Simulating a Reservoir Spillway Barrier

Fishy Fridays

Weekly spotlight on fisheries science journal articles

 

Jeff Kopaska
AFS Executive Director
jkopaska@fisheries.org

There are lots of great papers out there, but as my connection to field work and research projects gets further in the rearview mirror, not many of them are ones I have any involvement with. But today’s paper is one! This experiment ran alongside of work being done by Iowa DNR and Iowa State University on Walleye and Musky escapement from reservoirs. To address the appropriate spacing for a parallel bar fish barrier, this experiment was devised and executed. To those of you with a trained eye, please look at the photo of the experimental raceway, and you will see that actually it is a kettle for a lined hatchery pond. I found some humor in the methods section as a result of this knowledge. Regardless, this was a good project, and I am very pleased to share it and that it was published in NAJFM. Make sure you read all the way through to the acknowledgements!

Effect of parallel-bar spacing on Walleye and Muskellunge escapement through a simulated reservoir spillway barrier