August 11, 2020 — Overfishing, dams and pollution are among the factors that have steeply reduced the population of an ecologically important fish on the East Coast, regulators have said.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission recently completed an assessment of the population of American shad and found it to be “depleted,” the commission said. Changing ocean conditions and climate change have also likely played a role in reducing the fish’s population from historic levels, it said.