Watch Part 2 of the epic aquatic documentary (part of a trilogy) this Sunday, 24 October, 19.00-20.00 on Swedish National TV (SVT2). This epic aquatic trilogy (the first of its kind on Swedish TV) covers three years of filming work by a team of experts. The team while making this documentary in 2019 spent two days with the University of Karlstads’ master course in river Ätran. Find out more on: https://www.svtplay.se/fiskarnas-rike ¨ https://fiskarnasrike.se/

In addition to that, there’s another documentary broadcasted on SVT’s “Kalla fakta” next week (Part 3 THE SEA is broadcast on Sunday 31 October, 19.00-20.00 on SVT2) on “eel conservation”. Watch out for Professor Olle Calles (a lecturer at the University of Karlstad and a member of the River Ecology and management research group) answering very important questions concerning eels.

Europeisk ål, Anguilla anguilla. Foto: Jörgen Wiklund.

Under senhösten 2018 har forskare från NRRV undersökt två olika typer av låglutande galler (vinkel mot strömriktningen = 30°) och dess effekt på nedströmsvandrande ål (Anguilla anguilla). Studien har utförts i Vattenfalls nya strömränna ”Laxelleratorn” som genom sina mått (24 meter lång, 4 meter bred och 2 meter djup) är i paritet med en intagskanal till ett litet vattenkraftverk.

Bakgrunden tll studien är den stora minskningen av ålbeståndet som har skett sedan mitten av 1900-talet och som lett till att ålen numer är klassad som en akut hotad art (sedan 2005). En av orsakerna tros vara den höga mortaliteten för blankål vid nedströmspassage i anslutning till vattenkraftverk, där framförallt passage genom turbinerna ger låga överlevnadschanser.

 

Laxelleratorn i Älvkarleby.

För att hindra ålen att passera genom turbinerna eller andra passager med hög mortalitet kan, istället för ett konventionellt intagsgaller, ett låglutande galler (< 30° mot strömriktning) installeras. Dessa leder fisken mot en flyktöppning som leder till en säkrare passage, till exempel en fiskväg eller en fälla, och en återställning av vattendragets konnektivitet. Ett exempel där ett låglutande galler finns installerat är Hertingforsen i Ätran där goda resultat uppnåtts för flera arter (Calles m.fl.).

Totalt märktes 80 ålar (medellängd ± 1 standardavvikelse (SD) = 845 ± 74 mm) med PIT-tags och släpptes ut i strömrännan där de endera fick möta ett α-galler (avleder fisk från botten mot ytan) eller ett β-galler (avleder fisken från ena sidan till den andra). Dessutom testades för vardera galler två olika spaltvidder: 15 och 30 millimeter. De huvudsakliga parametrarna som undersöktes var avledningseffektivitet för respektive gallerkonfiguration och tiden den tog för ålen att passera.

Resultatet analyseras i nuläget men de preliminära resultaten tyder generellt på en god avledande förmåga. Rapporten planeras vara klar under våren 2019.

 

Se även:

Calles O, Christiansson J, Kläppe S, Alenäs I, Karlsson S, Nyqvist D, Hebrand M. (2015). Slutrapport Hertingprojektet – Förstudie och uppföljning av åtgärder för förbättrad fiskpassage 2007-2015. Naturresurs rinnande vatten, Karlstads universitet

 

Försöksuppställningen i laxelleratorn.

 

Johan Watz, Anders Nilsson and Olle Calles from Karlstads Universitet, and Jonas Elghagen from Elghagen FIskevård, recently published the scientific note “Evaluation of a novel mobile floating trap for collecting migrating juvenile eels, Anguilla anguilla, in rivers” in the journal Fisheries Management and Ecology.

In the abstract, the authors write: “To improve the situation for the threatened European eel in regulated rivers, better methods need to be developed that more efficiently collect and transport juvenile eels past dams. In this study, a novel mobile, floating eel trap is described, and the results from an evaluation of the trap in two Swedish regulated rivers are presented. The mobile trap was designed to reduce the length of the climbing distance while maximizing the width of the entrance. The mobile trap caught more juvenile eels than a stationary eel ladder, serving as control. Furthermore, the mobility of the floating trap enables adaptive placement and thus offers managers the possibility to search for the spatial optimum for trapping efficiency.” Access the paper here, or e-mail any of the authors

The mobile floating trap next to the stationary eel ladder used as control. Photo from the Watz et al. 2017.

The mobile floating trap without cover. Juvenile eels climb the short and wide ramps (black) and slide (on the small metallic shutes) towards the left (in the photo) were they are collected. Photo: from the papers supplementary material.

The trap in the tailrace of a hydropower plant in River Lagan.

A sample of juvenile eels caught in the study, here held in a 10 L bucket.

Fish Migration in Tromsö

Posted by Daniel Nyqvist | Events

A few weeks ago Stina Gustavsson and I (both PhD-students at KaU) attended a course in “Fish migration: Theory and technology” at the Tromsö University (UiT). The course was given by Eva Thorstad (NINA and UiT) and Audun Rikardsen (UiT). Topics included ecology and evolution of fish migration, methods in fish telemetry (tags and tagging) and plenty of case studies on migrating fish. Focus was on anadromous salmonids in northern Europe – Atlantic salmon, brown trout and arctic charr – and European eel, but (for example) fish migration studies in the Zambezi River and on Atlantic halibut were also discussed. Elina Halttunen, IMR also visited the course and gave a lecture on the importance of Atlantic salmon post-spawners and their downstream migration. Other attendees included Master- and PhD-students from Tromsö University (Norway), Oslo University (Norway) and DTU Aqua (Denmark). It was an interesting course with good lectures and a lot of stimulating discussions.

Audun_Rikardsenfor

“Arctic charr in midnight sun”
Photo: Audun Richardsen – www.audunrikardsen.com

 

eelmigrationThe report – Understanding downstream migration timing of European eel (Anguilla anguilla) – is finally available to DOWNLOAD.

Summary: The European eel stock has long been in decline. Consequently, the species has been added to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. One threat that has been identified as one possibly having an impact on the stock is mortality caused by hydroelectric power plant turbines. Turbine management, which is adapted to preferable migration conditions, might reduce the risk of this threat. Our study, conducted at five locations in southern Sweden, aimed at learning about the migratory behaviour of European silver eels paying special attention to preferable environmental conditions for migration by using advanced statistical modelling.

Results indicated that downstream migration triggers can be reliably described using hydrological variables (discharge, precipitation or one of their dynamic derivations), water temperature and moon. Spring and autumn migrations seemed to be triggered differently. In spring, rising water temperatures seemed to be the key trigger, quite independently of hydrological variables and the moon. In the autumn, the importance of the moon and hydrological variables on downstream migration increased. In addition, migration triggers differed depending upon the size of the body of water and/or its location in the river system. In smaller/upstream tributaries, hydrological variables seemed to be the key trigger. In larger/downstream waters, the importance of water temperature and the moon increased.

The transferability of models was limited. Moreover, models indicated that in some cases, the dynamics of water temperature and hydrological variables (precipitation, discharge) provided more explanatory power than the measured, absolute values. Transferability among time series from the same location delivered some reliable results. Success of transferability between locations was limited to sites which originated from the same river catchment. In spring, migration activity did not occur until water temperatures exceeded 6.5 °C in a tributary and 9 °C in the Kävlingeån River. Eels showed significant nocturnal migration behaviour (98.5 %; n = 205) and migration activity became very unlikely in autumn if water temperatures dropped below 5 °C.

Our data on spring migration is limited to one site in a tributary and one site in a lower mainstream. Furthermore, spatial transferability among catchments has not been tested in previous studies. Therefore, we recommend that future studies be performed during the spring and autumn migrations in tributaries as well as lower mainstreams.

Moreover, previous studies indicate that some eels hesitate for several days or even reverse upstream instead of entering the traps the same night that they arrive. Additional visual techniques such as hydroacoustic cameras should be applied upstream of catch facilities in order monitor eel migration activity of unharmed eels. This enables the validation of trap catchability and consequently the response of our models.

Our results clearly show that turbine induced mortality could be minimized if turbine operation focuses on daytime periods, when water temperature is below 5 ° C and when the discharge not is stable or decreasing. Moreover, local adaptive turbine management should be accompanied by studies to determine the local constellation of environmental triggers. In addition, it will be crucial, that later applications (e.g. turbine management, early warning systems etc.) consider the temporal dynamic of water temperature and hydrological variables.

After being sited in Alstersälven for 14 days, the migration trap is still awaiting its first catch. The only thing caught so far, is leeches! However, we should be patient, as perhaps the first catch is just around the corner. Who knows..

After heavy rainfall on Monday night, the water level in Alstersälven rose an incredible 30cm. The knock on effect of the forceful water, and wooden debris  have pounded the trap which is currently ‘riding out the storm’. Certainly not favourable conditions for trapping as you can see from the comparisons of figures 1 and 2.

Figure 1: Optimal and typical water level in the summer months in Alster.

Figure 2: Indicating the concerning increase in water volume and velocity around the trapping site.

Hopefully the water level will quickly subside to enable a realistic chance of catching some eel elvers!

/Joe