Biological effectiveness of an inexpensive nature‐like fishway for passage of warmwater fish in a small Ontario stream

Abstract

Few studies have been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of nature‐like fishways, particularly in low gradient warmwater streams with diverse fish communities. We evaluated a nature‐like fishway that was installed to facilitate upstream passage at a low head dam on Indian Creek near Spencerville, Ontario, Canada. A passive integrated transponder (PIT) array was used to quantify attraction and passage efficiency for 391 PIT tagged warmwater fish, represented by seven species. Attraction efficiency for the three most common species, common shiner (Luxilus cornutus), creek chub (Semotilus atromaculatus) and white sucker (Catostomus commersonii), was 63.3%, 83.7% and 65.6%, respectively, and passage efficiencies were 5.1%, 38.4% and 25%, respectively. Creek chub were able to locate the fishway in less time than white sucker and common shiner; however, took longer to successfully pass. Manipulation of creek chub release locations was used to separate issues of attraction and passage and revealed that passage efficiency was highest (76.2%) for those released within the fishway and intermediate for those released at the entrance (42.1%). This multispecies fishway improved stream connectivity, but additional work is needed to fine tune its configuration. Similar projects that engage stakeholders in nature‐like fishway construction are a promising approach for the thousands of small dams that occur on low gradient streams around the globe, but those studies should incorporate a biological evaluation to ensure that attraction and passage efficiency are optimised.

Fish passage in the Murray‐Darling Basin, Australia: Not just an upstream battle

“…Fish passage objectives often focus on iconic species of commercial or recrea-tional importance (Mallen-Cooper 1996), and the need for entire fish assemblages to migrate is not often considered in fish passage programmes (Steffensen et al 2013). In the Murray-Darling Basin, smallbodied fish often numerically dominate the migratory population and migrate upstream from midsummer to early autumn, generally during low flows (Baumgartner & Harris 2007;Stuart et al 2008b).…”

Nonsalmonid versus Salmonid Passage at Nature‐Like and Pool‐and‐Weir Fishways in Atlantic Canada, with Special Attention to Rainbow Smelt

“…Nature‐like fishways may also be relatively inexpensive to construct (e.g., by volunteers; Steffensen et al. ), they require little maintenance over their lifetimes (Wildman et al. ), and they may provide slower and more varied flow conditions that could facilitate passage of entire fish communities.…”

Effects of a rock‐ramp fishway on summer fish assemblage in a Lake Huron tributary

“…; Calles & Greenberg ; Steffensen et al . ). Low passage efficiencies in nature‐like bypass channels are attributed to inadequate flows or attraction efficiency as well as the length of the structure discouraging upstream migration.…”

“…brown trout, Salmo trutta Linnaeus) and some non-salmonid species (e.g. alewife, Alosa pseudoharengus (Wilson)) (Calles & Greenberg 2005;Roscoe & Hinch 2010;Franklin et al 2012), but have been ineffective for many other species (Aarestrup et al 2003;Calles & Greenberg 2007;Steffensen et al 2013). Low passage efficiencies in nature-like bypass channels are attributed to inadequate flows or attraction efficiency as well as the length of the structure discouraging upstream migration.…”