Het effect van waterkrachtcentrales op migrerende paling

Effect of impingment at a hydropower plant on silver eel migration. The prospects for the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) population are gloomy. In particular, the supply of young eels (elvers) from the sea is decreasing by about 10% each year. It is not clear at which life stage the eel is threatened most; protective measures are thus taken at various levels. The damage that mature adults (silver eels) suffer at hydropower plants has proved to be important. With respect to making regulations, it is important to quantify the damage and find out the maximum damage acceptable. At a hydropower plant in the River Meuse, damage to migrating silver eel was studied by telemetric tagging. A comparison was made between the eels migrating over a weir next to the power plant and eels that travelled through the power plant (figure 3). In this way, the course taken by the fish is known, as well as their fate. Death may be immediate although it mostly occurs later through internal damage sustained in the plant; the passage through the power plant is clearly fatal to more fish than the passage over the weir.