Virginia

Virginia scientists outline plan to save collapsing American shad population

Published

11 months ago

December 19, 2023

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Virginia scientists outline plan to save collapsing American shad population

Read the original article on WHRO’s website.

American shad was once one of the most plentiful and profitable fish on the Atlantic Coast.

The species served as an important food source for Indigenous people, early colonists and generations of Virginians.

Legend has it that shad, often called America’s “founding fish,” fed George Washington’s starving troops at Valley Forge and propelled them to victory.

But the species is now in danger of disappearing from the James River. The nonprofit James River Association calculated this fall that the population has dropped to virtually nothing.

“To have such an iconic species decline to this level is truly alarming,” Bill Street, president of the nonprofit JRA, said at the time.

The decline comes from a combination of factors: overfishing, predation, pollution, changing ocean conditions and the effects of damming the state’s rivers.

But a recent report from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at William & Mary outlines a path for restoring American shad in the James to historical levels. The General Assembly allocated $290,000 for it last year after a push from JRA.

“There’s no silver bullet,” said biology professor Eric Hilton, lead author of the recovery plan. “You’re managing everything from humans, to environments, to a changing climate. All of these aspects are coming from all of these different directions. … But I think we’ve identified some specific actions that can be taken to help.”

It’s not an easy — or cheap — road to recovery.

Hilton said the shad population has been on a downward trend for decades. It briefly bounced back in the 1990s after a moratorium on shad fishing, but has declined in recent years.

Courtesy

James River Association

A plan proposed by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science includes about two dozen suggestions to address the shad’s decline.

For the new report, his team brought together “all of the stakeholders that we could think of,” including state biologists, local universities and Indigenous tribes.

They also mapped the bottom of the James River where American shad usually spawn. Shad prefer a hard, rocky surface for their eggs, but researchers found that much of the area is now “silted over” with mud.

Then there are other major challenges for the fish. Manufacturers or power plants that take large amounts of water from the river can often suck up shad eggs or larvae, and invasive predators like blue catfish feed on shad.

Higher water temperatures driven by climate change are also bringing shad to the area to spawn several weeks earlier than in the past, which could affect the amount of food available for them to eat.

VIMS’ plan proposes nearly two dozen actions, with a few common themes:

Improve habitat: Officials need to better understand how shad have historically used local habitat and what they need to succeed in modern conditions. The report recommends a deeper historical analysis of shad habitat, as well as possible restoration work.

Reduce deaths: VIMS suggests policy actions that could help lower mortality of shad linked to both catch-and-release recreational fishing and commercial facilities that remove water from the river — accidentally killing some shad in the process. The report recommends first studying the issues more to get additional data. Then officials could consider new regulations for these water intake facilities, like making the industry submit better data about the volume of water they remove or requiring the facilities to adopt technology to protect shad as a “fragile species.”

Expand monitoring: The group recommends extending the length of time that officials currently monitor the amount of shad, in order to better evaluate changes in migrations linked to climate change. They also suggest starting genetic analysis of shad in the James to understand genetic diversity within the population — and developing benchmarks to evaluate ongoing recovery. “We won’t know progress if we don’t have the data showing that progress,” Hilton said.

Create a shad hatchery: Hilton’s team proposes the use of some form of hatchery to boost the American shad population. A previous program run by Virginia and federal agencies re-introduced more than three million shad into the James River. That program was shuttered in 2017, but VIMS said the persistent failure of wild shad might require officials to try again. Stakeholders are reluctant of a state production-scale hatchery, according to the report. But the authors suggest leveraging partnerships with universities and tribal communities to develop smaller programs.

Examine effects of climate change: Climate impacts could throw a wrench in efforts to revive shad, Hilton said. Virginia needs to know more about how changes to temperatures and water chemistry — both in the river and out in the ocean — affect the fish population.

If the state were to adopt all of the proposed actions, it would cost at least $2.6 million.

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Virginia

Virginia Basketball Holds Off Manhattan 74-65 | Key Takeaways

Published

5 hours ago

November 27, 2024

Press Room

Virginia Basketball Holds Off Manhattan 74-65 | Key Takeaways

Virginia (4-2) got back in the win column with a 74-65 victory over Manhattan (3-3) on Tuesday night at John Paul Jones Arena. Here are our five quick takeaways from the Cavaliers’ win over the Jaspers.

Virginia was in serious need of a win after suffering those two humbling losses to Tennessee and St. John’s in The Bahamas. But a convincing and comfortable victory would have been even better and for a while, it seemed like the Cavaliers were on their way to doing just that. UVA led by as many as 15 points in the first half and opened up a 16-point advantage midway through the second half. But rather than putting the game away, Virginia let Manhattan hang around and the visiting Jaspers were in a situation where they were fouling to stop the clock in the final minutes, narrowing the deficit to as little as six points. A win is a win, but this was far from a confidence-boosting performance.

Virginia went with a new starting lineup on Tuesday night, as Andrew Rohde replaced TJ Power. Rohde has been playing very well recently, particularly with his resurgent outside shot, while Power came into this game shooting 25% from beyond the arc this season.

Power initially responded well to the benching, swishing a corner three shortly after he first entered the game, hitting the deck for a loose ball, and coming up with a steal to stop a Manhattan fastbreak. But he wound up playing only six minutes, fewest among Cavaliers who saw the floor in the game. That does not bode well for the Duke transfer.

Read Val’s Plus/Minus breakdown of the game here.

Rohde, on the other hand, had another solid game and was perhaps the top performer for the Hoos on Tuesday night. Though he missed his only three-pointer, which was a desperation off-balanced heave at the end of the shot clock, Rohde finished with a season-high 14 points, two assists (with one turnover), two rebounds, and four steals. Rohde showed excellent feel for the game, getting exactly where he wanted to go and exhibiting some nice touch on a couple of floaters plus a short jumper off the glass. If Rohde is playing like this and his three-point shot continues to be there, this could be a big season for the former St. Thomas transfer.

The main reason why this game continued to be close deep into the second half is because UVA’s defense frequently broke down and gave up open shots to Manhattan, particularly from the perimeter. The Jaspers shot 11/26 (42.3%) from beyond the arc and and seven different players knocked down a three. A couple of those Manhattan triples were well-contested, but the vast majority of them were wide-open. That’s very concerning and shows that this Virginia defense, with its many new faces, is still very much a work in progress.

Virginia’s offense was pretty well neutralized by Tennessee and St. John’s in The Bahamas. Tuesday night against Manhattan was a small step in the right direction, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement.

Let’s start with the good. Five different Cavaliers scored in double figures, including a game-high 18 points from Isaac McKneely, who hit three of his four three-point attempts and went 5/6 from the free throw line. We still think McKneely needs to shoot way more, but we’ll leave that alone for now. Dai Dai Ames scored 10 points and dished out five assists, but fouled out of the game. Blake Buchanan made his first four shots and finished with 11 points and five boards. Cofie made five of his seven shots and finished with 10 points and five boards. The best part of the game was that Virginia had 15 assists on 29 made baskets and turned the ball over only eight times, a vast improvement over the team’s turnover issues in The Bahamas.

Virginia outscored Manhattan 42-22 in the paint. That looks like a good stat, but it’s also an inevitable stat because of UVA’s size advantage over the Jaspers, whose tallest player in the rotation is 6’8″. Still, Manhattan snared 10 offensive rebounds and scored 11 second-chance points. In The Bahamas, UVA was dominated on the glass and was simply outmatched from a physicality and athleticism standpoint. Nothing we saw from the Cavaliers on Tuesday night did anything to alleviate those concerns.

Up next, Virginia remains at home for another (supposed) tune-up game against Holy Cross on Friday at 4pm at John Paul Jones Arena.

Virginia vs. Manhattan Live Updates | NCAA Men’s Basketball

UVA Basketball: Ten Things We Learned About Virginia in The Bahamas

Virginia Basketball Falls to St. John’s 80-55 | Key Takeaways

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Virginia

Virginia vs. Manhattan Live Updates | NCAA Men’s Basketball

Published

13 hours ago

November 26, 2024

Press Room

Virginia vs. Manhattan Live Updates | NCAA Men’s Basketball

Virginia (3-2) is set to host Manhattan (3-2) on Tuesday night at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Virginia. Follow along with score updates, play-by-play, and live analysis for the game in the thread below. Updates will be posted at each timeout in reverse chronological order with the most recent updates at the top of the article. Refresh the page for updates.

As we await our 7pm tip between Virginia and Manhattan on the ACC Network, read a full preview of the game here: Virginia Basketball vs. Manhattan Game Preview, Score Prediction

Virginia has posted its starting five for tonight’s game:
– Dai Dai Ames
– Isaac McKneely
– Andrew Rohde
– Elijah Saunders
– Blake Buchanan

Notably, TJ Power has been replaced by Andrew Rohde in the starting lineup after starting the first five games of the season. Power is shooting 25% from three (4/16), while Rohde is currently shooting 50% from beyond the arc (7/14).

Virginia and Manhattan will meet on Tuesday night for just the second time ever and first time since March 19th, 1993, when the Cavaliers defeated the Jaspers 78-66 in the first round of the 1993 NCAA Tournament.
UVA is 9-0 against current members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
Virginia’s last game against a MAAC team was back in 2012, when the Cavaliers defeated Fairfield 54-45 at John Paul Jones Arena.
UVA is 2-0 at John Paul Jones Arena this season and 3-0 against unranked opponents this season.

Read more Virginia men’s basketball news and content in the links below:

UVA Basketball: Ten Things We Learned About Virginia in The Bahamas

Virginia Basketball Falls to St. John’s 80-55 | Key Takeaways

The Plus/Minus: Virginia Gets Skunked by Tennessee in The Bahamas

Virginia Basketball Falls to Tennessee 64-42 | Key Takeaways

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Virginia

Suspect steals property from store, assaults employee in Virginia

Published

20 hours ago

November 26, 2024

Press Room

Suspect steals property from store, assaults employee in Virginia

LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. – A man has been arrested after entering a store in McLean, stealing merchandise and assaulting an employee.

The suspect has been identified as Calvin Hughes Jr, of Washington D.C.

Leesburg Pike robbery suspect

Police responded to the 8300 block of Leesburg Pike in McLean for a commercial robbery on November 21 around 11:00 a.m. According to police, the suspect entered the store, stole merchandise, and assaulted an employee.

Hughes Jr. was identified and arrested nearby for robbery and is being held without bond.

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