Alarming figures reveal deathly cost of inadequate fishways

Alarming figures have revealed that less than 4% of hydroelectric power plants in Sweden have functioning fishways.

Sportfiskarna Sweden, the representative body for anglers in the country, says the result of inadequate access to fish spawning grounds means that neither salmon, trout, eels or other species of fish can access the nursery areas with the result that many stocks have died out.

It has been reported that around 90% of migratory fish in Europe are considered extinct.

The report has been produced by the Jämtland County Administrative Board together with the fisheries investigation group at the Västernorrland County Administrative Board. Its author, Ingemar Näslund, says that nothing is new about the fact that passability of Swedish power plants is low, but this report shows in black and white how very few structures can actually offer fish passage in both directions.

“Approximately 15% of power plants have some form of fish passage upstream, while 4.2% have it in both directions. The report shows that these rarely function satisfactorily, meaning significantly fewer than 4.2% actually give fish the opportunity to pass in both directions,” explained Näslund.

“The remaining power plants therefore lack passage solutions and the country’s 200 largest plants are in a particularly bad situation.”

In Jämtland, for example, it appears that only one out of 81 power plants have functioning fish passages, and in Jönköping County the figure is three out of 110.

“This is of course serious. We have for many years demanded that Sweden get started with the construction of fish passages and other environmental adaptations of hydropower before it is simply too late to save the wreckage of the migrating fish. We at Sportfiskarna are courting politicians on a daily basis about this, and this report gives us even sharper incentives and arguments,” said Anders Lundin, Sportfiskarna’s Policy Manager.