Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m., fishermen will haul nets from the Delaware River at Lambertville, NJ and across the river in New Hope, Pa. in hopes of pulling in some migrating shad. It’s all part of the 36th annual Shad Festival, a big tourist attraction to the two river towns. 


Kyle Bagenstoes of the Bucks County Courier-Times reports on how the once plentiful fish dwindled to almost nothing in the 1950s but began to experience a revival after passage of national environmental laws in the 1970s. 

A more recent drop-off in the number of shad swimming up the Delaware has various explanations, including a debate over ocean fishing that resulted in a law suit. 


Check out the story here and a sidebar story on the weekend’s shad-related events