27.01.2022

Hydropower plants: only 9 out of 1000 Fish survive!

This alarming number is the result of a recently published literature study which compiled the results of 249 locations concerning downstream migration at hydropower plants.

Fish migrating downstreams in River Rhine from Rheinau (Switzerland) to Iffezheim (Germany) have to pass 19 hydropower plants.

None of these plants has installed any fish shelter for downstream migrating fishes.

According to the study mentioned a loss of 22.3 % of fish at each plant must be assumed.

The German Angling Association (DAFV) issued a  press release

Radinger, J., van Treeck, R., & Wolter, C. (2022). Evident but context-dependent mortality of fish passing hydroelectric turbines. Conservation Biology, 1–12.