Hydropower to Help Fish: Hydropower: Eco20/20

Hydropower to Help Fish

A number of ecosystem activists have made claims that hydropower is not an answer to the carbon fuel crisis. They claim that even though the dams do reduce the amount of emissions released into the atmosphere, many fish are affected. A number of dams, however, show proof otherwise.

Just as people left behind the knowledge of utilizing renewable resources for electricity needs, many people also left behind the knowledge of how to decrease the negative impact of the systems that create electricity from renewable resources. One of these systems is the hydropower plant, and the way to minimize negative impact on the fish ecosystem is the use of fish lifts and ladders.

Many dams are already proving that fish lifts and fish ladders are helping the migration of seasonal fish, such as trout, salmon and shad. These constructions also help reduce the number of small fish that are caught in the dam's turbines during migration periods.

Fish lifts are what they claim to be. During peak periods of migration, a hydraulic lift is lowered into the water, acting as a large fish bowl. At regular intervals, the lift is raised to the top of the dam, and the fish are released on the other side of the dam, thus reducing the number of fish that are unable to migrate during spawning season. This also reduces the number of fish that cannot spawn due to inability to migrate.

Fish ladders are similar to walkways. They are built to go around the dam, and uses little steps that water runs down. This is to encourage the fish to continue their natural migrations during spawning season, and to attempt to keep fish away from the turbines of the dam.

The original fish ladder was patented in 1837. This ladder was built for the sole purpose of moving fish away from Richard McFarland's hydroelectric lumber mill dam in New Brunswick, Canada.

In 1955, the first year of operation for a fish lift on the Connecticut River, the lift carried almost five thousand shad across the dam. Since then the number of fish that has been lifted across the dam's surface has risen to half a million. No fish loss numbers are known, but the increase of fish being lifted can only assume the efficiency of the fish lift's usage.

For activists who believe that there is no hope for hydropower electricity stations because of the upset of fish migration, be sure to visit several of the many dams who offer underwater viewing of the fish lifts during migration season. It is a thrill to see so many species of fish in such large numbers being moved to the location they wish to go, safely. The number of fishermen who are catching these fish and releasing them over the dam is decreasing constantly. The impact is more fish being relocated and less fish being harmed accidentally during the relocation process.