Can a low-gradient vertical-slot fishway provide passage for a lowland river fish community?

Abstract

Fishways are commonly used to restore native fish movements in regulated rivers. In the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia, 14 fishways are to be built by 2011 to improve passage along 2225 km of the river. The first of these fishways, constructed in 2003, is a vertical-slot design with low water velocities (0.98-1.4 m s −1 ) and turbulence (average 42 W m −3 ). This design was selected to provide passage for individuals between 20 and 1000 mm long. To determine passage success, trapping and a remote automated passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag reading system was used from October 2003 to February 2006. In 57 24-h samples at the exit (upstream end) and entrance (downstream end), 13 species and 30 409 fish were collected at a maximum rate of 4415 fish per day. Fish between 31 and 1030 mm successfully ascended the fishway. However, significantly smaller (<31 mm) fish and small-bodied (<50 mm) carp gudgeons (Hypseleotris spp.), a species previously considered non-migratory, were sampled downstream from the entrance of the fishway. The remote PIT tag reading system revealed that 81% of native golden perch (Macquaria ambigua) and 87% of non-native common carp (Cyprinus carpio) successfully ascended the fishway. These data will help maximise the efficiency of future fishways against a series of pre-determined performance criteria.

Contribution of experimental fluid mechanics to the design of vertical slot fish passes

“…This is the case in Australia, where the sizes of fish to be accommodated range between 40 mm and 1000 mm. The drop between two pools cannot exceed 0.10 m and the width of the slot must be about 0.30 m (Stuart and Berghuis, 2002;Stuart et al, 2008). This results in passes with a shape ratio of L/b = 10 and B/b = 7, dissipated power of 40 W·m −3 and very low slopes in the region of 3.3%.…”

“…The value of 200-250 W·m −3 is generally taken as the upper limit for salmonids (Bates, 2000;Larinier et al, 2002); lower levels are recommended (100-150 W·m −3 ) for shad and rheophilic riverine species (Larinier et al, 2002). Even lower values (around 40-50 W·m −3 ) have been adopted to enable upstream passage pass of all fish with length > 90 mm and approximately half of the fish between 20-70 mm on the Murray-Darling basin in Australia (Barrett and Mallen-Cooper, 2006;Stuart et al, 2008). This commonly-used criterion based on P v values was proposed in the 1980s (Larinier, 1983;Bell, 1986) when there was no simple technical means for measuring the characteristics of turbulence in pools.…”

Swimming activity and energetic costs of adult lake sturgeon during fishway passage

“…As the trap was present to prevent complete passage of individuals (and subsequent loss of tags), and aversion to fish traps at fishways has been documented by others (e.g. Stuart et al, 2008), this removed any potential bias the trap may have had on behaviour. To test whether individual variability in fishway passage success was related to condition (e.g.…”

Comparison between 2D and 3D hydraulic modelling approaches for simulation of vertical slot fishways

“…The first recorded fishway can be dated back to the 17th Century in Europe (Alvarez-Vázquez, Martínez et al 2008). In Australia, significant research efforts have been undertaken with a number of fishways designed and constructed to preserve and enhance the natural stocks for the whole native fish communities, including catadromy, amphidromy and potamodromy (Stuart, Zampatti et al 2008).…”

“…The main challenge in a fishway design is to integrate the conservative fishway hydraulics with highly variable water level (Stuart, Zampatti et al 2008). The hydraulic conditions suitable for Australian native fish are well established; however, the hydraulic and fish passage performance of fishways under various conditions (such as flow rates and tail water levels) has been difficult to gauge.…”