Sang-Hyeon Park

Impact of estuary barrage construction on fish assemblages in the lower part of a river and the role of fishways as a passage

The construction of an estuary barrage, an instream structure in the lower reaches of a river, causes significant physical changes in water flow patterns and river morphology, and results in altered environmental conditions. Here, we examined the impact of the Geum River estuary barrage, completed in 1990, on fish assemblages by using a literature search and fresh surveys of fishways in the barrage. We found that fish assemblages upstream and downstream of the barrage were altered following its completion. After construction, more species were found in the freshwater area, with a particularly great increase in freshwater species. Conversely, estuarine and marine species were only consistently caught in the downstream salt-water area, although the number of species increased. In total, 15,829 fish from 47 species and 20 families were identified at the three types (pool and weir, rubble type, and boat passage) of fishways in the barrage. The dominant species were Chelon haematocheilus, an estuarine species, Coilia nasus, a diadromous species, and Erythroculter erythropterus, a freshwater species. The mean total length of fish (101.9 ± 76.0 mm) in the boat passage fishway was approximately 100 mm lesser than those in the pool and weir (207.2 ± 112.8 mm) and rubble type (205.8 ± 112.7 mm) fishways. The boat passage fishway was the most efficient for fish movements. The current fishway system is not sufficient for fish migration, and thus additional ways are required to improve the system such as the boat passage. Few estuarine or diadromous species were found in both freshwater and salt-water areas, but freshwater fishes that accidently moved to salt-water area actively used fishways. Therefore, fishway management in the Geum River estuary barrage has to focus on freshwater fish; however, this may need to change to a focus on migratory fishes depending on ecological life cycles of migratory fish.

Impact of Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides) on the Population of Korean Native Fish, Crucian Carp (Carassius auratus)

Exotic species in aquatic ecosystem generate various problems domestically as well as globally. Largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) which is a well-known exotic species globally, acts as a substantial disturbance factor on the native fish communities in Korea due to the high predation pressure and hence designated as a ecologically harmful species by Ministry of Environ- ment. In this study, we investigated the impact of largemouth bass on Korean native fish population, crucian carp (Carassius auratus), to identify responses of the prey fish. Two fish species were col- lected at seven reservoirs distributed at the Nakdong River catchment area, and changes in length- frequency and length-weight relationship (LWR) were analysed depending on existence of large- mouth bass. At bass absent sites, ratio of under age 1 year individuals were small, and over age two years were dominant. Conversely, normal length-frequency distribution pattern was identi- fied at bass absent sites. The LWR of crucian carp (fish smaller than total length of 160 mm were only considered as it is frequently consumed by bass predation) was different depending upon bass existence. The value of parameter b at bass absent reservoirs was 2.909, which was smaller than that of bass present reservoirs, 3.100. Our results imply that crucian carp at bass present reser- voirs presented a different strategy to survive from predation by bass, through relatively rapid growth. We propose that other native species might have similar growth strategies like crucian carp.