Fish Passage

The American eel (Anguilla rostrata) migrates into freshwater in the juvenile (glass eel and elver) stage, feeds and grows in freshwater habitats, and migrates downstream to the ocean to spawn as an adult. Migrating eels frequently encounter barriers in river environments, primarily in the form of dams, that limit access of juveniles to upstream growth habitat, and can injure or kill adult...

Swimming ability determines how well fish are able to access habitat, and is a fundamental design consideration for passing fish at dams, road crossings, etc.

Dams can be found in just about every major river, and for good reason. Society has received many benefits like flood control, hydropower, water supply storage, and places to recreate. However, many fish and other life in our rivers can’t swim around these barriers. Often, the best spot for a fish to live and reproduce is out of reach because they can’t pass by a dam. This has not gone unnoticed...

High latitude ecosystems are among the most vulnerable to long-term climate change, yet continuous, multidecadal indicators by which to gauge effects on biology are scarce, especially in freshwater environments.

A major focus of USGS-LSC is the design and evaluation of state-of the-art upstream and downstream fish passage structures for hydropower facilities of different sizes and locations and for different fish species, including endangered sturgeons and Atlantic salmon. Performance, physiology, behavior and energetics of each fish species are tested in-house for each design.

Recent discoveries of the extent of sturgeon movement in the Gulf of Maine combined with relicensing and water use issues in the Connecticut River demand closer evaluation of shortnose and Atlantic sturgeon migration and behavior patterns.

Engineering has an important role to play in the conservation of migratory fish species. As a result of anthropogenic development on river systems, full and partial barriers to fish movement commonly exist in watersheds worldwide. There is an estimated 2.5 million barriers to fish migration in the United States alone. These barriers typically consist of small to large size dams, culverts, and...

Biomechanics is the study of mechanical laws relating to the movement of living organisms.

Just below Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River is a very popular Blue Ribbon trout fishery known for its rainbow trout. However, approximately 78 miles downstream, near were the Little Colorado River flows into the Colorado River, is a population of endangered humpback chub. The introduced rainbow trout can negatively affect native humpback chub by competing with them for food (immature black...

Introduced rainbow trout and brown trout are considered a threat to the endangered humpback chub in the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. These introduced species eat native fish, but impacts are difficult to assess because predation vulnerability depends on the physical conditions under which predation takes place. We studied how predation vulnerability of juvenile humpback chub changes in response...

Partnering with the Caddo Lake Institute, the USGS WARC Advanced Applications Team developed a web-based mapping application that visualizes the paddlefish tracking observations being collected by FWS.

Welcome to the Experimental Stream Lab at the US Geological Survey's Leetown Science Center in Kearneysville West Virginia.