Location
UMass Amherst
Start Date
29-6-2011 1:55 PM
End Date
29-6-2011 2:15 PM
Description
The Acushnet River has been the focus of much diadromous fish passage restoration work in recent years. A cooperative effort between the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service focused on fish passage improvements beginning in 2002 with the construction of a state-of-the-art Denil fishway at the New Bedford Reservoir dam. Restoration efforts continued in 2007 with improvements to fish passage at two downstream obstructions (the Acushnet Sawmill dam and the Hamlin Street dam), in which both sites were fitted with innovative nature-like fishways, including a stone flow-constrictor/step pool system at the former and a stone step-weir system at the latter. To measure the success of the fish passage restoration activities, monitoring of river herring and elver populations was conducted pre- and post-construction. Adult river herring returning to the reservoir from 2005 through 2007 (the pre-construction phase) were low (N2005 = 395, N2006 = 202, N2007 = 371) and elver counts declined significantly (N2005 = 1,285; N2006 = 475; N2007 = 192) during this period. Post-construction monitoring of river herring commenced in the spring of 2008 using a combination of census and electronic counting. Results indicated an increasing trend of spawning adults (N2008 = 977; N2009 = 1,700; N2010 = 2,703) as well as increased numbers of elvers returning to the reservoir (N2008 = 5,421; N2009 = 6,078; N2010 = 3,388). Results from this monitoring program, including results from 2011, will be presented and suggest that the fish passage improvements to the three dams on the river are successful and have significantly improved passage for both juvenile American eels and river herring, greatly increasing the probability of restoring healthy populations of diadromous fish to the Acushnet River system.
Session B8- Monitoring changes in diadromous populations resulting from fish passage improvements on the Acushnet River, Massachusetts
UMass Amherst
The Acushnet River has been the focus of much diadromous fish passage restoration work in recent years. A cooperative effort between the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service focused on fish passage improvements beginning in 2002 with the construction of a state-of-the-art Denil fishway at the New Bedford Reservoir dam. Restoration efforts continued in 2007 with improvements to fish passage at two downstream obstructions (the Acushnet Sawmill dam and the Hamlin Street dam), in which both sites were fitted with innovative nature-like fishways, including a stone flow-constrictor/step pool system at the former and a stone step-weir system at the latter. To measure the success of the fish passage restoration activities, monitoring of river herring and elver populations was conducted pre- and post-construction. Adult river herring returning to the reservoir from 2005 through 2007 (the pre-construction phase) were low (N2005 = 395, N2006 = 202, N2007 = 371) and elver counts declined significantly (N2005 = 1,285; N2006 = 475; N2007 = 192) during this period. Post-construction monitoring of river herring commenced in the spring of 2008 using a combination of census and electronic counting. Results indicated an increasing trend of spawning adults (N2008 = 977; N2009 = 1,700; N2010 = 2,703) as well as increased numbers of elvers returning to the reservoir (N2008 = 5,421; N2009 = 6,078; N2010 = 3,388). Results from this monitoring program, including results from 2011, will be presented and suggest that the fish passage improvements to the three dams on the river are successful and have significantly improved passage for both juvenile American eels and river herring, greatly increasing the probability of restoring healthy populations of diadromous fish to the Acushnet River system.
Comments
John Sheppard is a marine fishery biologist at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF). He obtained his Bachelor of Science at the University of Rhode Island in 1996. In 1999, he received his Master of Science at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland where his work focused on restoration of Atlantic salmon in Scottish highland rivers. He joined the DMF in 2000 and spent five years working in fisheries-dependent investigations and conservation engineering. In 2006, he joined the anadromous fisheries biology and management program and is currently working on statewide monitoring, research and management programs for various diadromous species such as river herring, American eel, American shad and rainbow smelt.