Projects

Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Center of Expertise on Hydropower Impacts on Fish and Fish Habitat

Steven Cooke – Carleton University
Karen Smokorowksi – DFO-MPO CHIF-CHIP
Keith Clarke – DFO-MPO Newfoundland-Labrador
Chris Katopodis – Katopodis Ecohydraulics Ltd.
Tom Binder – Hammond Bay Biological Centre, Great Lakes Fishery Commission
Charles Hatry – Kilgour & Associates Ltd.
Caleb Hasler – Post Doctoral Fellow, University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana
Jason Thiem – Freshwater Ecosystems, Narrandera Fisheries Centre

Across North America, fishways ensure upstream and downstream portions of waterways remain connected around dams. However, the efficiency of passage for each fishway design can be unique for different species. CanFishPass is an electronic inventory of fish passage facilities in Canada, and includes important information on the engineering and hydraulic specifications of the fishways as well as biological information related to the species using these structures. The database can easily be searched by species, fishway type, region, etc.  If you have information regarding a fishway in your area that you would like included in the database please contact us via e-mail.

Database files:

Canadian References Table

Fishway Inventory

Fishway Table

Related publications:

Hatry et al. 2013 The status of fishways in Canada: trends identified using the national CanFishPass database

Hatry et al. 2011 Development of a National Fish Passage Database for Canada (CanFishPass): Rationale, Approach, Utility, and Potential Applicability to Other Regions

Examples of research determining fishway efficiency

Steffensen et al. 2013 Biological effectiveness of an inexpensive nature-like fishway for passage of warmwater fish in a small Ontario stream

Thiem et al. 2011 Multispecies fish passage behaviour in a vertical slot fishway on the Richelieu River, Quebec, Canada