A preliminary study of the drift of young-of-the-year (YOY) cyprinid fish in a dam-fragmented large river : the Belgian River Meuse.

Downstream dispersal of fish in rivers is mainly an unidirectional drift movement because of the entrainement by water current. Most of the Cyprinidae species exhibit a propensity to drift in their egg-larval and juvenile stages as young-of-the-year (YOY) in spring and early summer. Th drift of YOY chub (Leuciscus cephalus) and nase (Chondrostoma nasus) in the River Meuse was studied during the year 2001 by collecting fish impinged on the filtering screens of a cooling water intake (Tihange nuclear power plant). A first drift wave was observed in summer and was composed of healthy fast growing... Mehr ...