Emigration of Fish from Two South Carolina Cooling Reservoirs

Abstract

We assessed fish escapement from two South Carolina reservoirs, Par Pond and L Lake, from spring 2002 through summer 2003. Escapement was greatest in the spring and early summer, with lake chubsucker Erimyzon sucetta dominating the escapement catch in early spring and several sunfishes Lepomis spp. dominating in late spring and early summer. Most of the escaping centrarchids were bluegill L. macrochirus, warmouth L. gulosus, and redbreast sunfish L. auritus in L Lake and warmouths, bluegills, dollar sunfish L. marginatus, and spotted sunfish L. punctatus in Par Pond. Escapement was enhanced by high reservoir water levels and surface discharge over the spillway. Escapement declined during periods of hypolimnetic release from bottom discharge gates. Location of the Par Pond discharge structure in the littoral zone rather than the pelagic zone as in L Lake contributed to greater escapement of littoral species in Par Pond. Species composition in the escapement catches and reservoirs was not significantly correlated. Relatively low escapement from L Lake and Par Pond compared with that in other reservoirs may have been related to the configuration of the discharge structures, low water levels during 2002, fish habitat preferences, species composition and abundance in the reservoirs, and low rates of discharge.

Movement, home range and habitat selection of stocked juvenile muskellunge, Esox masquinongy, in Forbes Lake, Illinois: exploring the effects of latitudinal origin

“…metabolic expenditures) among stocks with existing bioenergetic data (Wahl & Stein 1991; Clapp & Wahl 1996; Chipps & Wahl 2008) may increase accuracy when predicting growth and survival of stocks and also enable better predictions of top‐down effects on abundant prey resources, such as gizzard shad, in Midwestern reservoirs (Wahl & Stein 1988). Additionally, in some situations spillway escapement is suspected to result in substantial loss from reservoir systems (Navarro & McCauley 1993; Paller et al. 2006).…”

Laboratory Investigations on the Use of Strobe Lights and Bubble Curtains to Deter Dam Escapes of Age‐0 Muskellunge

“…The upper meter of the tank was partitioned with a net so that fish in the trial arena could not encounter the area where pumps discharged water. Spillway overflow height has been identified as an important determinant of escape (Lewis et al 1968;Paller et al 2006), so overflow height in this system was greater than the body depth (1.25-1.75 cm) of an age-0 Muskellunge, and water velocity at the face of the simulated dam (6 cm/s) was comparable to velocities observed at the mouth of the spillway at Lake Sam Dale, Illinois (4 cm/s) at similar levels of overflow. Water depth was 34 cm in the trial arena when pumps were running, whereas the water level in the catch basin was 24 cm, which prevented fish from moving back into the test arena after escaping.…”

High‐head Dams Affect Downstream Fish Passage Timing and Survival in the Middle Fork Willamette River

“…Coutant and Whitney, ; Nestler et al ., ) and downstream fish passage dramatically increased. Although not directly tested in the Middle Fork, this scenario parallels well‐documented examples of fish accumulating in dam forebays when downstream routes are restricted, followed by large egress events when routes are opened (Venditti et al ., ; Johnson et al ., ; Paller et al ., ). Hydroacoustic or other survey techniques could verify that fish seasonally accumulate in Middle Fork dam forebays (e.g.…”

“…A species' propensity for littoral versus pelagic distribution (e.g. Lewis et al ., ; Shoup et al ., ; Paller et al ., ) would more generally affect the likelihood of encountering entrainment fields. Regardless, it is very likely that size distributions and species assemblages trapped below the projects were not in proportion to the populations available in the reservoirs (e.g.…”