Fish Passes & River Structures n fish pass BY ZEBRINA HANLEY, ACE


Fish Migration is Worth a Party or Two…


For those of you that read our articles, look at our website or subscribe to our eNewsletters you may have heard a lot about our Siphon Fish Pass this year! We are very proud of it and following it’s installation in April, we have been talking about it everywhere we can. It has won poster awards, been in abstract reviews and talks throughout the country.


It


seemed interest had come a long way when we decided to formally open up the banks of the River Wissey to a hog roast seminar for all to come and explore this wonderful technology.


Beyond the ability to pass a range of coarse fish species and eel in up and downstream directions, the Siphon Fish Pass has a number of key benefits which current fish pass designs are unable to accommodate. Primarily the installation of the Siphon underground and the ability to isolate it in flood situations allow existing flood defence standards to remain which was key on the Wissey sluice site. Most fish pass alternatives are ‘open’ courses which cannot be controlled in such a manner and were also more costly, such as a Larinier option which was explored for the flood bank. This structure has been principally installed to help the ecological status of the River Wissey improve to meet the objectives of the Water Framework Directive.


September 21st 2012, in partnership with the Environment Agency we welcomed over 100 local residents, fisheries experts, consultants, contractors and angling and wildlife conservationists. The ceremony opened with some excellent keynote speakers including Toby Willison, Anglian Regional Director for the Environment Agency who explained how flood defences like sluices could impact on fish such as sea trout and eel. Charles Rangeley- Wilson, Author of the Accidental Angler introduced excerpts of his book, captivating an audience with stories of how bonkers sea trout in Norfolk made him.


"It might look like a great big pipeline, but it pipes wildness back into our landscape. May God bless this siphon and all who swim in her."


For those with a passion for angling or an appreciation of fisheries were hanging on his every word.


During an organic hog roast lunch a number of groups were given the opportunity to take a detailed tour of the Siphon itself. Although we have the story on our website and a leaflet it was clear from the presentations and tour that many people had not expected the Siphon Fish Pass to be such a large and complex machine. What looks now like a giant underground pipe is actually a solution intended to tackle a number of priority sites throughout the UK that current fish migration solutions are not available to.


Following the tour, presentations focusing on the construction and design of the Siphon and the reason for its installation at this site took place. These themes were explored by Kye Jerrom, Environment Agency Technical Fisheries and Anthony Howarth and Marcus Widdison from ACE.


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Siphon Fish Passes are a tested concept (R. Beentjes 2012, Koopman 2011) in the Netherlands, where nine are currently operational. The available studies both indicate clearly the ability for the Fish Siphon Pass to provide adequate passage to a range of small coarse fish and eel, results which we have started to get from a five year monitoring project arranged by the Environment Agency. The beginning of the plan and results so far were well outlined in a presentation by Karen Twine, the Environment Agency Fisheries Team.


www.managingwater.co.uk


For those of you who would like to know more, please call or ask for an event pack to be sent to you. This features our film of the project and a number of leaflets, presentations and photos which you missed on the day. Alternatively we have our dedicated fish Siphon Event page and project profile available to all on our website with the downloads.


Aquatic Control Engineering would like to take this opportunity to thank, the Environment Agency and Anglian Water who were instrumental in the organisation of this event, and of course, all who attended on the day.


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