American Shad
Alosa sapidissima
Family: Clupeidae (Herrings)
Etymology: Alosa is a very old Saxon name for shad, sapidissima is "most delicious" (Moyle 2002).
Introduced in the 1870s. Native to the Atlantic coast of North America (Moyle 2002).
This is an anadromous fish, meaning that it spawns in freshwater, migrates to the ocean to grow, then returns to freshwater to spawn.
Related research by Sac State faculty
Gross, M.R., R.M. Coleman and R.D. McDowell (1988) Aquatic productivity and the evolution of diadromous fish migration. Science 239: 1291-1293. pdf