Just as George Washington and his Continental Army were on the verge of starving to death in Valley Forge in the spring of 1778, an amazing thing happened. Sometime in March, the ice melted and the Schuylkill River, along which Washington and the boys were camped, began flowing again. In April, the first wave of alosa sapidissima, otherwise known as “American shad” arrived to spawn in the river like a gravy train from the heavens.
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