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Fish Passage Remediation Through The Nsw Recreational Fishing Trust Habitat Action Grants, Scott Nichols

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

The NSW Recreational Fishing Licence was introduced on 23rd March 2001. The funds generated by the licence are held in a Trust and used to improve recreational fishing in the state via a number of targeted programs including fish habitat restoration. One of the success stories of the NSW Recreational Fishing Trust has been the Habitat Action Grant (HAG) Program that directs funds to onground works via a devolved grant process. Since the HAG Program began in 2003, over $850,000 has been used to leverage 40 road crossing and weir fish passage remediation projects valued at $7.1M. Importantly, native fish …

Connecting Fish, Flows And Habitats On Lowland River Floodplains, Paul Brown, David Wood, Iain Ellis, Andrew Greenfield, Warwick Gillespie, Sascha Healy

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

Connectivity between river and floodplain habitats is important to many lowland river fishes enabling them to complete their life cycle, maximise growth potential and minimise early life-history mortality. There is increasing recognition of this need and in regulated systems, increasing sophistication of management processes and infrastructure around environmental water allocations to facilitate this connectivity.

Providing connecting flows with limited water resources often means prioritising watering one area over another; so comparative evaluation of fish movement, growth and productivity can be important to demonstrate success.

In the Great Darling Anabranch, we used directional-netting, measures of whole stream productivity and fish otolith …

Proof Of Concept For An Innovative Pump Fishway Design To Move Fish Upstream Over Dams, John H. Harris, William L. Peirson, Brent Mefford, Richard T. Kingsford, Stefan Felder

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

Reversing worldwide declines in freshwater fish while making sustainable use of water resources will require effective and economical fishways to restore fish migrations. Mitigation of barrier effects at dams and weirs is too often impeded by poor fishway performance and high costs, so that many fish migrations continue to be obstructed. Improved and less-costly designs are urgently needed. Our innovative pump fishway concept combines fish-behaviour insights, proved fishways techniques and aquaculture’s pumping methods for safe upstream transport of living fish. We ran a series of experimental trials using several scale-model fishway designs with young, hatchery-bred fish. Our horizontal-cylinder design successfully …

Build It And They Will Come. Or Will They? Golden Perch In Koondrook Perricoota Forest, Wayne A. Robinson, Meaghan Duncan, Kate Martin

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

The Gunbower and Koondrook-Perricoota Forest (KPF) includes a natural floodplain wetland system that has suffered for many years from a lack of water as a result of water extraction practices in the Murray River. The site was targeted with a combination of environmental water allocations and environmental works programs to manage the distribution and retention of water and ultimately improve its ecological health. A major ecological objective for the Gunbower Koondrook-Perricoota Forest is ‘healthy populations of resident native fish in wetlands’. Golden perch, a large-bodied native species utilise similar habitat on the floodplain proper and floodplain channels between nearby Cobram …

Re-Defining Upstream Fish Passage, Tom Shearer

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

In efforts to re-establish populations of migratory fish in areas previously blocked by man-made barriers, upstream migration of adults needs to be facilitated past those barriers. Passage solutions need to meet the standards of being safe, timely, efficient and effective. While traditional upstream adult passage solutions may meet these agency standards, the upfront planning and implementation costs associated with these solutions severely impacts the timing and financial viability of these programs. In an environment of increasing pressures on fish populations caused by climate change and habitat degradation, solutions that are cheaper and quicker to deploy are needed. In this talk …

Hydraulic Optimisation Of A System For Transporting Fish In Water Vertically At Near-Atmospheric Pressure, William Peirson, Isaac Kim, Kieran Pugh, John H. Harris, Stefan Felder, Richard T. Kingsford

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

Reversing worldwide declines in freshwater fish while making sustainable use of water resources will require effective and economical fishways to restore fish migrations. We have developed a proof-of-concept for our innovative pump fishway approach (Harris et al., 2018). This aims to safely lift live fish over vertical distances exceeding 100m without injury. Our horizontal-cylinder design successfully combined the volitional-passage functions of existing fishways with non-volitional transport in a conduit carrying pumped water for young, hatchery-bred, non-salmonid fish. Here, we describe the large-scale transport system designed with minimal moving parts and capable of transporting fish in water vertically over distances …

Fish On The Run: Facilitating Fish Passage From Drying Floodplains, Ivor Stuart, Clayton Sharpe

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

In the Murray-Darling Basin, river managers are implementing site-scale managed floodplain inundations for vegetation outcomes but there is a risk of native fish stranding during floodplain recession due to the absence of natural cues. In 2014, at the 5,000 ha Gunbower floodplain, central Murray River, we devised a fish exit strategy which included: (i) a fish ‘exit hydrograph’, a designed recession to cue fish to leave the floodplain, (ii) evaluation of a new fishlock to facilitate fish passage from the floodplain to the permanent Gunbower Creek. During our evaluation of the exit strategy we collected 113,099 fish exiting the fishlock …

Mud Mountain Upstream Migrant Trap & Haul Facility Design, Peter Christensen

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

Mud Mountain Dam, located on the White River in Washington State USA, is owned and operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). The project includes a high-head dam operated for flood control and a small diversion barrier downstream for directing upstream migrating fish into a trap facility designed to transfer fish into transport trucks for release upstream of the dam. Migrating fish species in the White River include Chinook, Coho, and Pink salmon; steelhead and Bull Trout. The presence of Pink Salmon in the river is relatively recent, and populations have increased dramatically in the last few years. …

Australia’S First Trap-And-Haul Fishway: Nerang River, Queensland, John H. Harris, Steven O'Brien, Brent Mefford, David T. Roberts

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

Australia’s first trap-and-haul fishway was built on the Nerang River in southeast Queensland during enlargement of the Hinze Dam. In gaining government approval for the project, the constructing alliance (HDA) concluded that providing upstream fish passage would have significant environmental benefits by conserving upstream native fish communities and encouraging recruitment into the reservoir’s recreational fishery. But downstream passage, other than modifications to protect fish emigrating during spill events, could not be justified. Severely constrained outflows from the dam and the impacts of downstream urban development contrast starkly with upstream habitat conditions.

North American design approaches were adapted to suit the …

Floodplain Reconnection And Habitat Variability Act As Mitigation Measures For Sensitive Rheophilic Fish Species In The Lower Rhine River, The Netherlands, Twan T. Stoffers

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

1. Aquaculture and Fisheries, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
2. Freshwater Ecology and Water Quality, Deltares, Utrecht, The Netherlands
3. Water Quality and Nature Management, Rijkswaterstaat, Lelystad, The Netherlands
4. Ecology and Landscape, Bureau Waardenburg, Culemborg, The Netherlands
5. Consultancy for Water, Soil and Ecology, ATKB, Waardenburg, The Netherlands

The extensive modifications in the River Rhine resulted in the severe decline or even loss of migratory fish species, typical for European lowland river systems, such as Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and European sturgeon (Acipenser sturio). In addition, the numbers of other potamodromous, rheophilic species, such as European barbel ( …

A Trap-And-Haul Fishway For Multi-Species Upstream Fish Passage At A Challenging Site, Steve O'Brien, John Harris, Brent Mefford, David Roberts

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

Australia’s first trap-and-haul fishway was built on the Nerang River in southeast Queensland during enlargement of the Hinze Dam. In gaining government approval for the project, the constructing alliance (HDA) concluded that providing upstream fish passage would have significant environmental benefits by conserving upstream native fish communities and encouraging recruitment into the reservoir’s recreational fishery. But downstream passage, other than modifications to protect fish emigrating during spill events, could not be justified. Severely constrained outflows from the dam and the impacts of downstream urban development contrast starkly with upstream habitat conditions.

North American design approaches were adapted to suit the …

Estuarine Fish Passes In The Northern Netherlands Provide Contrasting Windows Of Opportunity For Migrating Fish Species, Jeroen Huisman, Tania Timmer, Leopold A.J. Nagelkerke

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

The Wadden Sea in north-western Europe is the largest system of connected intertidal sand and mud flats in the world and is included in the UNESCO World Heritage list. Notwithstanding its ecological value, almost all rivers flowing towards the Wadden Sea are heavily modified with inter-tidal barriers, hampering the migration of diadromous fishes. To mitigate the negative effects of such barriers, fish passes were constructed, but their effectiveness is poorly understood. Since most fish passes are only functional during part of the tidal cycle, migration activity should match this operation window to secure effective migration. In this study we focused …

Cost Effective Modelling To Improve The Functionality Of The Broken Creek Rice’S Weir And Kennedy’S Weir Vertical Slot Fishways, Steven Slarke, Jarrah Muller, Ivor Stuart, Justin O'Connor, Matthew Jones, Mark Turner

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

Acknowledgement Goulburn-Murray Water

Broken Creek in north-central Victoria flows into the River Murray upstream of Barmah. There are 10 low-head (<2 m high) weirs on Broken Creek which all have vertical slot fishways however these have high turbulence (i.e. 75 W/m3) and thus limited functionality for several species of native small and medium sized fish (i.e. <300 mm long).

In late 2017, the Victorian government (DELWP) engaged Jacobs and Kingfisher Research to hydraulically model the Rices and Kennedy’s Weir fishways to prepare conceptual designs for retro-fitted ‘key-hole’ slots to reduce pool turbulence and demonstrate potential for improvement in functionality to pass much smaller fish (i.e. >50 mm long).

Jacobs applied a Microsoft Excel based fishway model which takes fishway geometry, calibrated slot discharge coefficient data, and headwater/tailwater ranges, and uses these data to predict individual pool turbulence, depth …

Development And Application Of An Agent Based Model For Glass Eel Selective Tidal Stream Transport, Jasper De Bie, Thomas Benson, Jennifer Gaskell, Paul S. Kemp

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

Temperate eel populations have been in severe decline due to anthropogenic influences. In Europe, acts of regulation are in place for the sustainable management of the European eel (A. anguilla) population, through annual assessment of commercial landings and recruitment trends. Recruitment of juvenile eels into estuaries and subsequent rivers is thought to occur through usage of the flood, ebb and slack tides (Selective Tidal Stream Transport, STST) and other environmental variables. However, instalment of estuarine barriers is known to affect upstream migration with adverse consequences for the population.

To evaluate anthropogenic impact (e.g. estuarine barriers) on recruitment and …

Hydraulic Approach For Dimensioning Fish Way Attraction Flow, Martin Henning, Patrick Heneka, Cornelia Schuetz

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

The German Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG) and the German Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute (BAW) are working to restore upstream connectivity for fish on German Federal Waterways by means of fish ways. In order for fish to find the entrance of a fish way, sufficient attraction flow is necessary. However, to this day, there is no generally accepted definition of sufficient attraction flow and how to evaluate it. Furthermore, according to the European Water Framework Directive fish of all species and sizes have to be considered for upstream migration. Thus, requirements for attraction flow are diverse.

Theoretically, attraction …

Effects Of Tide Gate Upgrade Or Removal On Fish Passage And Habitat Quality: A Literature Review And Knowledge Synthesis, Guillermo Giannico, Jon Souder, Londi Tomaro, Jeff Behan

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

The ecological effects of tide gates are thought to be sufficiently understood to justify estuary restoration involving removal or upgrades of aging structures with the goals of improving fish passage and estuarine habitat conditions. However, whether tide gate upgrade or removal affect salmonid passage, growth and survival, and habitat quality, lacks clear answers in the primary literature. To address this paucity of information, we conducted a systematic review of the primary literature and of tide gate related project reports. We used a multi-faceted approach to knowledge synthesis, including review of relevant scientific literature, agency and non-agency reports on tide gate …

Optimisation Of Fishway Entrance And Exit Conditions Using Physical Modelling: Sarfiip Pike Floodplain Regulator And Fishway Designs, Steven Slarke, Ivor Stuart, David Pezanitti

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

As part of SARFIIP, Jacobs and Kingfisher Research prepared designs for two integrated regulator and fishway structures at the Pike floodplain for SA Water, DEW and the MDBA. These structures will enable the future managed inundation watering of Pike during regulated river flows to restore floodplain health and fish passage connectivity through the floodplain.

A successful floodplain flow regulator and fishway design requires that fish are able to readily locate and enter the downstream entrance. The entrance must be located at the ‘limit of fish migration’, represented by either a wall or a line of turbulence below the regulator gate …

Fish Ladders At Small Hydropower Plants And Potential Contribution To Downstream Passage Of Eggs And Larvae, Eduardo Brambilla

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

Fish passage can potentially enhance downstream fish passage of larvae and eggs at small hydropower plants (SHP’s). To evaluate this hypothesis, two SHP’s located in the Sapucaí-Mirim River, Southeastern Brazil, both with weir-and-orifice type fish ladders were studied. Eggs and larvae were collected fortnightly between November 2016 and February 2017 (seasonal reproductive period) from set locations upstream of the dams, including the lotic, transition and reservoir. Additional downstream drifting samples were collected from within the fish ladders. Higher densities of eggs and larvae were collected, from all sampling sites, in December, January and early February. Larvae and eggs were only …

Building A Fish Passage Assessment Protocol For New Zealand: Implementation Of Bayesian Network Models For Estimating Fish Passage Success, Paul A. Franklin, Martin Wilkes, Cindy Baker, Callum Brown, Sam Ammon

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

Migratory fish species are dependent on connected habitats to complete their life cycles. Instream structures such as culverts, weirs and dams can impede the movement of migratory species. Disruptions to migratory pathways impact ecosystem health by reducing the abundance and diversity of species present.

A number of metrics are available for quantifying habitat fragmentation within river networks, but they are dependent on sufficient information being available on the location and severity of migration barriers. Characterising the likelihood of fish passage success at instream structures requires information on the characteristics of the structure and the capabilities of fishes. Biotelemetry and mark-recapture …

Weir Going To Build A Wall, Luke K. Pearce

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

Whilst improving fish passage is valuable and often essential tool to rehabilitating native fish populations, there can also be the unintended consequence of facilitating the passage and spread of undesirable alien fish that are known to have devastating impacts on certain threatened fish species. Similarly the blockage of fish passage to limit or stop the spread of alien fish into new habitats can be a useful tool in the protection of remnant populations of vulnerable threatened native fish species.

We provide three separate case studies of where barriers, both constructed and natural have been used to protect remnant populations of …

Sea To Hume Fish Passage Task Force, Jim M. Barrett

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

In 2001, the Murray-Darling Basin Commission (MDBC) initiated a program to improve fish passage along 2225km of the River Murray, from the sea to Hume Dam, including the construction of 15 new fishways. The three disciplines of biology, hydraulics and engineering are inherently linked in fishway design. As such, a Fish Passage Taskforce (FPTF) was established to recommend fishway design criteria and comprised a team of scientists, engineers, managers and river operators. In order to complement the FPTF, a team of freshwater fish scientists from three states of the Basin (NSW, Victoria, South Australia) was also created to quantitatively assess …

Control Of Globally Invasive Common Carp: A 10 Year Commercial Trial Of The Williams' Carp Separation Cage In A Murray River Fishway, Anthony J. Conallin, Ivor G. Stuart

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

Common carp Cyprinus carpio, are a highly migratory pest fish in Australia, North America, New Zealand and parts of Europe. Fishways built to facilitate native fish passage also benefit invasive carp. The Williams’ cage was developed to separate carp from native fish as they pass through fishways by exploiting their unique jumping behaviour. We report on a 10-year commercial application in a fishway on the lower Murray River (SE Australia) where a high biomass of carp resides.

Between November 2007 and April 2017, the automated Williams’ cage was installed and operated at Lock 1 by a collaborative team of …

Use Of Built Barriers In New Zealand Streams As A Conservation Management Tool, Sjaan Bowie, Daniel Jack, Dean Nelson

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

New Zealand has 77 species of freshwater fish. Fifty-seven of them are native, most are endemic and 72% are threatened with, at risk of extinction or extinct; a higher proportion than almost any other country in the world. While providing fish passage is advantageous for most fish, some of New Zealand’s native freshwater fish, other instream species and habitats cannot cope and/or compete with some invasive species. In these situations, physical barriers, which impede or prevent upstream and/or downstream movement of unwanted fish species, can help protect key locations by keeping invasive species out and providing safe refuge areas. Prior …

Addressing Connectivity Constraints To Freshwater Fish: A European Perspective, Peter Gough

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

Connectivity of our rivers for fish is seriously constrained in many parts of the world and in some it is threatening to get worse. The scale of this is a serious problem if the benefits of free-flowing rivers and flourishing fish populations, and the fisheries that depend on them, are to be protected and restored towards optimum levels. The time is right to re-consider priorities and to adopt bold new thinking if we are to have free-flowing rivers in the future.

In Europe this is being addressed through ambitious and challenging statutory environmental policy: the European Union Water Framework Directive. …

A "Fluid" Perspective On Fish Passage Design And Performanc, Aline Cotel

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

Turbulence is omnipresent in natural and man-made environments, having a range of impacts on the biota in aquatic systems, from positive to detrimental to neutral. Lessons learned from fish habitats choices and fish swimming are applied to the context of fish passage to look at the importance of turbulence on design and performance. Past studies have shown a strong correlation between fish performance and physical parameters.

While a wide range of parameters (biological and physical) with various length and time scales are important in determining success of fish passage, we will focus on determining physical parameters responsible for the challenges …

Twenty Years Of Fish Passage Policies Establishment In Brazil: A Review Of The Current Status Of Fish Passage Science, Luiz Silva

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

No abstract provided.

Is Automatic Monitoring Accurate Enough?, Magnus Thor Asgeirsson

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

The need for monitoring fish migration has never been greater. With environmental changes and growing aquaculture production in critical areas many rivers are experiencing new and sometimes not-so welcome guests entering the habitats of local species. Some methods of monitoring fish migration such as trapping puts stress on the fish and some non-contact methods such as video surveillance are quite labour intensive.

The Riverwatcher is the most widely used fish monitoring system in the world. It was produced to minimize disturbance to the fish and to produce valuable results automatically, such as count, size, direction, PIT-Tag and log several environmental …

Impacted Fish Movement Into Tropical Freshwater Wetlands Discharging Water Low In Dissolved Oxygen; The Tail Of Two Wetlands, Trent Power

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

Coastal freshwater wetlands are important ecosystems which support myriad of plants and animals. In north-eastern Australia freshwater wetlands comprise a mixture of natural and modified habitats. Ponded pastures are a common type of modified wetland in central Queensland and were created to provide improved grazing pastures for cattle. The wetlands were formed when earthen bunds were constructed across portions of upper estuaries and lower flood plains. Despite the modified nature, ponded pastures provide the same ecological services as natural freshwater wetlands. The extensive nature of many ponded pastures often make them the largest freshwater wetlands within a catchment.

Like natural …

Machine Learning For Automated Sonar Monitoring Of Outmigrating American Eel Behavior, Paul T. Jacobson Phd

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

Abundance of American eel (Anguilla rostrata) is low compared to historical levels, which makes it a species of management concern. Adult American eel are vulnerable to hydropower turbine mortality during outmigration from inland waters to their spawning ground in the Sargasso Sea. Morphological and behavioral characteristics of the species make it particularly challenging to provide safe downstream passage at hydropower projects. Furthermore, outmigration of adult eels is episodic and protracted, typically extending over a period of several months or more each year. Consequently, design, optimization, and operation of downstream passage facilities that are economical and biologically effective requires …

Restoring Connectivity – How The Sea To Hume Fishways Will Help Achieve The Environmental Outcomes Of The Murray-Darling Basin Plan, Stuart Little

International Conference on Engineering and Ecohydrology for Fish Passage

In Australia, the key reform in the management of water is the Water Act (2007). As part of the Water Act (2007), the Murray-Darling Basin Plan sets out the management framework for the waterways in Australia’s most economically important river system. The Murray-Darling Basin Plan (2012), hereafter the Basin Plan, aims to restore and maintain the health of important water-dependant ecosystems within Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin. To achieve these objectives, ‘water for the environment’ is to be managed under a Basin-wide Environmental Watering Strategy (MDBA 2014), (the Strategy) that articulates the basin-scale outcomes that will achieve the objectives of the Basin …