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Flow hydrodynamics drive effective fish attraction behaviour into slotted fishway entrances

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Abstract

Effective fishways rely on attracting fish, utilising the natural rheotactic behaviour of fish to orient into an attraction flow near the entrance. Despite the critical importance of attraction, understanding of the hydrodynamics of vertical slot entrances in relation to fish behaviour remains poor. Herein, hydrodynamic measurements of flows at slotted fishway entrances were experimented with two different designs, two velocities, three water depths, and two fish species, silver perch (Bidyanus bidyanus) and Australian bass (Percalates novemaculeata). Fish behaviours were tracked in relation to hydrodynamic measures of three-dimensional velocity and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE). There were distinct differences in the attraction flow between entrance designs, irrespective of velocity and water depth. A plain slotted entrance produced a more symmetric flow in the centre of the flume, causing fish to approach the entrance by skirting the core of the attraction jet flow and areas of high turbulence. In contrast, streamlined slotted entrance design resulted in an asymmetric attraction flow which guided fish along the wingwall towards the slotted entrance, improving attraction for both species. There were clear patterns in swimming trajectories for silver perch, swimming along the sidewalls of the observation zone towards the entrance, but Australian bass were less predictable, using random routes on their way to the slotted entrance. Both species preferred areas of low turbulence (TKE < 0.02 m2 / s2). This work has important implications for design of vertical slotted entrance systems.

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Acknowledgements

All experiments complied with Animal Care and Ethics requirements (18/137A). We would like to thank Adjunct Professor William Peirson and Adjunct Associate Professor John Harris for fruitful discussions. We would also like to thank Reilly Cox for his help with fish keeping and Rob Jenkins and Larry Paice for their technical assistance. The authors acknowledge financial support by the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries Recreational Fishing Trust (Project LF015), the Carthew Foundation, the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation and the Next Generation Water Management Hub led by Charles Sturt University (funded through the Regional Research Collaboration Program of Department of Education of the Australian Government). The first author was supported by a University of New South Wales Scientia Ph. D. Scholarship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Water Research Laboratory, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Maryam Farzadkhoo & Stefan Felder

  2. Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Richard T. Kingsford & Iain M. Suthers

Authors
  1. Maryam Farzadkhoo
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  2. Richard T. Kingsford
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  3. Iain M. Suthers
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  4. Stefan Felder
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Correspondence to Maryam Farzadkhoo.

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Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval: This article does not contain any studies with human participants by any of the authors.

Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Biography: Maryam Farzadkhoo, Ph. D. Candidate

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Farzadkhoo, M., Kingsford, R.T., Suthers, I.M. et al. Flow hydrodynamics drive effective fish attraction behaviour into slotted fishway entrances. J Hydrodyn 35, 782–802 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42241-023-0047-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42241-023-0047-6

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