SESSION D:

Title: Salmonid Passage Through Stream Culvert Entrances

Authors: Peter Wedge (Student) and Katy Haralampides
PO Box 4400, Department of Civil Engineering, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton NB. 506.453.4528. peter.wedge@unb.ca. katy@unb.ca

Abstract:

Culverts, in many cases, have become barriers to migrating fish. These barriers can prevent some fish from moving up and down the stream environment and cause a multitude of problems such as loss of foraging grounds and spawning habitat. Most of the recent research on culverts, in terms of fish passage, has focused on the culvert itself, largely ignoring the culvert entrance. While fishway culverts seem to be effective at passing fish that they are designed for, actually getting the fish to enter the culvert in the first place seems to be problematic. The objectives of this project are to design and build a flume capable of multidisciplinary research of culvert hydraulics and fish swimming performance. This flume will then be used to acquire 3-dimensional flow field data at culvert entrances using an acoustic Doppler velocimeter and to observe salmonid preference for flow conditions and their subsequent attraction to the culvert. The information obtained will be used to improve culvert entrances that could be used in new culvert design or in culvert retrofits for stream rehabilitation projects.