Busy Hurricane Season Predicted for the East Coast this Year

Did you ever hear the saying, “It is an ill wind that blows no good”?


I thought of it the other day while reading about the history of commercial Shad fishing in the Delaware River of the Eastern United States.



The native peoples who shared their knowledge with the first European settlers fished the river. As the years went by a commercial fishery soon developed for Shad that harvested millions of tons annually. By the 1900’s the catch was slipping to below a million tons per year. By the 1950’s the run was virtually finished.


In August of 1955 an amazing natural phenomenon occurred. Two hurricanes, named Connie and Diane, stuck the East coast at the same time. They traveled together, their eyes almost touching creating flooding and damage on an unbelievable scale.

The floodwater, drained from the Delaware River hinterland, rushed down the river toward the Atlantic and scoured the polluted sludge of hundreds of years of human activity from the riverbed.

The next few years saw an amazing increase in the Shad run from virtually extinct to regained strength. By 1962, anglers were again fishing the river in good numbers.

What is happening in the Philadelphia area today as far as Shad fishing goes I am not sure of but this is an amazing story nonetheless.

By the way, the weather service is predicting a slightly busier than usual hurricane season for the east this year.