Impossible fish quiz!!

[Fly Ty R]

Q: Name all the anadromous fish species that live their lives in saltwater but spawn in freshwater, in the Delaware River Watershed.

The catch: They all must be catchable with a hook and line in either freshwater, saltwater, or both.

*Hint #1: They all must enter the watershed through the Delaware Bay (duh).

*Hint #2: They don't HAVE to spawn in the actual Delaware River. The watershed includes more than just the Big D (hint hint hint, for y'all Millbillies). But they MUST spawn in freshwater.

*Hint #3: I can think of seven possible species for the Delaware River Watershed. There may be more, though.

Bonus Q (for four trillion points): Name the catadromous fish species that lives it's life in the Delaware River but goes out to the ocean to spawn.

:D

[ 01-22-2004, 08:08 AM: Message edited by: Fly Ty R ]

[Never Better]

Bonus question- American Eel?

Some anadromous-
Striped Bass, American Shad, Hickory Shad, Atlantic Herring, Sturgeon (American?)

[Tedman27]

I'll add the Lamprey and guess White Perch

American eels do the opposite.

[DaveS]

I'm going to take a stab at this an say there are some trout mixed in also. I remember reading about some tagged fish that were stocked in the Musky and/or Pequest have been caught as far south as Trenton on the Big D. I'm sure they may have gone farther down stream in search of food.

[THECHUMSTAIN]

Sturgeon

[Esox1]

Stripers and how about shad.

[Fly Ty R]

All good answers.

Catadromous fish - American Eel - correct
Anadromous fish-
1. Striped bass - correct
2. White perch - correct
3. American/White shad - correct
4. Hickory shad - correct (If not in the Big D, then in the Maurice and Cohansey Rivers, which are in the watershed)
5. Atlantic herring - correct
6. Atantic sturgeon- correct
7. Trout (Sea-run Browns, possible steelhead) -correct
8. Lamprey - Correct, although I don't think it can be counted. I'm not sure they can be caught (legally) with a hook and line in the mouth. They can be snagged, however.

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Ok, so that's 7, possibly 8. It's more than I thought of originally, but there are still two more I can think of that haven't been listed.

*Hint: One is common, genus Alosa, and another is an uncommon coldwater fish for this area (can't give the genus, it will give it away too easily).

[ 01-22-2004, 01:05 PM: Message edited by: Fly Ty R ]

[THECHUMSTAIN]

Shouldn't all the shad be in one pick. ;)

[Fly Ty R]

Not really. I was thinking about just lumping them all together, but some species go up and spawn in the main river, while others spawn in tributaries and such. White/American shad and hickory shad don't really spawn in the same places or travel together, so I don't count them as the same thing.

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Well, I let 24 hours go by, so I guess no one else has a guess. The other two species I was thinking of are:

9. Alewife herring
10. Atlantic Salmon (yes, there are salmon in the Delaware, but not many. Traditionally the Big D had a salmon run, but that stopped a century ago from overharvesting and pollution. The ones today are remnants of a stocking program from years ago that never took off. Some are still caught today, so part of the program obviously worked). I couldn't give the genus of this one because it's Salmo, way too easy.

[Tedman27]

Very good quiz!

Does catching a fish with a lamprey attached count?

[CapeMayRay]

Winter is pretty long. What Quiz number will we be up to on the first day of spring? Will we run out of questions before the warm weather gets here?