Efficacy of a side-mounted vertically oriented bristle pass for improving upstream passage of European eel (Anguilla anguilla) and river lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis) at an experimental Crump weir

Kerr, James R.; Karageorgopoulos, Perikles; Kemp, Paul S.

doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2015.09.013

Cited by 29 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Despite the results presented here, indicating a low efficiency of eel ramps in facilitating upstream migration, the literature contains several reports of efficient implementations (Briand et al, ; Knights & White, ; Legault, ; Solomon & Beach, ). Studies also show that manipulating certain design features can have fundamental impacts on the success of eel ramps (Anwar, ; Drouineau et al, ; Jellyman et al, ; Kerr et al, ; Piper et al, ; Watz, Nilsson, Degerman, Tamario, & Calles, ). This knowledge needs to be transformed, however, into conservation action.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Anguilliform fishes are poor swimmers but exhibit exceptional climbing capabilities (Solomon & Beach, 2004), most notably at smaller sizes (<12 cm ;Jellyman, 1977). Small eels can climb on wet surfaces, and, remarkably, on vertical dam walls (Porcher, 2002), as long as these are wet and the surface substrate contains irregularities (Kerr, Karageorgopoulos, & Kemp, 2015). Despite this extraordinary ability, only a minor proportion of the climbing eels successfully pass dams and weirs (White & Knights, 1997).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Coastal river connectivity and the distribution of ascending juvenile European eel (Anguilla anguilla L.): Implications for conservation strategies regarding fish‐passage solutions

Tamario

Calles

Watz

et al. 2019

Aquatic Conservation

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Many diadromous fish populations are declining and at risk of collapse. Lack of river connectivity is a major contributor to these declines, as free migration routes between marine and freshwater habitats are crucial for life‐history completion. For the conservation and ultimately recovery of such species, it is imperative that remedial measures aimed at increasing connectivity are effective. This study investigated the distribution patterns of ascending juvenile European eel (Anguilla anguilla L.) in rivers in south‐western Sweden, with a focus on the effects of barriers and measures that aim to reduce the impact of barriers, i.e. fish‐passage solutions (FPSs). Eel occurrence data were spatially and temporally integrated with the national databases of dams and FPSs in a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment to evaluate their effect on ascending eel distribution. The types of barriers assessed were: (i) dams with nature‐like fishways; (ii) dams with eel ramps; (iii) dams with technical fishways; and (iv) dams without FPSs. Dams fitted with eel ramps or technical fishways, as well as dams without FPSs, produced a significant negative effect on the probability of eel occurrence upstream. This negative effect was not found for dams fitted with nature‐like fishways, indicating that these solutions may function better than the other FPS types in this study. The probability of eel occurrence decreased with distance from the sea and increased with area sampled, number of electrofishing runs, water temperature, and with the size of the bottom substrate. We suggest that future conservation strategies for improving the natural immigration of juvenile eels should include optimizing FPS function (e.g. placement and design), the continued maintenance of FPSs, the construction of nature‐like fishways, and preferably the removal of dams, which will also benefit the downstream migration of maturing eels as well as restoring other ecosystem services.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coastal river connectivity and the distribution of ascending juvenile European eel (Anguilla anguilla L.): Implications for conservation strategies regarding fish‐passage solutions

Tamario

Calles

Watz

et al. 2019

Aquatic Conservation

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“…The features of the ramps, such as climbing substratum and slope, are critical, as the efficiency in aiding the ascent of juvenile eels (both in terms of passage success rate and climbing velocity) may directly affect the performance of the passage solution (Jellyman et al ., ; Anwar, ). Evaluations of single substrata have shown that, for example studded plastic tiles and bristle passes improve passage success at Crump weirs (Kerr et al ., ; Vowles et al ., , ), but few studies have directly compared the performance of different climbing substrata (Jellyman et al ., ). A recent study by Tamario et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…At present, the alarmingly low densities of upstream‐migrating juvenile eels suggest that immediate actions are required to increase the proportion of eels passing upstream migration barriers. During recent years, several new upstream passage solutions have been developed, but research assessing the performance of these solutions has until recently been completely lacking, and only a handful of studies address this issue (Kerr, Karageorgopoulos & Kemp, ; Vowles et al ., , ; Jellyman, Bauld & Crow, ). In particular, further studies evaluating the effects of upstream passage solution design and placement are needed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climbing the ladder: an evaluation of three different anguillid eel climbing substrata and placement of upstream passage solutions at migration barriers

Watz

Nilsson

Degerman

et al. 2019

Animal Conservation

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Conservation programmes for endangered, long-lived and migratory species often have to target multiple life stages. The bottlenecks associated with the survival of juvenile anguillid eels migrating into inland waters, the survival and growth of the freshwater life stage, as well as the recruitment and survival of silver eels, migrating back to the ocean to spawn, must be resolved. In this study, we focus on the efficiency of passage solutions for upstream-migrating juveniles. Such solutions can consist of inclined ramps lined with wetted climbing substrata. We evaluated different commonly used substrata in a controlled experiment, recorded eel behaviour at the entrance of the ramp with infrared videography and validated the experimental results at a hydropower dam, where we also investigated the effects of ramp placement on performance. In the experiment on eel substratum selection, 40% of the eels passed in lanes with studded substratum, whereas only 21 and 5% passed using open weave and bristle substrata respectively. Video analysis revealed that the studded substratum attracted more approaches and initiated climbs than the other substrata, but once a climb had been initiated, passage success rates did not differ between substrata. Eels using the studded substratum climbed 26% faster than those using the bristle substratum and almost four times as fast as those climbing in the open weave. The superior performance of the studded substratum was supported by data from the field validation. Moreover, ramps positioned by the bank with low water velocities caught the most eels, but proximity to the dam had no effect on performance. To strengthen the European eel population, more juveniles need to reach their freshwater feeding grounds. A critical step to achieve this increase is to equip upstream passage solutions with suitable substrata and to optimize ramp placement at migration obstacles.

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“…Important such examples include assessing passage efficiency of river reaches and hydraulic structures (Baek et al 2015;Kerr et al 2015;Vowles et al 2015). There exist a series of extensive research results on behavior of fish schools subject to water current under experimental settings by Onitsuka and his coworkers, which can be effectively utilized for development and validation of mathematical models (Onitsuka et al 2009(Onitsuka et al , 2012a.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A simple game-theoretic model for upstream fish migration

Yoshioka

2017

Theory Biosci.

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A simple game-theoretic model for upstream fish migration, which is a key element in life history of diadromous fishes, is proposed. Foundation of the model is a minimization problem on the cost of migration with the swimming speed and school size as the variables to be simultaneously optimized. Finding the optimizer ultimately reduces to solving a self-consistency equation without explicit solutions. Mathematical analytical results lead to the sufficient condition that the self-consistency equation has a unique solution, which turns out to be identified with the condition where the unique optimizer exists. Behavior of the optimizer is analyzed both mathematically and numerically to show its biophysical and ecological consequences. The analytical results demonstrate reasonable agreement between the present mathematical model and the theoretical and experimental results of upstream migration of fish schools reported in the past research.

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Efficacy of a side-mounted vertically oriented bristle pass for improving upstream passage of European eel (Anguilla anguilla) and river lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis) at an experimental Crump weir

Cited by 29 publications

References 55 publications

Coastal river connectivity and the distribution of ascending juvenile European eel (Anguilla anguilla L.): Implications for conservation strategies regarding fish‐passage solutions

Coastal river connectivity and the distribution of ascending juvenile European eel (Anguilla anguilla L.): Implications for conservation strategies regarding fish‐passage solutions

Climbing the ladder: an evaluation of three different anguillid eel climbing substrata and placement of upstream passage solutions at migration barriers

A simple game-theoretic model for upstream fish migration

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