Gulf of Mexico and large rivers from the Suwanee River in Florida to tributaries of the Mississippi as far north as Keokuk, Iowa. Louisiana records (from FishNet2) are primarily from the Pearl River Basin, with limited occurrences in the Tangipahoa and Amite Rivers of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin.
The Alabama Shad was first described Meletta suoerii by Valenciennes in Cuvier & Valenciennes 1847 from the Wabash River, USA (Fricke et al. 2021). The name was forgotten and subsequently placed in the synonym of the earlier name Alosa alabamae Jordan & Evermann 1896 (Whitehead 1985). It is believed to be most closely related to and sister species to the geographically disjunct American Shad, Alosa sapidissima (Berry 1964).
The Alabama Shad is a schooling, anadromous species, maturing in marine waters of the Gulf of Mexico and ascending large natal rivers for spawning and early development. Adults appear in spawning rivers from January-April in southern coastal sites and are present in the upper Mississippi from April to July (Coker 1930, Pflieger 1997). Young-of-the-year are found in rivers between mid-July and early October (Pflieger 1997). Juveniles stay in fresh water for 6-8 months, leave rivers by winter, and return to spawn usually when 3-4 years old. Using otoliths, Mettee et al. (1996) found that spawning males were 1-4 years old and females were 2-6 years old.
Once the target of a productive commercial fishery on the Ohio River (Evermann 1902), freshwater populations throughout the species’ range have undergone a precipitous decline due to locks and dams built for navigation, hydroelectric generation, and flood control, which have effectively blocked migration routes to historical spawning areas (Hammerson and Master 2009). The Alabama Shad is presently listed as Near Threatened by IUCN (Sammons et al. 2021). Its Global Ranking is Imperiled (Hammerson and Master 2009). The Alabama Shad presently has no US Endangered Species Act protection but is being considered (Lopez 2013). In Louisiana, the Alabama Shad is listed as Critically Imperiled (S1) because of extreme rarity (5 or fewer known extant populations) or because of some factor(s) making it especially vulnerable to extirpation (Holcomb et al. 2015). Gunning and Suttkus (1990) first reported on the decline of the Alabama Shad’s most viable Louisiana population in the Pearl River. They attributed the decline to dams and declining habitat conditions in the river.