Location
Groningen, The Netherlands
Event Website
http://fishpassage.umass.edu/
Start Date
23-6-2015 4:00 PM
End Date
23-6-2015 4:15 PM
Description
Abstract:
A surprising hiatus affects fish research and management. Those of us working in fish passage strive to move fish past barriers. Aquaculturists, on the other hand, move fish around fish farms safely and effectively. Marrying these two approaches presents an exciting opportunity for fishway development. Millions of fish-passage barriers remain in rivers globally, together with many under-performing and costly fishway investments, resulting in declining biodiversity and production of freshwater fish. Better approaches to fishway design are urgently needed to aid in halting this worldwide loss of connectivity.
Multidisciplinary work at UNSW Australia aims to refine and test a pump fishway. This novel concept integrates technologies from fish passage and aquaculture to improve fishway performance and reduce costs. Fishways knowledge is being combined with pumping techniques routinely used in aquaculture to safely transport large biomasses of fish from across a broad size range. The pump fishway uses a helical fishway section to provide sufficient elevation for fish to be gravitated into a transfer chamber, which is then pressurized with water piped from the reservoir. This flow carries fish up a rising transfer pipe and a small auxiliary pump finally delivers fish into the reservoir.
A pump fishway offers many potential benefits: effective upstream passage for migrant fish communities; lightweight, modular construction with few moving parts; applicability to diverse sites and barriers >1.5 m high; energy-independence using hydraulic power from the reservoir to drive the system; continuous operation with brief transfer cycles; and potential barge-mounted use providing mobility, flood protection and fewer constraints due to tailwater levels. Large savings on capital and operating costs are predicted. Research and development are planned to optimise and validate the pump fishway design, using physical and computational hydraulic modelling and animal trials with wild, migrating fish.
Session B6: Seeking Better Fishways: the Pump Fishway Program
Groningen, The Netherlands
Abstract:
A surprising hiatus affects fish research and management. Those of us working in fish passage strive to move fish past barriers. Aquaculturists, on the other hand, move fish around fish farms safely and effectively. Marrying these two approaches presents an exciting opportunity for fishway development. Millions of fish-passage barriers remain in rivers globally, together with many under-performing and costly fishway investments, resulting in declining biodiversity and production of freshwater fish. Better approaches to fishway design are urgently needed to aid in halting this worldwide loss of connectivity.
Multidisciplinary work at UNSW Australia aims to refine and test a pump fishway. This novel concept integrates technologies from fish passage and aquaculture to improve fishway performance and reduce costs. Fishways knowledge is being combined with pumping techniques routinely used in aquaculture to safely transport large biomasses of fish from across a broad size range. The pump fishway uses a helical fishway section to provide sufficient elevation for fish to be gravitated into a transfer chamber, which is then pressurized with water piped from the reservoir. This flow carries fish up a rising transfer pipe and a small auxiliary pump finally delivers fish into the reservoir.
A pump fishway offers many potential benefits: effective upstream passage for migrant fish communities; lightweight, modular construction with few moving parts; applicability to diverse sites and barriers >1.5 m high; energy-independence using hydraulic power from the reservoir to drive the system; continuous operation with brief transfer cycles; and potential barge-mounted use providing mobility, flood protection and fewer constraints due to tailwater levels. Large savings on capital and operating costs are predicted. Research and development are planned to optimise and validate the pump fishway design, using physical and computational hydraulic modelling and animal trials with wild, migrating fish.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/fishpassage_conference/2015/June23/15
Comments
Presenting Author Bio: John Harris is a fisheries scientist and river ecologist working in research and management of Australian freshwater fishes. Following employment as a research leader in government and academic fields working in fish passage, aquatic conservation, invasive species, environmental flows and freshwater fisheries, he now holds an adjunct academic position at UNSW Australia and operates a private consultancy. Fish passage remains a key research interest.