Tune in to WYPR 88.1 FM in Baltimore tomorrow morning (Wednesday, May 28) at 9:35 a.m. to hear my most recent  "Environment in Focus" program.  This week's essay is on "The Rise and Fall of the American Shad."

If you miss the broadcast, you can listen to a digitally recorded version of this and previous shows by clicking here.

I had a news story in today's Baltimore Sun about how American shad -- so important as a food to the American colonies they've been called "the founding fish" -- rebounded impressively during the 1990's as power companies built fish lifts over dams.  But over the last six years, that recovery has faltered. Their numbers passing through the Conowingo Dam in Maryland have fallen by 90 percent over the last six years. One theory is that striped bass -- once nearly driven to extinction themselves -- are now so populous they're eating up the shad.

There are other theories about the shad's rise and fall, however.  And you can check them out by listening in.

Here's the guy I feature in my radio story tomorrow: Travis Habecker, an avid shad fisherman and 29-year-old cabinetmaker from Ephrata, Pa. He's holding an American shad that he caught Friday in the Susquehanna River near the Conowingo Dam outfalls. Not pictured is the one that got away (when it was eaten by a huge striped bass) (Sun photo by Tom Pelton)