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Monday, May 09, 2016

New pact demands more from Conowingo Dam operator

CONOWINGO — If the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approves the license for the Conowingo Dam, officials from Exelon Generation will have to work harder to help endangered fish get up the Susquehanna River.

Sheila Eyler, project leader with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Mid-Atlantic Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office, said a new contract has been drafted that would require operators at the dam to do more for the anadromous species that need to get to the top of the river to spawn. This includes American shad, alewhite and blue back herring and the American eel.

“Like the shad, the herring spend most of their life in the river but they mature faster,” Eyler said. “They all spawn in the river like the shad.”

But overfishing, combined with the construction of four dams — Holtwood, Safe Harbor, York Haven and Conowingo — have blocked these fish from reaching spawning grounds in the Susquehanna River in New York.

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about something to make them clean it up? We don't want PA runoff in the bay!

Anonymous said...

Just wait until the Asian Carp arrive.

Anonymous said...

save a fish but destroy the Bay?!?!?!

Anonymous said...

They do 10:43. The Bay is much cleaner up there then down here so it's coming from down here. You can tell by the crabs and fish caught in the lower bay. They are putrid tasting but most people around here don't realize it because they are used to eating the nasty stuff. Get some good fish caught up near Cecil and Harford Co's and you will never be able to stomach the fish from the lower bay again.

Anonymous said...

What about dredging out the sediment? It's killed the north half of the Bay! So, kill off bay crabs, oysters & rock fish to help 4 other species spawn? Is this just so you can say you did something "positive"?

Anonymous said...

12:17. I call BS! Every bay report lately has shown the lower shore rivers and bay scoring better than the upper and Susquehanna.