Anadromous FISH use to guide them on these homecoming Diversion the damming of the river also blocked journeys is not fully understood. It is CHANGES TO THE hundreds of miles of migration routes The most significant change to the Anadromous fish are fish that spend believed that the young fish actually SANTEE AND COOPER for anadromous fish returning to the Santee and Cooper rivers occurred in most of their lives in the saltwater memorize a particular “smell” or taste system. However, while commercial use RIVERS 1941 when Santee River was dammed, environment of oceans and bays, but of the river and they use this smell to of the lock never developed, operation and Lakes Moultrie and Marion were return to the freshwater environment of guide them to their natal river as they The Santee Canal of the lock in conjunction with high created. The water from Santee River, rivers and streams to spawn. Some of the get closer to it’s mouth when they return The water of the Santee and Cooper springtime discharges of water from the one of the largest drainages on the best known anadromous fish to spawn. rivers has been manipulated by man Cooper River dam allowed fish to pass East Coast, was diverted to the small are salmon and trout, As the fish leave for several uses. When Europeans first into the lake system. tidal Cooper River. The project was which are often saltwater and ascend settled this region, low marshy areas Each spring anadromous fish constructed by the South Carolina shown to freshwater streams, along the rivers were diked and flooded concentrated at the base of the dam Public Service Authority, now known as jumping various physiological to produce rice fields. The success as their upstream migrations were Santee Cooper. over processes take place. of this crop gave rise to many of the blocked by it, and the lock was operated The goals of the Diversion project rapids as These adaptations are plantations that were so prevalent several times a day to allow fish to be were to provide hydroelectric power they migrate unique to anadromous in the Lowcountry. In 1800 a newly passed into the lakes. This provided AMERICAN SHAD to rural Lowcountry residents, provide up streams to their fish, as changes from constructed 22-mile long, 10-lock canal the fish with access to their spawning flood control for the Santee River basin, To bring a boat from the river to the lake, the boat enters the lock and the spawning areas. saltwater to freshwater would be lethal first connected the Santee and Cooper and nursery grounds in the lakes and and to provide a navigation route from gates are closed. Valve 1 is then opened while valve 2 is closed, allowing Several species of anadromous to most other species of fish. The fish rivers. This canal allowed goods from rivers above the dam. Fish that live in the boat lock to fill with water to the level of the lake. The lake side gate is Charleston to Columbia. Following fish use the Santee-Cooper system. may travel over 100 miles up freshwater the plantations to be delivered from the lakes year-round, called resident then opened and the boat can enter the lake. the commerce principles behind Some of these are blueback herring, rivers to reach their spawning grounds, the central Carolinas to Charleston fish, such as striped bass also benefited To bring a boat from the lake to the river, the opposite occurs. Valve 1 is construction of the Old Santee Canal, closed while valve 2 is opened. When the water drains to the river level, American shad, striped bass, hickory and have evolved the ability to on barges drawn by horses or mules. from a supply of food fish as they fed a lock was installed at the dam on the the river side gate can then be opened. The fish lift operates on a similar shad, shortnose sturgeon and Atlantic navigate rapids and many other natural By using the canal, the boats avoided on the adult blueback herring which Cooper River. It was designed to allow principle, with the addition of various devices for attracting fish into and sturgeon. Of these, the blueback herring obstructions. Man-made obstructions a perilous journey down the Santee migrated into the lakes and the young boat traffic to pass from the river to through the facility. and American shad are quite abundant, such as dams, however, can completely River and along the coast to Charleston anadromous fish that were hatched in Lake Moultrie and back, and at the time while the shortnose sturgeon is so rare block access to the Harbor. The canal closed in the 1850’s the Santee-Cooper system. This was of the site. While much progress has of its construction this was the world’s that it is considered an endangered spawning grounds. In and is now overgrown or flooded by important to the ecology of the lake been made in this area through research highest single lift lock. species. Each spring these fish make these cases a man-made the Santee-Cooper Lakes. For more because other species of forage fish and experimentation, biologists and An unanticipated result of this flow created shoaling problems in the to maintain discharge control and their migration runs up our rivers in passageway, called a information on the canal a visit to The are resident species and must compete engineers are still working on resolv- project was to create the country’s first harbor that interfered with Navy and hydroelectric power generation. To search of suitable spawning habitat. fishway, is needed so Old Santee Canal Park in Moncks for food even with young game fish. ing various problems to allow fish to landlocked striped bass fishery in the commercial shipping traffic. Dredging allow upstream migrating fish to pass Between spawning runs, some species fish may pass around the Corner is recommended. On the other hand, anadromous fish, freely migrate to and from their spawn- newly formed lakes. Unfortunately, costs dramatically increased and sites beyond the new dam of anadromous fish make extensive obstruction. BLUEBACK HERRING since they have grown in the ocean ing areas. The St. Stephen fishlift is a to deposit the removed sediments began and into the lake ocean migrations. Biologists have found for most of their lives provide the lake good example of a fishway where data filling up quickly. To address that blueback herring and American FishwayS with a nutritional supplement. Not collected at the site is used to implement this problem without shad spawned in the Santee-Cooper Fishways have been constructed for function well because the designers did only do resident fish benefit by directly improvements. losing the fish passage system may migrate over 1,000 miles to hundreds of years to allow migrating not understand the particular attraction consuming anadromous fish, but the There are many types of facilities and the hydroelectric the Bay of Fundy in Canada’s Atlantic fish to pass dams on rivers and streams. flow requirements or swimming ability decaying bodies of dead anadromous designed to pass fish around dams such power generation provided Provinces. Here shad and herring from Many of the earlier fishways did not of the fish, or the flow characteristics fish also enrich the entire food web in as fish ladders, fish lifts, and navigation by Diversion, the U.S. Army stocks along the Atlantic Seaboard the lake ecosystem. This nutritional STRIPED BASS locks. In the Santee-Cooper system a Corps of Engineers proposed the congregate to spend autumns feeding enrichment is analogous to a farmer fish lift and a navigation (boat) lock are Cooper River Rediversion Project. system, a lock was specifically designed on the Bay’s abundant plankton. As fertilizing his fields with manure trucked used by migrating fish to pass from the and built into the dam. This lock came a result, Santee-Cooper anadromous in from another farm. Rediversion Santee and Cooper rivers into the lakes to be known as the St. Stephen fish lift. fish contribute to recreational and While the lock worked well in and rivers beyond. Beginning in 1985, Rediversion The new fish lock, or fish lift, commercial fisheries in other states and passing fish above the new dam and allowed Santee River water to continue was much smaller than the original Canada while at the same time returning the ecosystem created by the new lakes to be diverted to Lake Moultrie, but navigation lock on Cooper River, which fish have grown by consuming food seemed to be stabilizing, a problem instead of discharging all of the water was constructed for boat passage. from those distant estuaries and coasts. arose as a result of diversion. The into Cooper River through Pinopolis Special gates were designed to create The fish continue to make annual Cooper River, previously a small tidal Dam, the majority of the water was now and adjust flows that would attract migrations along the East Coast until creek terminating at Charleston Harbor, re-diverted back to the Santee River via fish into a long entrance channel on they reach maturity around the age of was now carrying the combined flows a new canal, the Rediversion Canal. A the downstream side of the dam. Once four. At this time, each stock seeks out and sediments of the Cooper and the dam was constructed on the Rediversion in this channel, a gate closes behind the river in which they were spawned. much larger Santee rivers. The increased The mechanism that anadromous fish A Shortnose Sturgeon photo by Jarrett Gibbons Canal near St.