Great article from Timothy B. Wheeler with The Baltimore Sun:
It's been a busy but ultimately disappointing spring for the crew that runs the big fish lift at Conowingo Dam.
Since the beginning of April, the aquatic elevator near Darlington has hoisted more than a million finny creatures up the 94-foot wall holding back the Susquehanna River, helping them on their annual spawning run upriver. The lift is so crowded at times with migrating fish that technician John Lahr has to count them by tens as they swim pell-mell by an underwater viewing window, headed away from the dam like morning commuters late for work.
But only a tiny fraction of those have been American shad, the once-abundant fish for which the $12 million lift ostensibly was built. In all, 12,733 had hitched a ride upriver, the fewest seen since the facility began operating 22 years ago. With the run waning, the lift shut down for the year on Monday.
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