“Restoring fish passage and reconnecting waterways – it’s our passion”
Hi everyone,
Check out the video below showing a great example of fish passage remediation targeting small-bodied NZ fish species.
The fixes address:
Note: This culvert should have been embedded to both retain bed material and allow good fish passage.
This video essay created by the Fish Passage Action Team outlines the easy to follow process for undertaking multi-site fish passage remediation programs.
The key is to make the most of data collected to plan actual work programs, and not just produce dots on a map for reporting up the bureaucratic food-chain.
Don’t just watch, please share so we can all make a difference.
Hi everyone
Check out this video released by the Ministry for the Environment (NZ) showing the great work Kūmānu Environmental and Tasman District Council have been doing to restore fish passage in the Tasman Region. This 5 year project will allow 7,000+ desktop assessments, 4350+ field assessments and 1,566 in-stream structure remediation’s to be completed. That’s a lot of waterways being connected and a lot of happy fish! Enjoy!
Stay tuned for upcoming mail-outs explaining how to implement region wide fish passage programs.
Hi everyone,
One of our Fish Passage Action Team members, Kelly, captured this unusual footage whilst recently travelling in the USA to attend the International Fish Passage conference.
Pacific Lamprey are often overlooked when it comes to fish passage. These ancient creatures once outnumbered salmon in the rivers of the Pacific Northwest.
They are ecologically and culturally significant for indigenous people across the Pacific. Like salmon, they spend most of their lives at sea, returning to freshwater to spawn and die, bringing protein, minerals and nutrients inland from the ocean.
This short video shows lamprey at the top of the Bonneville Dam fish ladder on the Columbia River in the western USA.
They do seem to struggle to make it to the top, and there are many more dams to pass before reaching their spawning grounds.
The other fish in the window are salmon and American shad.
Enjoy the video [HERE]
Hi everyone
It’s always great to see a growing number of people getting stuck into fish passage throughout New Zealand.
Aided by the newly released Fish Passage Remediation Training Aid 2022, teams of practitioners are better equipped than ever before to restore connectivity to our waterways.
Check out some pics from the field:
Hi all,
Tasman District Council in NZ has recently undertaken an unprecedented 23 day fish passage trial assessing fish movement through a twin barrel culvert.
The trial involved capturing and counting fish daily as they naturally migrated upstream through the culvert pipes. One of the pipes was remediated to improve fish passage, while the other pipe was left unremediated.
The remediated culvert was fitted with fish baffles and a ramp.
The results showed a great improvement in fish passage following remediation.
Check out the full report HERE.
Hi everyone,
We have recently received this video showing fish passage restoration in Whatcom County Washington.
One of our team members; the director of SSA Environmental, Shane Scott, has been working hard to restore culverts/weirs across the United States.
We absolutely love seeing restoration work done around the world.
Shane has worked with the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association to install Flexi-Baffles to increase the depth and reduce velocity in this fast-flowing culvert.
Hi Everyone,
We hope everyone is safe and well!
We loved listening to Kelly Hughes (of ATS Environmental) speak for the EIANZ Webinar covering the big picture fish passage subject.
So much so that we’ve taken the recorded webinar and posted it to our YouTube channel for all the people who missed it.
Changing the narrative towards mass remediation across infrastructure networks.
Everyone passionate about restoring fish passage and reconnecting waterways should take the time to sit in on this webinar. https://www.eianz.org/events/event/webinar-managing-assets-with-respect-to-meeting-fish-passage-requirements It is on Wednesday 9th March – 3 PM NZDT
Further to our recent mailout where we discussed mussel rope at perched/overhanging structures, it’s now time to look at mussel-rope when placed within culverts.
Mussel-rope is one of the tools that can be used to help improve fish passage where fast, laminar flow is present.
If it is not viable to remove an existing culvert or is not practical to fit baffles due to the small diameter (e.g. under 750mm or 2 &1/2 feet), then mussel-rope can be considered as a remediation tool.
Obviously, the rope does not retain bed material, create rest-pools or the complexity that baffles do. Therefore rope should only be used as a last resort, and it should not be used at new culvert installs.
Below are some CFD images that show the effects the mussel-rope has on the depth and velocity in culverts.
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