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Hickory shad

Alosa mediocris

Information and species illustrations courtesy of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Species Information
Size Maximum size to 60 cm standard length, commonly to 40 cm standard length.
Diagnostic characters
Habitat, biology, and fisheries Coastal and tidal fresh waters; euryhaline, entering brackish and fresh water, anadromous. Most of adult life spent in sea. Spawns in tidal fresh water (Patuxent River, Chesapeake Bay in May-June; Virginia rivers and southern part of range in February- May). Sexually mature at 3 to 5 years. Estimated fecundity 43,000 to 348,000 eggs/female.Feeds on small fishes, also squids, small crabs, and other crustaceans, as well as fish eggs. Of minor importance to fisheries. Caught with seines, pound nets, and in lesser quantities in gill and fyke nets.
Distribution Western North Atlantic (Maine southward to the St. Johns River, Florida); also in rivers.
Citations Carpenter, K.E. (ed) The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 1: Introduction, molluscs, crustaceans, hagfishes, sharks, batoid fishes, and chimaeras. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5. Rome, FAO. 2002. pp. 1-600. Carpenter, K.E. (ed) The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 2: Bony fishes part 1 (Acipenseridae to Grammatidae). FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5. Rome, FAO. 2002. pp. 601-1374. Carpenter, K.E. (ed) The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 3: Bony fishes part 2 (Opistognathidae to Molidae), sea turtles and marine mammals. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5. Rome, FAO. 2002. pp. 1375-2127.