What kinds of structures at road crossings create fish barriers?

·  High vertical drops at culvert outlets

·   Excessive water velocities inside culverts

·  Debris barriers

·  Lack of jumping pools or inadequate pool depths

Click on the Windows Media Player icon to download and view a short video showing different structures that create passage barriers for fish.

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(Windows Media Player Video 15MB, 3 minutes)
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Water Velocity Barriers
and
Fish Swimming Performance

Use this table to determine the swimming ability of some adult fish species.  For example, note that rainbow trout (X-1) can swim through a 10 meter culvert with a flow velocity of 2.4 meters per second (7.9 feet per second).  However, in a 30 meter culvert (X-2), rainbow trout can only manage a velocity of 1.4 meters per second (4.6 feet per second). 

This performance table only applies to large, adult game fish swimming between resting points.  The swimming abilities of small or juvenile size fish will not result in these same values.