Fishway entrance gate experiments with adult American Shad

Water Resources Research
By: , and 

Links

Abstract

The goal of this multiyear study was to examine how changes to an upstream fishway entrance impacted the passage rate of adult American shad (Alosa sapidissima). We evaluated a total of nine treatment conditions that consisted of three fishway entrance gate types and three submergence depths (i.e., the water surface elevation of the tailwater relative to the height of the gate crest). Approximately 2,000 wild, actively migrating shad participated in one of the 64 total trials (6–8 trials per treatment) that were conducted for this experiment. The three fishway entrance gate types were the vertical gate (the most common entrance gate type used in fishways), the overshot gate (less common in fishways), and the reversed overshot gate (novel to fishways). The submergence depths ranged from 30.5 to 91.4 cm above the gate crest. Increases to the submergence depth were shown to be the most influential predictor variable of passage time, followed by gate type and river temperature. The reversed overshot and overshot gates outperformed the vertical gate with the best performance occurring for the newly introduced reversed overshot gate type. The results of this study provide guidance on methods to improve fishway attraction and entry rates to numerous state and federal resource agencies and the hydropower industry.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Fishway entrance gate experiments with adult American Shad
Series title Water Resources Research
DOI 10.1029/2018WR024400
Volume 55
Issue 12
Year Published 2019
Language English
Publisher AGU
Contributing office(s) Leetown Science Center
Description 17 p.
First page 10839
Last page 10855
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
Additional publication details