Adult Pacific lamprey: Known passage challenges and opportunities for improvement

Matthew Keefer1, Christopher Caudill1 & Mary Moser2

Department of Fish and Wildlife Sciences

University of Idaho

2Northwest Fisheries Science Center NOAA Fisheries

Presentation  objectives• Pacific  lamprey  are  not  Pacific  salmon.  .  .  .  • Adult  passage  challenges  

– What  we’ve  learned  – Passage  barrier  types  

• Adult  passage  solutions  – Structural  fixes  – Operational  fixes

Basin-scale fidelity

Natal Site Fidelity Site Infidelity

Anadromous  Fish  Migrations

Regional fidelity? Opportunistic

spawners

Precise homing

Migration  system  and  “success”Homing Natal Stream

15 % Unsuccessful

Obstruction

85% Successful

SF Salmon River Chinook salmon

Migration  system  and  “success”Homing: Natal Stream

15 % Unsuccessful

Obstruction

Site infidelity:

15 %

Obstruction

85%

Breeding Population

Breeding Population

85%

Lamprey  are  not  salmon.  .  .  .

• How  we  measure          ‘success’  differs  • However,  there  are  clear            passage  problems  and          human-­‐created          migration  barriers

USFWS 2012

Research  and  Monitoring  Programs

Passage  Challenges

Main  stem  dams• Research:  USACE  –  NOAA  –  UI  –  Tribal  -­‐  PUD  • Multiple  strategies  

– Radio  +  acoustic  telemetry  – PIT  tags  – Challenge  experiments

Adaptive  management: 1)  Identify  passage  problems  2)  Implement,  test  solutions

Dam

BO TD JD MN IH PR

Perc

ent p

ast (

%)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60 20052006200720082009201120122013

Main  stem  ‘escapement’

High  attrition  at  dams

PIT-­‐tag  monitoring  project

Keefer et al. 2009 (N Am J Fish Manag)

Long-­‐term  monitoring  indicates  

modest  improvements

Weight (g)

200-2

50

250-3

00

300-3

50

350-4

00

400-4

50

450-5

00

500-5

50

550-6

00

600-6

50

650-7

00>7

00

Perc

ent p

ast B

ON

(%)

0

20

40

60

80

100

20122013

Bonneville  passage  by  lamprey  size

Weight (g)

200-2

50

250-3

00

300-3

50

350-4

00

400-4

50

450-5

00

500-5

50

550-6

00

600-6

50

650-7

00>7

00

Perc

ent (

%)

0

20

40

60

80

1002005 (n = 841)2006 (n = 2000)2007 (n = 757)2008 (n = 608)2009 (n = 368)

2005-2009 Results

Size matters: dams present significant challenges

for smaller lamprey

2013

Dam-­‐wide  dam  passage  efficiency

Dam

Bonne

ville

John

Day

Ice H

arbor

Ice H

arbor

McNary

The D

alles

McNary

Pas

s / A

ppro

ach

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

2684

665

204

5315812

21

10 years of Radio-tagged lamprey: # Pass / # Approach

Keefer et al. 2012 (Technical Synthesis Report)

Far  lower  than  salmon  performance

Bonneville  bottlenecks  (RT)

Turbulent,  high  velocity

Keefer et al. 2013 (CJFAS)

Tributary  barriersSmall,  low-­‐head  

diversion  dams  can  be  lamprey  barriers

Umatilla  dams

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

3-Mile Boyd's Maxwell Dillon Westland Feed Stanfield

Mea

n Fi

tted

Prob

abili

ty o

f Pas

sing

Jackson and Moser 2013 (N Am J Fish Manag)

7  Umatilla  River  diversion  damsVariable  –  and  sometimes  very  low  passage  success

Tributary  barriers

Stillwater Sciences 2014

Culverts,  road  crossings,  hydraulic  jumps

Potential  Passage  Solutions

• Structural  fixes  at  dams  – Lamprey  passage  system  (LPS)  – Lamprey  flume  system  (LFS)  – Wetted  wall  

• Concrete  rounding,  vertical  step  removal  • Open  access  to  low-­‐velocity  routes  • Velocity-­‐reducing  ‘bollards’  on  fishway  floors

Keefer et al. 2010 (N Am J Fish Manag)

Moser et al. 2011 (Fish Manag Ecol)

Keefer et al. 2011 (Fish Manag Ecol)

LPS,  LFS

Moser et al. 2011 (Fish Manage Ecol)

>30,000  lamprey  have  used  the  BON  LPS’s

BON LFS-LPS

BON LPS

Diversion  dam  LPS

Umatilla  River

Threemile  Creek

LPS  is  a  proven  structural  solution

Wetted  wall

Bradford  Island  fishway

Existing  LPS

Velocity-­‐reducing  ‘bollards’

Bollard Field

John Day Dam N Fishway Entrance

Flow

Lamprey movement in the JDD bollard field

Acoustic video imagery: 100s of lamprey

Operational  solutions• Reduced  night-­‐time  fishway  velocity  

– Bonneville  experiment  was  successful  – Improved  lamprey  access  to  fishways

Johnson et al. 2012 (Trans Am Fish Soc)

High day velocity

Low night velocity

Jackson and Moser 2012 (N Am J Fish Manag)

Barrier  removal:  Boyd’s  diversion  damBefore removal

After removal

Passage efficiency = 81%

Passage efficiency = 32%

Conclusions• Lamprey  passage  challenges  are  complex  

– Many  types  of  barriers  – Site-­‐specific  issues  and  seasonal  variability  – No  ‘one  size  fits  all’  solutions  

• Sustained  ‘adaptive  management’  effort  has  greatly  improved  our  understanding  

• The  solution  tool  box            has  expanded  • Many  opportunities          for  incremental  change

Jeremy Red Star Wolf, Umatilla Tribe

http://www.uidaho.edu/cnr/research/researchprograms/FERL/publications!

• Jackson  and  Moser.  2012.  Low-­‐elevation  dams  are  impediments  to  adult  Pacific  lamprey  spawning  migration  in  the  Umatilla  River,  Oregon.  North  American  Journal  of  Fisheries  Management  32:548-­‐556.  !

• Johnson  et  al.  2012.  Movement  of  radio-­‐tagged  adult  Pacific  lampreys  during  a  large-­‐scale  fishway  velocity  experiment.  Transactions  of  the  American  Fisheries  Society  141:571-­‐579.  

!• Keefer  et  al.  2009.  Effects  of  body  size  and  river  environment  on  the  upstream  migration  of  adult  Pacific  lampreys.  North  American  

Journal  of  Fisheries  Management  29:1214-­‐1224.  

!• Keefer  et  al.  2010.  Testing  adult  Pacific  lamprey  performance  at  structural  challenges  in  fishways.  North  American  Journal  of  Fisheries  

Management  30:376-­‐385.  

!• Keefer  et  al.  2011.  Behaviour  of  adult  Pacific  lampreys  in  near-­‐field  flow  and  fishway  design  experiments.  Fisheries  Management  and  

Ecology  18:177-­‐189.  

!• Keefer  et  al.  2012.  Adult  Pacific  lamprey  passage:  data  synthesis  and  fishway  improvement  prioritization  tools.  Technical  Report  2012-­‐8.  

!• Keefer  et  al.  2013.  Fishway  passage  bottleneck  identification  and  prioritization:  a  case  study  of  Pacific  lamprey  at  Bonneville  Dam.  

Canadian  Journal  of  Fisheries  and  Aquatic  Sciences  70:1551-­‐1565.  

!• Moser  et  al.  2011.  Development  of  Pacific  lamprey  fishways  at  a  hydropower  dam.  Fisheries  Management  and  Ecology  18:190-­‐200.

Acknowledgements

E. JohnsonT. Clabough

M. JepsonT. Dick

J. Rerecich

R. O’Connor

S. Tackley T. Mackey

S. Lee

S. HemstromM. Fox

Additional support

Field and data management

D. Queampts

NWFSCNMFS

C. BoggsL. Martinez-Rocha

C. Noyes

C. Baker

C. Erdman J. Renner M. Kirk

C. Peery