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Science for Policy Research findings in brief Project 3.3.7

Swimming performance traits of twenty-one : A fish passage management tool for use in modified freshwater systems.

In brief

In , freshwater fish ensure native fish can swim through These 21 species are able to act populations have been severely existing waterway infrastructure or as proxies for other untested, impacted by fragmentation purpose built fishways. Unfortunately, rare or Endangered species due to the construction of in-stream such information has been lacking that share similar traits. structures like dams, weirs and until recently for most Australian This research provides high-quality culverts, which block native fish fish species. We undertook a scientific data that is specific to migration. The harmful impact of comprehensive assessment of the Australian fish species to support the such infrastructure on fish populations swimming performance of 21 species decisions of fisheries management is now well-acknowledged, and of Australian native freshwater fish. and civil engineers designing culverts extensive efforts are being made to Species were chosen to encompass a and other waterway infrastructure. remedy their design and construction wide range of body shapes, swimming The quantified values we established to reconnect fragmented styles and lifestyles. We focused for fish swimming performance waterways to facilitate fish passage. on small species and juveniles of can be directly applied to set Effective fish passage requires reliable larger growing fish as they typically velocity guidelines when designing data on swimming performance to cannot swim as fast as larger fish. artificial instream structures.

Juvenile ready to swim. Photo: Jabin Watson Background (continued) Research aims Freshwater in Australia We aimed to characterise the proxies for uncharacterised, rare or and around the world have been swimming capabilities of a range Endangered species that share similar severely fragmented by artificial of freshwater fish species. The 21 traits, as we can infer their swimming in-stream structures that are species were selected to encompass performance from the performance designed to manage water for a wide range of body shapes, of the studied species. Additionally, human use. To address this impact, swimming styles and lifestyles. as small fish typically cannot swim significant efforts have been made This enabled us to identify what as fast as larger fish, we focused to reconnect freshwater systems to broad physical or behavioural on characterising the swimming enable fish movement through the characteristics could be used to performance of the weakest design and installation of dedicated help predict the swimming capacity swimming size (< 10 cm) and fish passage structures (fishways), of small Australian fish. As such, age class (juveniles). and by incorporating fish-friendly the species we chose can act as design features into waterways infrastructure, including culverts. Key to their success is ensuring that water velocities passing through What we did the infrastructure don’t exceed the swimming capacities of the native We collected multiple swimming velocity) and behavioural (e.g. light) fish species they are designed performance metrics in order to build characteristics interacted with fish to provide passage for. a comprehensive and cohesive picture swimming performance, and whether of how small Australian fish swim. This they could be used to help predict the Before this research, swimming included characterising the maximum swimming ability of a species which performance data was scarce sustainable swimming speed, had not been tested. for Australian fish, which display sprint swimming speed, swimming For the species we looked at, their a reduced swimming capacity endurance, and traverse success up common adult body size and locations compared to many North American a 12-meter channel. As the maximum (e.g. coastal or inland) are listed in and European species. What little sustainable swimming speed is a key Table 1. More details of the physical data did exist was not collected with metric used by fisheries managers and and behavioural characteristics of the consistent equipment or protocols, infrastructure engineers, we used it to study species are available in the paper meaning valid comparisons of test how common physical (e.g. water swimming ability across species listed at the end of this factsheet. could not be made. This makes it difficult to understand what Three-cell box culvert at Tinderbox Creek field site, northern New South Wales. physical and/or behavioural Photo: Jabin Watson characteristics contributed to, and could be used as a predictor of, swimming performance for native Australian species. To help close this knowledge gap, members of the Franklin Eco-lab at The University of and Matthew Gordos of New South Wales DPI Fisheries undertook a study of the swimming performance capacities of 21 species of freshwater fish native to Australia, with a focus on species found in New South Wales and the Murray–Darling Basin. The work was conducted at The University of Queensland’s Biohydrodynamics Laboratory, located at the St Lucia campus. Key findings

A summary of key swimming 21 species, freshwater mullet and swimming performance, the ability performance results for the 21 study silver perch were the best performing to predict the swimming capacity species is presented in Table 1. Full species, while flathead gudgeon and of an unknown species can be details of the swimming performance purple spotted gudgeon were the improved by adding an additional data, including endurance times and poorest swimmers. characteristic, particularly the velocities for fish swum in a 12 metre While fish swimming performance behavioural trait of the depth station channel, are available in the paper data provide important information at which the species lives, or the listed at the end of this factsheet. for the design of new fishways and physical attributes of its body or tail Our findings present the most remediation of existing waterways shape. As fish size was found to be comprehensive swimming infrastructure, it is not feasible to highly correlated with swimming performance characterisation obtain detailed data on the swimming performance, it is also feasible available for Australian freshwater fish capacities of every species and to cautiously make performance species. Looking at the maximum size class. We found that although estimates for individuals outside sustainable swimming speeds of the body length is the best predictor of the size range that we tested.

Table 1. Study species and their swimming performance The study species and their mean prolonged speeds. Typically, both prolonged and burst swimming gaits are required for fish to successfully traverse upstream of man-made barriers.

Mean prolonged Common adult Scientific name Common name Location swimming speed size (mm) (ms-1) Trachystoma petardi Freshwater mullet 400 Coastal 0.85 peelii Murray 700 Inland 0.46 ambigua 500 Inland 0.32 Macquaria novemaculeata Australian bass 400 Coastal 0.60 Silver perch 300 Inland 0.68 Leiopotherapon unicolor Spangled perch 300 Inland 0.41 Galaxias brevipinnis Climbing galaxiid 100 Inland 0.49 Retropinna semoni Australian smelt 60 Coastal/Inland 0.66 Craterocephalus Fly-specked hardyhead 55 Inland 0.49 stercusmuscarum Pseduomugil signifier Pacific blue-eye 40 Coastal 0.46 fluviatilis Murray 85 Inland 0.45 Crimson- 80 Coastal 0.63 Rhadinocentrus omatus 40 Coastal 0.52 Ambassis ambassizii Olive perchlet 60 Coastal/Inland 0.53 Nannoperca australis Southern pygmy perch 60 Inland 0.35 Tandanus tandanus Eel-tailed catfish 450 Coastal/Inland 0.41 Hypseleotris compressa Empire gudgeon 80 Coastal 0.44 Hypseleotris galii Firetail gudgeon 35 Coastal 0.38 Philypnodon grandiceps Flathead gudgeon 80 Coastal/Inland 0.33 Mogurnda adspersa Purple spotted gudgeon 80 Coastal/Inland 0.21 Redigobius bikolanus Speckled goby 40 Coastal 0.34 Key findings(continued) Implications

Limitations The findings will be of most guidelines when designing artificial Logistical constraints prevented importance to civil engineers instream structures. The guidelines for us using wild-caught individuals who design in-stream structures designing fish-friendly road crossings for all species. We had to use such as culverts under roads, and in New South Wales currently captive-bred fish for 16 of the 21 fisheries managers who assess the recommend maximum velocities species (the exceptions being requirements of local fish populations of 0.3 m s-1. This velocity was based Australian smelt, crimson-spotted at development sites. This research on limited swimming performance rainbowfish, Pacific blue-eye, means that the decisions of fisheries data for Australian freshwater fish. flathead gudgeon and speckled management and engineering can Our findings support this maximum goby), which may mean that our now be supported by high-quality velocity during baseline flows, with reported swimming performance scientific data that is specific to only two of the species we tested capacities are conservative, Australian fish species, the first unable to traverse 8 meters, a distance as other work has shown that comprehensive database of its kind. equivalent to a culvert under a typical two-lane rural road crossing, at a the swimming performance The quantified values we established water velocity of 0.3 m s-1. of wild-caught fish can exceed can be directly applied to set velocity that of captive-bred ones. Further, fish swimming performance is greatly affected by Recommendations temperature. Natural waterbodies While it will be possible to extrapolate our findings to other untested, rare or have significant seasonal, daily and Endangered species, we recommend expanding the dataset to include more spatial variations in temperature species and size classes. that directly affect a fish’s capacity to swim. We standardised our Also, as the focus of the research is to improve habitat connectivity, the dataset by quantifying fish application of the findings may lead to fishways allowing invasive species swimming performance at 25°C. into previously inaccessible . We therefore propose including While this temperature is typical invasive species in future fish swimming performance trials. for late spring or summer in most coastal Australian when Further Information native fish often move, it may be not be optimal for some of Jabin Watson – [email protected] Craig Franklin – [email protected] the more temperate species Rebecca Cramp – [email protected] Matthew Gordos –[email protected] that we tested.

Further reading Watson, J. R., Goodrich, H. R., Cramp, R. L., Gordos, M. A., Yan, Y. Ward, P. J., Franklin, C. E. Swimming performance traits of twenty-one Australian fish species: a fish passage management tool in a modified freshwater system. bioRxiv, doi: https://doi. org/10.1101/861898 Juvenile eel-tailed catfish. Photo: Jabin Watson

This project is supported through funding from the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program.