Brown trout upstream passage performance for a fishway with water drops between pools beyond fish passage design recommendations

Abstract

This work aims to assess brown trout (Salmo trutta) passage through a free-flow pool-weir-type fishway with hydrodynamic notches and extreme water drops between pools. It consists of an old-school fishway design, commonly constructed in salmon rivers of Spain during the period of 1950–1980. To assess their performance, a field test was designed with confined trial conditions during the spawning migratory season. The mean water drop between pools was 0.65 m and the total water height considered for the trial was 11.8 m. The monitoring was carried out using PIT telemetry. The initial hypothesis, considering the fishway design and assessment guidelines, classified this structure as hardly insurmountable. Results showed an ascent success of 19% with a median transit time of 29.1 min/m of ascended height. Larger fish and fishway sections with lower values of volumetric power dissipation were related to a better performance in the passage. The results suggest that in certain circumstances, such as limited construction areas where other design or management options are difficult to implement (e.g., canyons), this type of fishway may be an alternative for the upstream passage of at least a small proportion of the brown trout population, although a selection effect is expected.