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Studies of the American Shad, Alosa sapidissima (Wilson) in the Lower Susquehanna River below Conowingo Dam (Maryland), 1972-1976
In 1970, an agreement was signed between various utilities, states, and the federal government for the implementation of a five year program \u27for restoration of the American shad to the Susquehanna River.\u27 Part of the program called for construction of a fish attraction, collection, and trapping facility to determine the number of American shad (Alosa sapidissima) available from immediately below Conowingo Dam that could be collected and transported upriver and released. A collection facility was operated daily from April through June between 1972 and 1974. Some 5.8 million specimens of 48 species was taken. In order of abundance, the most common fishes were the white perch (Morone americana), blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis), gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum), channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus), and American eel (Anguilla rostrata). Combined, these species made up 90.3% of the catch. The American shad ranked 28th in catch per effort. A total of 673 shad was taken in five years in 1,828 hours of operation. The largest number (293) was taken in 1972. Most were taken in the last week of May and the first two weeks in June. Typically, when collected, one to three shad were taken per lift. Certain trends are apparent after five years of study. Few shad have been captured. No evidence exists to suggest that the low catch is due to inefficient operation of the collection facility. Evidence from several sources (angler catch in the tailrace and the commercial fishery at the mouth of the river) suggests that a decline has occurred in the shad population over the last 20 years. The effect of this decline on efforts to restore runs of the American shad remains to be resolved
Is there common ground for defining a decent social minimum in Europe?
Without comparable benchmarks, the cross-national monitoring of the adequacy of minimum income schemes is impossible. However, it is not so straightforward to define what comparability means in this context, and how it should be operationalised. In this paper, we explore the possibility of a comparable benchmark for a minimum income starting from the concept of ‘adequate social participation’. At the minimum, comparability would require that people can have a broadly similar understanding of what adequate social participation means. Therefore, in this paper we explore to what extent there is a common understanding of ‘adequate social participation’ in terms of the essential social positions that one should be able to take, and in terms of the needs that should be satisfied to be able to fulfil in an adequate way the social roles associated with these positions. We embed our notion of adequate social participation in the literature on human needs. A large-scale project that involved country teams in all EU Member States, enabled us to develop a ‘core list’ of social positions, and to validate these as well as a list of intermediate needs across EU Member States using two sources. Formal social expectations have been explored in terms of commitments of Member States to international guidelines and regulations; informal social expectations regarding essential social positions and human needs have subsequently been assessed in focus group discussions in 24 EU capital cities. Overall, the discussions in focus groups across the EU confirm there is quite some common ground with respect to what can be understood under the heading of adequate social participation in terms of essential social positions and needs that should be fulfilled. This provides support for efforts aimed at developing comparable benchmarks to assess the adequacy of social protection schemes