In its first two years, the KEEPFISH project has resulted in the following:
• Training of 29 academic staff, civil servants and industry staff
• Production of new knowledge on the needs of a range of fish species
• Several meetings with stakeholders and researchers
• A public engagement event
• Submission of applications for further collaborative research funds.
This progress has largely been based on the movements of staff between partner institutions. So far, 26 months of staff movements have been completed from a total of 28 months funded by the European Commission.
Training
The project has provided excellent opportunities for early career researchers to learn new skills and apply them to the problem of fish passage. In 2016, two early stage researchers from Chile received a total of 10 months training in Europe. Also in 2016, an early stage researcher from the United Kingdom spent one month at the University of Melbourne learning how to analyse the evidence that can be found in 1000s of scientific publications. Later, in 2017, a further early stage researcher from Chile joined a group of ecologists and climate scientists in the United Kingdom to receive training on predicting the impacts of climate change on hydropower development and fish.
In order to cascade this training down to a large cross-section of people working on fishways in the Southern Hemisphere, the senior members of the KEEPFISH project held a one-week summer school in Chile in January 2017. It was attended by 25 people from local and regional government, universities and hydropower companies.
Knowledge production
The main results so far have revealed the reasons why fishways succeed or fail. Importantly, findings have demonstrated the very different needs of native species in the Southern Hemisphere compared to the salmon and trout that have traditionally been the focus of fishway design, and exactly what this means for engineers tasked with designing these structures. All of the results have been packaged in a way that is accessible to the people making decisions about barriers and fishways as part of their day-to-day work.
Stakeholder participation
Constant communication with stakeholders has resulted in the establishment of a new group of over 30 people committed to improving the research, regulation, design and management of fishways in Chile. The team are also involved with another established group of stakeholders in New Zealand. The group have agreed a set of research priorities and principles for making decisions about fishways and river barriers in general. They are actively working together and sharing information to support common goals.
Public engagement
The KEEPFISH team organised an event in New Zealand to celebrate ‘World Fish Migration Day’ in April 2016. Attracting 100s of people young and old, the event focused on raising awareness of the need to preserve the routes taken by fish during their migrations. Another such event is planned to take place in the UK in April 2018. Further contact with the public has been achieved through the use of social media.
Submission of collaborative funding applications
In order to sustain the network of researchers and stakeholders involved in the KEEPFISH project, and to obtain funds to tackle critical research questions, two applications for further funding were submitted by the team during 2017.
