Firstly, a very Happy New Year from all of the Fishtek team! It has been a while since we last published a blog of our news and the current ongoings at Fishtek, largely because we increasingly rely on Twitter (@FishtekConsult) to keep anyone interested up to date with our latest news. Since our last news post, we have been busy with lots of ongoing projects and have also started work on some interesting new projects.
Although the hydropower industry in the UK is for the most part declining due to the changes in the goverment Feed In Tariffs (FITs) for hydropower, we have been commissioned by Innogy to work with their designers MWH provide fisheries advice for a high-head scheme that they are developing in northern Scotland. With a total scheme capacity of 4MW, this is larger than many of the hydropower projects in the UK. Fishtek are providing advice on how to mitigate the impacts of the proposed scheme, particularly in relation to fish migration (both upstream and downstream).
 |
| The view looking upstream from the site of a proposed new hydropower scheme in Scotland |
Those of you following us on Twitter may also have noticed that we have been awarded the contract to carry out the design of some large fish passes on the Rivers Wharfe and Swale, working with the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust. This is a great project to be involved in as mitigating these barriers will open up a large amount of habitat to fish within the river, including salmon and lamprey.
 |
| A large weir on the River Wharfe |
We have also started work on a fish pass design on a small tributary of the River Tame. While the weir is not the biggest out there, it’s sheer vertical morphology and shallow skim of water over the weir crest means that it is a very significant barrier for the fish resident in the river, particularly coarse fish (which, as any fisheries biologist will tell you, also migrate large distances even if it doesn’t involve a journey to the sea).
 |
| Small weir on a tributary of the River Tame. Fish pass to come! |