Roger Hannigan Gilson reports in the Times Union that New York stopped recreational and commercial shad fishing in the Hudson River in 2010. Now the state Department of Environmental Conservation has a plan to return shad populations in the Hudson River to numbers similar to the 1940s. Then, commercial and recreational fishing could be allowed again. Called "the poor man's salmon," shad are born in fresh water, live in the oceans, and return to rivers to spawn. Overfishing shad in the Hudson River first led to regulations in 1861, when fishing net restrictions and fishing seasons were first implemented. The DEC says there have population collapses three times since. Now the DEC plans habitat restoration, industrial regulation, and the monitoring of shad populations to bring the fish back to the Hudson River. "There was once a nearly infinite number of fish in the Hudson River ... what we have today are just shadows," Riverkeeper's George Jackman said. Read more about this story in the Times Union.