Construction was completed last year but not in time for the 1993 shad run, said Dick Snyder, chief of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission's fisheries division. A fish-passage facility on a third dam - the Hamilton Street Dam in Allentown, 14 miles from the Lehigh-Delaware confluence - had been built several years ago.
The Lehigh project hasn't received as much attention as the venture to restore shad to their historic spawning grounds in the huge Susquehanna River drainage. But commission officials say the Lehigh undertaking, though smaller, is significant for several reasons.
"In terms of recreation, it provides opportunities for shad angling in the Lehigh Valley," and shad are "a very important game fish in Pennsylvania," Snyder said. "And it opens up quite an extensive amount of habitat for spawning waters."
Eventually, Snyder said, the agency would like to see an annual spawning population of 165,000 shad in the Lehigh.
The video camera, which runs 24 hours a day, will continue to record shad - as well as other species such as muskellunge and smallmouth bass - as they make use of the Easton fish ladder.
And, in days to come, commission employees will count every fish recorded. A review of tapes for April 27 to April 29 showed that 29 shad had used the ladder, a commission spokesman said.
Shad, which commonly reach four to eight pounds, are prized by anglers for their fighting ability and for the roe of the females. Shad angling is permitted on the Lehigh and its tributaries. The daily creel limit is one fish and there is no minimum size requirement.
