Fishway Effectiveness and Upstream Residency of Three Fish Species at Four Fishways in Prince Edward Island, Canada

We evaluated passage of Osmerus mordax (Rainbow Smelt), Salvelinus fontinalis (Brook Trout), and Alosa pseudoharengus (Alewife) at 4 fishways on Prince Edward Island, Canada. We implanted fish with passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags and recorded their movements using stationary PIT antennas. Passage at different fishway types was highly variable. Nature-like fishways passed over 96% of Brook Trout and a maximum of 41.8% of Rainbow Smelt. The latter percentage is the highest yet reported in the literature for Rainbow Smelt. Pool-and-weir fishways passed nearly 100% of Brook Trout, 13.2% of Rainbow Smelt, and only 5.6% of Alewife. After passing a fishway, upstream residency was highly variable both among species as well as among individuals within species. Rainbow Smelt were observed spawning within nature-like fishways, suggesting that this type of fishway may also provide spawning habitat. Results highlight the challenge of passing non-salmonid species and indicate nature-like fishways are more appropriate than technical designs for passing Rainbow Smelt.