Tube fishway technology will help fish over dam walls
21 Dec, 2020 11:00 PM
5 minutes to read
The Country
Engineers and scientists at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney have come up with an ingenious way to get fish past dam walls, weirs and other barriers blocking their migration in Australian rivers.
The so-called tube fishway is a low-cost and low-energy installation that works by pumping fish at high velocity – protected by a cushion of water – through a tube running over the obstructing barrier, to deliver them safely into the water on the other side.
And following a successful demonstration of a prototype recently at the UNSW Water Research Laboratory in Manly Vale, the group is in talks with Parramatta City Council in Sydney about the possibility of installing one at the Marsden St Weir.
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New fishway technology to get fish up and over those dam walls
The tube fishway allows fish to glide past dam walls, weirs and other river barriers, with the potential to revitalise Australia’s ailing freshwater fish stocks.
A view of Manly Dam at Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Photo: UNSW
Engineers and scientists at UNSW Sydney have come up with an ingenious way to get fish past dam walls, weirs and other barriers blocking their migration in Australian rivers.
The so-called tube fishway is a low-cost and low-energy installation that works by pumping fish at high velocity – protected by a cushion of water – through a tube running over the obstructing barrier to deliver them safely into the water on the other side.
âSuper quickâ: Migratory fish to get some help to scale dam walls
âSuper quickâ: Migratory fish to get some help to scale dam walls
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Fish may occasionally fly but they tend not to jump and few of them make good climbers.
And thatâs a problem if youâre a native Australian fish species evolved to ply the waterways of the Murray-Darling Basin and have to confront the 10,000 or more man-made obstructions from weirs to giant dam walls.
The Murray cod is one Australian species, along with silver perch and Australian bass, that evolved to migrate long distances in the countryâs waterways - a life plan that has been made much more difficult by dams and other obstructions.