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Criteria For Determining Maturity Stage In Female American Shad, Alosa Sapidissima, And A Proposed Reproductive Cycle, Je Olney, Sc Denny, Jm Hoenig

VIMS Articles

We describe macro- and microscopic criteria to judge maturation stages of female American shad (Alosa sapidissima) collected in the York river, Virginia, USA. For comparison, we also examined ovaries of fishes collected in the Edisto river, South Carolina, and the Connecticut river, Massachusetts. The study augments a developing stock assessment program that is evaluating the use of index-removal and change-in-ratio estimators of exploitation rate and absolute abundance. Samples were obtained from traps at the York river mouth, staked gill nets in mid-reaches of the river, and drift gill nets on the spawning grounds (approximately 100 km from the river mouth). …