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New York Times
26-04-2025
- General
- New York Times
One Family's Relentless Pursuit Of The Bony, Oily, Elusive Shad
The sun was sinking behind the western bank of the Delaware River, bathing Lewis Island in golden light. From a lifetime of experience, Steve Meserve knew that shad were huddled on the Lambertville, N.J., side of the river, resting in the shadows before resuming their long journey upriver to spawn. 'Let's go,' Mr. Meserve said. With a long rope, three members of his crew towed an old rowboat about a quarter mile upriver. Mr. Meserve climbed in, took the handmade oars and guided the boat into the middle of the river, feeding 200 yards of net into the water from the stern. He then curled the boat back toward shore until the net, called a seine, made a C shape. On the island's southern tip, about a dozen spectators and potential shad customers were waiting to see what the river would yield. Mr. Meserve rowed the boat around the island, tugging the net behind him. Then, hand over hand, the crew hauled it in. As the seine reached the shore, the muddy, green-brown water was still for a moment and then erupted in splashes and flashes of silver, revealing a nice haul of about two dozen wriggling shad. 'It's a magical moment,' said Shawn Douglas, who has been a member of the crew for four years. 'Every haul is like Christmas morning. You never know what you're going to get.' 'It can be 50 fish,' Mr. Meserve said, 'or nothing at all.' Mr. Meserve runs the last licensed haul seine fishery on the Delaware, using the same technique practiced by his grandfather, Fred Lewis, and his great-grandfather, Bill Lewis, over more than a century. Lewis Island is named after the family. Each spring, during the shad's northward migration, Mr. Meserve, his family and a group of volunteers haul shad from the Delaware nearly every evening. Once a commercial operation, haul seining has become a seasonal ritual, performed to honor their forebears and to gather data on the shad population for wildlife biologists and environmental officials. Lambertville celebrates the migration every year with a two-day Shad Fest, which is taking place this weekend. 'We haven't made any money at this for a long time,' said Mr. Meserve, 63, who makes his living as an I.T. professional. 'It's about stewardship and the legacy. It's a way to connect to the river and the environment and the fish.' The crew — which ranges from five to a dozen members on any given evening — offers camaraderie and a community, knit together by the wet, muddy teamwork required for haul seining. 'It does get into your blood,' Mr. Meserve said. 'Every haul is a story, and every season is a story,' said Charlie Groth, a crew member who teaches cultural anthropology at Bucks County Community College in Newtown, Pa. Two decades ago, she began researching a book on the Lewis fishery, 'Another Haul,' and was so taken with the beauty, the fellowship and the lore that she joined up. 'History,' Ms. Groth said, 'is very thick on Lewis Island.' The island is a narrow, mostly wooded strip of land, about a mile long and separated from Lambertville by an inlet and a wooden footbridge. Lambertville, a 4,000-person community of graceful Victorian homes, has a rich history shaped by the river, ferries, a canal, a railroad and the New Hope-Lambertville Bridge. In pre-colonial times, the Lenape people fished for shad from Lewis Island, and the abundant fish were a staple in their diet. In 1771, a colonist named Richard Holcombe established a commercial fishery on the island. Mr. Meserve's great-grandfather took over the fishery in 1888, and in the peak years hauled in more than 9,000 shad annually. (Today, the annual haul is in the hundreds.) 'Captain Bill' passed the fishery on to his son, who in turn taught Mr. Meserve everything he knew. After Mr. Meserve returned from college, his grandfather fell ill with cancer, and he took over. 'It's our heritage,' said Mr. Meserve, who runs the fishery with the help of his wife, Sue, a theatrical technical director and professional carpenter. 'I felt a responsibility to continue the legacy. Someone had to speak for the shad.' Shad was a popular meal in early America, but its oily, bony flesh does not appeal to many modern American palates. Nearly all of the Lewis fishery's customers are now from India, Bangladesh and China, where a similar fish from the herring family, hilsa, is highly prized. 'We call hilsa the king of the fishes, and shad is very similar in taste,' said Sam Ghosh, a customer for more than a decade, who bought three fish one evening last week. The price, $4 for a male and $6 for a female, hasn't changed for decades. 'We bake it and make curry out of it,' Ghosh said. 'We're crazy about it.' He and other customers are also fond of shad roe, which some call 'poor man's caviar.' The American shad is an anadromous species, meaning it begins its life in freshwater rivers along the East Coast and then migrates to the ocean. Adult shad live in the Atlantic as far south as Florida for three or four years, dining on plankton and tiny shrimp, before returning to their original rivers to spawn. Delaware River shad mostly head for waters near Hancock, N.Y., a heroic swim against the current of more than 300 miles from the mouth of the river in Delaware Bay. Biologists think that shad, like salmon on the West Coast, are guided to their birthplaces by a highly sensitive sense of smell, visual cues and memory. By the mid-20th century, the shad population had shrunk significantly as shipbuilding, industry and sewage fouled the Delaware, which was left with virtually no dissolved oxygen for fish to breathe. The catch on Lewis Island plunged to zero in two years during the 1950s, prompting Bill Lewis to start a campaign to persuade state and federal officials to clean up the river. An interstate commission found that there was a 'pollution block' near Philadelphia that stopped shad from swimming upriver. After decades of legislation and cleanup efforts culminating in the Clean Water Act of 1972, the river's waters cleared, and the shad returned — but in far fewer numbers than a century earlier. No one really knows why. 'From a historical perspective, the river is quite clean,' said Jake Bransky, a biologist at the Delaware River Basin Commission. Since shad populations have dropped in all East Coast rivers, he said, 'there could be something going on in the ocean we don't know about.' Some speculate there may be an environmental reason, while others theorize that shad are being caught in the nets of commercial ocean trawlers before they reach the rivers. Mr. Meserve's meticulous records, which he updates every night, show that the shad population 'is below historical standards, but it's stable.' He's confident that his niece and nephew will pick up the oars and haul the seine when he finally puts them down. 'The next generation has every intention to keep it going,' he said. 'The connection to the legacy is very powerful.'
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
2025 Philadelphia Flower Show will feature BCCC, DelVal students. Here are details
The Philadelphia Flower Show is coming back soon, and this year it's stepping into the future. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society revealed the theme of 2025's Philadelphia Flower Show as 'Gardens of Tomorrow,' showcasing the adaptability and persistence of plants and focusing on sustainability and innovation in gardens. This year's lineup is full of new events and experts who represent some of the top horticulture specialists in the world. And closer to home, for the first time, the flower show will feature a student-created floral exhibition by Bucks County Community College's Floral Design Program, which will offer nine floral and sculpture installations in futuristic arrangements. Meanwhile, Doylestown's Delaware Valley University takes visitors 'Into the Clouds' with a vision of 2150, where technology and ecology intersect to create digital gardening landscapes. Here's what else to know about the event. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has hosted the Philadelphia Flower Show every year since 1829. It stands as the nation's largest and the world's longest-running horticultural event, showcasing displays from professional horticulturists and landscape designers, educational series, activities and more. Each year, the flower show displays a different theme corresponding to the trends of the year. In 2020, International Festivals & Events Association named the Philadelphia Flower Show as the best event in the world, beating out cultural juggernauts like the Kentucky Derby, Tournament of Roses, Indianapolis 500 and more. PHS is a nonprofit organization that uses horticulture as a way to advance health and well-being in local communities. Proceeds from the Philadelphia Flower Show go toward causes such as providing fresh food for communities, providing stormwater management solutions, workforce development, planting trees and more. The 2025 PHS Philadelphia Flower Show will take place from Saturday, March 1, to Sunday, March 9, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Convention Center is located at 1101 Arch St., Philadelphia. From March 1 to 8, the event will be held from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. On the final day, March 9, the event will close early at 6 p.m. The 2025 Philadelphia Flower Show theme is 'Gardens of Tomorrow.' 'The 2025 Philadelphia Flower Show is a celebration of innovation, resilience and creativity in gardening,' said Seth Pearsoll, vice president and creative director of the Philadelphia Flower Show. 'This year's theme, by design, invokes a sense of optimism, highlighting how planting something today is a small gesture that promotes a brighter future.' Sweet stuff: Cool Delaware things to do in February 2025 for Eagles fans, Valentines, mystery buffs Dozens of exhibitions, events, educational opportunities and interactive activities will be on display throughout the week of the show. One of the hallmark displays this year will be a representation of a 'future flower,'' designed by world-famous floral designers Lily Beelen, Mike Boerma, Berit Laursen and Ahti Lyra. The flower's design is meant to represent hope, resilience and the promise of the future. The display will be unveiled on the show's opening day. Other installations include 'Don't Call It Dirt, Don't Call it Trash,' a transformative garden that repurposes 'garbage' like glass, jars, bottles, woody debris and more into compost that feeds the installation's garden. New exhibitionists are making their way to the flower show, such as Philadelphia-native Bloom Bold & Co., which will create an exhibit that explores the value of concentrating time and effort into the next generation of gardeners and environmental stewards. Returning to the show is the Know to Grow lecture series, which brings horticulture experts to lead presentations on topics like garden design, vegetable gardening, native plants, houseplants and more. Vendors will also set up shop around the convention center, where people can create fresh flower crowns, candles, custom scents, bouquets, accessories and more. Even more events will be held throughout the week ranging from family days to late-night dance parties. Find out more on the PHS website. Tickets can be purchased on the PHS website. PHS members can get discounted tickets for the event. Ticket prices depend on the day of the event. Typically, weekday prices will be cheaper than weekend days. One adult ticket on a weekday goes for around $40, but for a weekend is $50. Floral Fanatic Passes are available for unlimited daily access to the flower show all week long, plus an exclusive Philadelphia Flower Show gift bag. At-home sanctuary: Create a backyard oasis with a water garden this summer Sustainable gardening tips: Want a sustainable pollinator garden for bees, butterflies, birds? Here's what to do Students with a valid ID and children aged 5-17 can get discounted tickets. For large groups of 25 or more, group tickets can go for discounted rates. Early morning tours are also held two hours before the shows are made public from 8 a.m. until 10 a.m. every day. Molly McVety covers community and environmental issues around Delaware. Contact her at mmcvety@ Follow her on Twitter @mollymcvety. Tom Haines of contributed to this story. This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: The 2025 Philadelphia Flower Show is coming soon. Here are the details
