Scientists To Use Locks To Ferry Fish
Scientists have a plan to stop the greatest chain of aquatic extinctions in the United States, which began when Alabama’s rivers were dammed in the 20th century and river creatures were cut off from everything they needed.
Scientists say they can reunite parts of the Alabama River system, using locks built for navigation to move the ecosystem’s most important species upstream during migration.
Ultimately, they believe they can reconnect the Cahaba River to the Gulf of Mexico using the two southernmost locks on the Alabama River.
In the spring, many fish in the state’s rivers swim from the Gulf of Mexico hundreds of miles upstream to spawn. Many fish will not spawn without a long migration, and others need to travel to find good habitat.
Along the way, they often carry juvenile mussels that live on the fish as parasites for a few weeks before they drop off. Some fish are more important in providing food for bigger fish or birds.
But those connections have been halted by dams and locks for decades, leaving graveyards of shells of extinct mussels on riverbanks and fish that are rarer with each generation.
The Army Corps of Engineers has successfully used the lock systems for the Appalachicola River to move fish in Florida and Georgia.
Now, scientists say it may be simple and free to reverse much of that damage. They are proposing to begin by using the locks at the Claiborne Lock and Dam to ferry migrating fish upstream in the spring.
…Before the locks and dams were put on the rivers, Alabama shad traveled as far upstream as Iowa, millions of the fish populating the nation’s rivers. Before the program to move them upstream, as few as 9,000 Alabama shad may have survived in the Apalachicola. They are listed as a federal species of concern.
Studies on the Apalachicola showed that as many as 40 percent of those fish would get on the locks and go upstream if the locks were filled with water the night before.
An easy, cheap approach that will help to maintain the amazing diversity of Alabama’s rivers. I can get behind that.