Location
UMass Amherst
Start Date
27-6-2011 2:35 PM
End Date
27-6-2011 2:55 PM
Description
Historically, lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) were abundant in Lake Michigan with free and unobstructed access to the feeding and spawning areas within its many tributaries. Construction and operation of hydroelectric dams has impeded this access. One method for re-establishing this lost connection is to create an artificial pathway such as a fish passage facility. To help answer some basic questions, such as will sturgeon use a fishway, we constructed a prototype fish passage structure below a hydroelectric dam on the Menominee River in northern Wisconsin. This hydroelectric facility is located near Amberg, Wisconsin and owned by We Energies. The structure was designed with a ramp to a 1.07 meters per second (mps). The structure was equipped with a Passive Integrated Transponder tag (PIT tag) reader antenna and underwater video cameras equipped with infrared lights. All monitoring equipment were installed and activated before the start of the 2009 spring spawning season 9mid-April) and removed following the 2010 autumn migration (mid-October). PIT tag records indicated that 86 tagged lake surgeon used the passage structure in 2009 and 112 in 2010, with many sturgeon going through the structure multiple times. Video data verified these results and also indicated that these sturgeon moved through the structure rather quickly (mean = 3 sec in camera view). Extrapolated to the whole sturgeon population, nearly 20% of the spawning population went through the prototype fishway in 2009 and 24% in 2010. For both years of the study, larger sturgeon were observed during the spring spawning season versus the remainder of the year, 25.4 centimeters longer on average. In 2010, the structure was fitted with a V-trap (45.7 cm gap width with 0.46 mps constant water velocity) to test whether these fish can be "trapped" in an elevator hopper. Those results indicate both small and large sturgeon (as small as 49.5 cm and as large as 142.2cm, respectively) will pass through a 45.7 cm wide V-trap opening without hesitation. Video and PIT tag results indicated that sturgeon can be successfully attracted to and passed through a prototype upstream fish passage facilities currently planned for lake sturgeon in the Midwest.
Session B2- Building a fishway for Lake Sturgeon: Successful testing of a prototype upstream fishway on the Menomine River in Northern Wisconsin
UMass Amherst
Historically, lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) were abundant in Lake Michigan with free and unobstructed access to the feeding and spawning areas within its many tributaries. Construction and operation of hydroelectric dams has impeded this access. One method for re-establishing this lost connection is to create an artificial pathway such as a fish passage facility. To help answer some basic questions, such as will sturgeon use a fishway, we constructed a prototype fish passage structure below a hydroelectric dam on the Menominee River in northern Wisconsin. This hydroelectric facility is located near Amberg, Wisconsin and owned by We Energies. The structure was designed with a ramp to a 1.07 meters per second (mps). The structure was equipped with a Passive Integrated Transponder tag (PIT tag) reader antenna and underwater video cameras equipped with infrared lights. All monitoring equipment were installed and activated before the start of the 2009 spring spawning season 9mid-April) and removed following the 2010 autumn migration (mid-October). PIT tag records indicated that 86 tagged lake surgeon used the passage structure in 2009 and 112 in 2010, with many sturgeon going through the structure multiple times. Video data verified these results and also indicated that these sturgeon moved through the structure rather quickly (mean = 3 sec in camera view). Extrapolated to the whole sturgeon population, nearly 20% of the spawning population went through the prototype fishway in 2009 and 24% in 2010. For both years of the study, larger sturgeon were observed during the spring spawning season versus the remainder of the year, 25.4 centimeters longer on average. In 2010, the structure was fitted with a V-trap (45.7 cm gap width with 0.46 mps constant water velocity) to test whether these fish can be "trapped" in an elevator hopper. Those results indicate both small and large sturgeon (as small as 49.5 cm and as large as 142.2cm, respectively) will pass through a 45.7 cm wide V-trap opening without hesitation. Video and PIT tag results indicated that sturgeon can be successfully attracted to and passed through a prototype upstream fish passage facilities currently planned for lake sturgeon in the Midwest.
Comments
Nick Utrup began his career with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2005 working on the Missouri River as Team Leader for the Pallid Sturgeon Monitoring and Assessment Program, stationed in Columbia Missouri. In 2008, Nick transferred to the Green Bay Ecological Services Field Office to serve as Regulatory Advisor and Coordinator for FERC Hydropower projects in Wisconsin. In this capacity as Hydropower Coordinator, Nick uses his fisheries background and sturgeon expertise to negotiate license terms and conditions and develop fish passage projects at FERC hydropower dams throughout the state. Nick currently participates in several Implementation and Technical Advisory Teams working on fish passage issues, including the Menominee River Fish Passage Partnership in the Lake Michigan Basin and the Prairie Du Sac Fish Passage Project on the Wisconsin River. Nick is currently working with partners on groundbreaking work to designing facilities for sturgeon and paddlefish in the Midwest, with construction scheduled to begin in 2012. Nick recived a B.S. in Zoology from the Ohio State University in 2002 and an M.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Ecology from Oklahoma State University in 2005.