosa sapidissima)
Once America’s 2nd most important
commercial fishery – where are they now?
-Overfished repeatedly from 1880s to the 1990s
- All NY fisheries remain closed since 2010.
American Shad Landings - NYS
Landings, Metric Tonnes
1000
800
600
400
200
0
1880
1900
1920
1940
1960
1980
2000
2020
Empirical Spawning Stock Biomass
1985-2011
Based on HRG Monitoring Program Egg Index (K. Hattala, NYSDEC)
DEC’s Hudson River Fisheries Unit
has been monitoring shad with inriver tagging studies for past few
years. Have seen which habitats
they are found on in spawning
grounds….
 sand
mud
gravel
(A. Higgs,
NYSDEC)
Habitat studies of larval
American shad by C. Nack
Will follow up on
hurricane impacts
Revenge of the shad!
River Herring
alewife
blueback herring
River Herring Landings in U.S., 1880-2010
60000
Metric Tons
50000
40000
30000
20000
!
10000
0
1880
1900
1920
1940
1960
1980
2000
2020
State and US fishery statistics
Compare U.S. shad and river herring catches –
note difference in scales – factor of 10-20X higher R.H.
Metric tons per year
4500
4000
3500
Shad
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
River Herring Landings in U.S., 1880-2010
60000
River herring
50000
40000
30000
20000
10000
0
1880
1900
1920
1940
1960
1980
2000
2020
Just like American shad, the river herring catches in the
1880s were greatly reduced from earlier times…but how
much reduced?
Looking for the baseline: American shad
25000
Records from a single river
(Potomac) – upwards of 20
million shad/year caught
Metric tons
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
1800
1825
1850
1875
1900
1925
1950
1975
2000
River Herring Harvests in New York waters, 1904-2010
200
NYS
Marine Dist.
150
Hudson
100
50
2006
2000
1994
1988
1982
1976
1970
1964
1958
1952
1946
1940
1934
1928
1922
1916
1910
0
1904
Landings, Metric Tonnes
250
Data assembled by NYSDEC
River Herring Total Lengths, mm
Total Length, mm
320
300
Alewife
Blueback
280
260
240
220
200
1975
1980
1985
1990
Mohawk River blueback
1995
2000
2005
2010
2015
 Collecting blueback
herring in Hudson &
Mohawk, 1999-2001
Collecting
blueback herring
in Mohawk, 2012
Photo: Scott Wells
Sex ratios have skewed too
Early (1999-2000) vs. Current (2012) Observations of Blueback Herring, Hudson and Mohawk Rivers
80
60
Era: Early
N = 81
N = 73
70
19992000
50
40
30
20
10
No of obs
0
80
70
Era: Current
N = 70
N = 159
60
50
2012
40
30
20
10
0
190
210
200
230
220
250
240
Sex: M
Males
270
260
290
280
310
190
300
Total Length (mm)
210
200
230
220
250
240
270
260
290
280
Sex: F
Females
310
300
Current consensus – 1st coast-wide stock
assessment completed for ASMFC (2012)
The Striped Bass
Maine to N. Carolina
Source: ASMFC
A good news story, for a change!
Female Striped Bass, Age 8+
100
ASMFC coast-wide
management
restrictions put in place
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
Source: NYSDEC
2012
2009
2006
2003
2000
1997
1994
1991
1988
1985
1982
1979
0
1976
Spawning Stock Index
90
Recent studies by Dave Secor
et al. tracking where HR
stripers come and go…
The American Eel
www.pbs.org
Regional Indices: Hudson River
Region wide, some causes of eel decline:
Glass eel “product”
“…4800-5300 pieces (glass
eels) per kg, depending on
time of season ordered”
Lucrative!! $2600/lb (2012)
Nematode
infection rate
(Anguillicola
crassus)
Photo and data: Wendy Morrison
Glooskapandthefrog.org
ASMFC eel technical review board, 2006
Dams Over Time*
1850
1900
1950
2000
*not including dams missing dates
Source: Swaney et al. (2006), in Hudson River Fishes and
Their Environment
25
Sizes of
eels caught
in ladder
trap
Number of Eels
20
15
B
10
5
0
1
Experimental eel
ladder – operated
by Bob Schmidt &
colleagues on Saw
Kill since 2006
4
7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58 61 64 67
TL cm
Total Length,
cm
Number of
eels caught
in ladder
trap
Citizen Science:
The Art of Engaging
Folks in GLASS
EEEEELS!
(monitoring, that is)
Photos: NYSDEC; and two facebook sites
What about the other 205 species logged in
for the Hudson River estuary?
news.nationalgeographic.com
…and the new-ish, “Gang of 20” – the non-native
predators…with little to no information about their status!