Author(s): M. A. Khodier; Blake P Tullis

Linked Author(s): Blake P. Tullis

Keywords: Fish passage; Baffle; Culvert; Fish length

Abstract: Culverts can have a negative impact on fish passage. Installing baffles inside culverts can potentially improve culvert fish passage by decreasing the flow velocity and increasing the flow depth. Fish passage behaviors of wild brown trout through a small prototype-scale (0.6 m diameter), 18.3 m in length, baffled, and non-baffled culverts were observed in the laboratory for a variety of discharges and pipe slopes (up to 6%). The baffle height and spacing was 0.15 and 0.9 times the culvert diameter, respectively. The correlation between successful fish passage, sample fish population, and the fish length was evaluated. The influence of baffles installed inside the culvert on fish passage compared to the nonbaffled culvert was reported. Resting and staging zones for the fish passing the culvert upstream were observed and reported. A threshold velocity (calculated based on above-baffle flow area) for the fish passage was found to be 1.5 m/s.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15142/T3110628160853

Year: 2016