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The shads or river herrings comprise the genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
 Alosa, fish
Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
 related to herring
Herring

Herring are small, oily fish of the genus Clupea found in the shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean, including the Baltic Sea....
 in the family
Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
 Clupeidae
Clupeidae

Clupeidae is the family of the herrings, shads, sardines, hilsa and menhadens. It includes many of the most important food fishes in the world....
. They are distinct from others in that family by having a deeper body and spawning in rivers. The several species frequent different areas on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres . It covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface....
 and in the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea or Ocean off the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by Asia....
. The shad fry live for a year or two in fresh water
Fresh Water

Fresh Water is the debut album by Australian rock and blues singer Alison McCallum, released in 1972. Rare for an Australian artist at the time, it came in a gatefold sleeve....
.

The American or Atlantic shad
American shad

The American shad or Atlantic shad, Alosa sapidissima, is a species of anadromous fish in family Clupeidae of order Clupeiformes....
 (A. sapidissima) is a valued food fish.






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The shads or river herrings comprise the genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
 Alosa, fish
Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
 related to herring
Herring

Herring are small, oily fish of the genus Clupea found in the shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean, including the Baltic Sea....
 in the family
Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
 Clupeidae
Clupeidae

Clupeidae is the family of the herrings, shads, sardines, hilsa and menhadens. It includes many of the most important food fishes in the world....
. They are distinct from others in that family by having a deeper body and spawning in rivers. The several species frequent different areas on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres . It covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface....
 and in the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea or Ocean off the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by Asia....
. The shad fry live for a year or two in fresh water
Fresh Water

Fresh Water is the debut album by Australian rock and blues singer Alison McCallum, released in 1972. Rare for an Australian artist at the time, it came in a gatefold sleeve....
.

The American or Atlantic shad
American shad

The American shad or Atlantic shad, Alosa sapidissima, is a species of anadromous fish in family Clupeidae of order Clupeiformes....
 (A. sapidissima) is a valued food fish. It was especially important in the 1700s; however, many of the rivers where it was common now suffer from pollution
Pollution

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into an environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms ....
. Traditionally it was caught along with salmon
Salmon

Salmon is the common name for several species of fish of the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the family are called trout,the difference is often attributed to the migratory life of the salmon as compared to the residential behaviour of trout, this holds true for the Atlantic salmon....
 in set nets which were suspended from poles driven into the river bed reasonably close to shore in tidal water. It weighs between 3 and 8 pounds
Pound (mass)

The pound or pound-mass is a Units of measurement of massused in the Imperial unit, United States customary units and other systems of measurement....
 and has a delicate flavour when cooked. Though bony, it is worth the effort, and indeed many esteem it above the famous Atlantic salmon
Atlantic salmon

Atlantic salmon, known scientifically as Salmo salar, is a species of fish in the family Salmonidae, which is found in the northern Atlantic Ocean and in rivers that flow into the Atlantic and the Pacific....
. It is considered flavourful enough to not require sauces, herbs or spices. It can be boiled, fillet
Fillet (cut)

A fillet , is a piece or slice of boneless cut of meat or fish.A slice of fish flesh of irregular size and shape which is removed from the carcass by a cut made parallel to the backbone, usually 2 to 12 oz....
ed and fried in butter or baked. Traditionally a little vinegar
Vinegar

Vinegar is an acidic liquid processed from the fermentation of ethanol in a process that yields its key ingredient, acetic acid . It also may come in a diluted form....
 is sprinkled over it on the plate. In the eastern United States roe
Roe

Roe or hard roe is the fully ripe internal Ovary or egg masses of fish and certain marine animals, such as shrimp, scallop and sea urchins....
 shad (females) are prized because the eggs are considered a delicacy.

Shad serve a peculiar symbolic role in Virginia
Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia is an United States U.S. state on the East Coast of the United States of the Southern United States. The state is known as the "Old Dominion" and sometimes as "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of Lists of United States Presidents by place of birth#By state....
 state politics. On the year of every gubernatorial election, would-be candidates, lobbyists, campaign workers, and reporters gather in the town of Wakefield, Virginia
Wakefield, Virginia

Wakefield is an incorporated town in Sussex County, Virginia, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,038 at the 2000 census.Wakefield is famous for being the "Peanut Capital of the World" and the location of the famous Virginia Diner, as well as the site of Airfield Conference and 4-H Educational Center....
 for Shad Planking
Shad Planking

Shad planking is a Politics annual event in Virginia which takes place every April near Wakefield, Virginia in Sussex County, Virginia, about an hour southeast of the Virginia State Capitol at Richmond, Virginia....
. American shad served as the focal point of John McPhee
John McPhee

John Angus McPhee is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer widely considered one of the pioneers of narrative nonfiction. Unlike Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson, who helped kick-start the "new journalism" which, in the 1960s, revolutionized nonfiction, McPhee produced a gentler style of literary journalism by incorporating techniques from novels a...
's book The Founding Fish.

Biology

Shads are unique among the fishes in having evolved an ability to detect ultrasound
Ultrasound

Ultrasound is cyclic sound pressure with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing . Although this limit varies from person to person, it is approximately 20 Hertz in healthy, young adults and thus, 20 kHz serves as a useful lower limit in describing ultrasound....
 (sound at frequencies above 20 kHz, which is the limit of human hearing). This was first discovered by fisheries biologists studying blueback herring, and was later verified in laboratory studies of hearing in American shad. This ability is thought to help them avoid dolphins that find prey using echolocation.

Systematics

Systematics of shads are extremely complex. The genus inhabits a wide range of habitat
Habitat

The term habitat has a number of meanings:* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows** Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play...
s, and many taxa are migratory
Fish migration

Many types of fish migration on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annual, and over distances ranging from a few meters to thousands of kilometers....
. There are also a few land-locked forms, one from Killarney
Killarney

Killarney is a town in County Kerry, southwestern Republic of Ireland. The town is located north of the MacGillicuddy Reeks, on the northeastern shore of the Lakes of Killarney which are part of Killarney National Park....
 in Ireland
Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
 and two from lakes in northern Italy. There are species native to the Black Sea
Black Sea

The Black Sea is an inland sea sea bounded by southeastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Anatolia and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean Sea and Aegean Seas and various straits....
 and Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the List of lakes by area or a full-fledged sea. It has a surface area of 371,000 square kilometers and a volume of 78,200 cubic kilometers ....
, as well as the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf, in the Southwest Asian region, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. Historically and commonly known as the Persian Gulf, this body of water is sometimes Persian Gulf naming dispute referred to as the Arabian Gulf by certain Arab countries or simply The Gulf, although nei...
.

Morphology
Morphology (biology)

The term morphology in biology refers to form, structure and configuration of an organism. This includes aspects of the outward appearance as well as the form and structure of the internal parts like bones and organs....
 is notoriously liable to adapt to changing food availability in these fish. Several taxa seem to have evolve
Evolve

Evolve may refer to:*Evolve, as in Evolution.*Evolve on The History Channel*Evolve Festival, an annual music and cultural festival held in Nova Scotia, Canada....
d quite recently, making molecular analyses difficult. In addition, it appears as if hybridization is a factor to be reckoned with when researching shad phylogeny.(Faria et al. 2006)

Nonetheless, some trends are emerging. The North American species except the Atlantic shad can probably be separated in a subgenus
Subgenus

In biology, a subgenus is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. See rank and rank .In ICZN, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a binomen, in parentheses, placed between the name of a biological genus and specific name: e.g....
 (or even genus) Pomolobus. On the other hand, the proposed genus (or subgenus) Caspialosa for the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the List of lakes by area or a full-fledged sea. It has a surface area of 371,000 square kilometers and a volume of 78,200 cubic kilometers ....
 forms is rejected due to paraphyly
Paraphyly

In phylogenetics, a group of organisms is said to be paraphyletic if the group contains its most recent common ancestor Common descent but does not contain all the descendants of that ancestor....
.(Faria et al. 2006)

  • Blueback herring, Alosa aestivalis
  • Agone, Alosa agone
  • Alabama shad
    Alabama shad

    The Alabama shad is an endangered species of Clupeidae Endemism to the United States....
    , Alosa alabamae
  • Allis shad
    Allis shad

    The allis shad is a species of fish in the Clupeidae family. It is found in Algeria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom....
    , Alosa alosa
  • Caspian marine shad, Alosa brashnikovi
  • Alosa caspia
    Alosa caspia

    Alosa caspia is a shad living in the Caspian Sea* Caspian shad, Alosa caspia caspia* Enzeli shad, Alosa caspia knipowitschi* Astrabad shad, Alosa caspia persica...
    • Caspian shad, Alosa caspia caspia
    • Enzeli shad, Alosa caspia knipowitschi
    • Astrabad shad, Alosa caspia persica
  • Skipjack shad
    Skipjack shad

    A migratory species, the skipjacks shad is one of the "typical" North American shads of the subgenus Pomolobus .During mating season, assemble below dams in spring ....
    , Alosa chrysochloris
  • Twaite shad, Alosa fallax
    • Mediterranean shad, Alosa fallax nilotica
  • Pontic shad, Alosa immaculata - sometimes A. pontica
    • Caspian anadromous shad, Alosa (immaculata) kessleri
  • Macedonian shad, Alosa macedonica
  • Black Shit shad, Alosa maeotica
    Alosa maeotica

    Alosa maeotica is a species of fish in the Clupeidae family. It is found in Bulgaria, Georgia , Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine....
  • Hickory shad, Alosa mediocris
  • Alewife
    Alewife

    The alewife is a species of herring. There are Fish migration and landlocked forms. The landlocked form is also called a sawbelly or mooneye ....
    , Alosa pseudoharengus
  • American
    American shad

    The American shad or Atlantic shad, Alosa sapidissima, is a species of anadromous fish in family Clupeidae of order Clupeiformes....
     or Atlantic shad, Alosa sapidissima
  • Saposhnikovi shad, Alosa saposchnikowii
  • Agrakhan shad, Alosa sphaerocephala
  • Azov shad, Alosa tanaica
  • Alosa tenualosa
    • Persian Gulf shad, Alosa tenualosa ilisha
  • Greek shad, Alosa vistonica
    Alosa vistonica

    Alosa vistonica is a species of fish in the Clupeidae family. It is Endemism to Greece. Its natural habitat is freshwater lakes. It is threatened by habitat loss....


External links

  • An article celebrating shad's cultural importance to the Hudson Valley