NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center. (2015, May 21). New model predicts fish population
response to dams, other ecological factors. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 23, 2015
from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150521144058.htm
On the Atlantic coast of the United States, studies were done to determine the impacts of dams on salmon and other diadromous fish and their migration patterns. Studies found that fish abundance increased upstream if dams that were downstream were removed. Studies also showed that abundance increased more when marine survival rates increased rather than when freshwater survival rates increased. Adding small channels and fish ladders to improve salmon passages upstream do increase the likelihood of a successful migration, however the most effective solution that has been found so far is the complete removal of river-blocking dams.
The studies done on the east coast directly relate to environmental science and how the alteration of habitats affect the organisms that live in them. Studies show over and over again that dams are detrimental to the migrations of fish that swim up rivers. If scientists and/or others want to increase the abundance of fish in freshwater areas, the evident answer is to either eliminate dams or to make either sides of the dams much more easily accessible to the fish. Fish that live in both fresh and saltwater face issues of breeding, and the numbers of many species seem to be declining due to the prominent obstacles of dams. More steps should be taken to amend the drastic changes made to these species’ cycles and environments.
I get that damns are harmful to many species. However, is it reasonable to remove them, take into account how destructive it could be? Also should we sacrifice getting energy from damns to let these species survive?
I’d say that maybe we’d have to weigh the pros and cons of dam removal, and decide if the organisms obstructed by dams are more important to the environment/ecosystem than the energy; maybe we could take more steps to leave dams in place to provide energy, but make more impactful alterations on the dams so that the species could still thrive. Thanks for your thoughts!
I agree very much. The abundance of river blocking dams are decreasing the abundance of fish in our rivers which in turn could decrease the fish that we possibly fish for and eat.
Thanks for commenting! Certainly, and the decrease of fish could in turn be affecting the ecosystem as well.
I think that this could be similar to the domino affect where building a dam could affect the fish which would in turn lower the amount of fish being sold. There would be many negatives and positives in removing the dam.