Fish movement at the Springbank Dam during open flow conditions: Pre-construction baseline monitoring

The City of London and the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority contracted Biotactic Incorporated to design and conduct a study to collect baseline data related to fish movement at the Springbank dam in the spring before stop logs are installed and the dam is operated. These baseline data are to be used to address provincial and federal directives pertaining to the maintenance or enhancement of the status quo of fish movement at the Springbank dam. Radio-telemetry was used to track the movement of sixty radiotagged white suckers, shorthead redhorse and smallmouth bass at the Springbank dam from April 13 2006 to June 27 2006 (twenty fish of each species) to establish a data set related to fish movement at the dam. All fish were collected from areas upstream from the dam and released downstream after radio-tag implantation. The vast majority of all fish passed the dam with no apparent difficulty.The two catostomid species (early migrating white suckers and mid season migrating shorthead redhorse) that were monitored, rapidly approached and passed the dam, and some individuals returned downstream past the dam several weeks after upstream migration. Late spring upstream migrating smallmouth bass approached the dam more slowly and sometimes used the structure as habitat, although the majority of smallmouth bass passed the dam with no apparent difficulty