Fish Lifts

PPL and other utilities, in a joint public-private partnership, are helping the American shad make a comeback. Like salmon, the fish spend most of their lives in saltwater but spawn in fresh water. With the completion of the lifts at Holtwood and Safe Harbor dams, more than 200 miles of the Susquehanna River are open to American shad.

The Holtwood facility acts like an elevator, safely carrying the silvery fish over the dam and channeling them into the river, where they continue their upstream migration to spawning areas in the Susquehanna River watershed. The Holtwood facility contains two separate hoppers to accommodate the flow of the river and the layout of the dam and powerhouse, making this the largest operating fish lift in the United States. Lifts are operated during the spring migration season. They are capable of lifting tens of thousands of shad over the dam each season. In 2001, Holtwood's shad lifts transported more than 100,000 American shad upstream. It was the largest spawning run in more than a century, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

American shad have been called the "poor man's salmon." Native Americans harvested shad during the annual spring spawning runs and taught colonists how to catch shad to feed their families. Dried shad have been credited with saving George Washington's troops from starvation as they camped along the Schuylkill River at Valley Forge. By the 1800s shad became one of the most commercially valuable fish in Pennsylvania, Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia. By the early 1900s, water pollution and dams in the lower Susquehanna River depleted shad populations.

Shad spend most of their lives along the Atlantic seaboard from Labrador to Florida. Rising spring temperatures prompt shad to leave the ocean and return to the rivers where they were born. The migration season usually begins in late April and ends in mid-June. Males arrive at spawning grounds first, followed by egg-laden females. A female releases 100,000 to 600,000 eggs, or roe, into the water to be fertilized by several males.

The young hatch in four to 12 days. Fry or juvenile shad spend their first summer in freshwater. Young shad serve as a food source for other fish such as smallmouth bass, bluefish and striped bass. By autumn, the shad swim to the ocean where the cycle is completed.