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Projects
EU-silver eel project
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EU Silver eel-project
‘Management of silver eel: human impact on downstream migrating silver eel in the river Meuse’
Research topic: Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture
On April 1, 2001 the EU project ‘Management of silver eel: human impact on downstream migrating silver eel in the river Meuse’ took off. KEMA Power Generation & Sustainables is co-ordinator of this two-year project, in which three other parties participate: Netherlands Institute for Fisheries Research (RIVO) (the Netherlands), Ingenieurbüro Floecksmühle (Germany) and the Institüt für Angewandte Ökologie (IFÖ) (Germany).
Background
Eels have always been surrounded with mystery. The early Greeks believed that eels were serpents, arising spontaneously from river mud. Ever since, the question of where and how eel are born has not been answered satisfactorily. The Sargasso Sea had been put forward as the most likely geographical position, - however, no adult eel has ever been observed in this area. To reach their hypothetical breeding grounds, silver eels must undergo a massive migration of 6000 kilometers from inland freshwaters to the Sargasso Sea, a long and dangerous voyage.
Although many important aspects have not been elucidated yet, there is much interest in doing so, as eel populations have declined dramatically during the past decades. This phenomenon has been observed all over the world.
Many hypothetical causes for the decline have been put forward. However, it is not clear which factor is crucial: fisheries at different life stages of eel, hampering the immigration (glass eel) or emigration (silver eel), mortality because of hydro power stations, water quality issues, parasites or changing oceanic processes. This EU project focuses on the impact of both hydropower stations and intensive fisheries.
Human impact on eel
Human impact on the downstream migrating silver eel in inland waters is caused by commercial fisheries and by the cumulative mortality of eel passing the turbines of a series of hydropower stations. These human activities are widespread in many European rivers and might have detrimental effects on the population level of the European eel. Therefore, it is important to know to what extent damage to eel is caused by hydropower stations as well as what the impact is of withdrawal of eel by commercial fisheries.
This research project has been executed in a large river system: the river Meuse. In this river, fishing takes place along a total length of 260 km. Eight hydropower stations are operational at present and there are plans for three new stations.
One optional countermeasure is turbine management, i.e. closing down the turbines during migrating periods. Closing down the turbines for longer migration periods during autumn means a substantial loss of electricity production for the electricity companies. Closing down the turbines during short periods of peak migration will be a better option. In this project, a newly-designed warning system (MIGROMAT®) which detects migration activity of eel will be investigated.
The main goal of this research project is to contribute to sustainable eel fishery and sustainable production of electricity by hydropower in European waters.
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Less chlorine for Korean mussels
Colonization of cooling water systems by mussels is a worldwide concern for industrial cooling water systems (e.g. power plants). Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Company Ltd. (KHNP) used to apply continuous chlorination as an antifouling regime in their cooling water system. Development of a new regime based on KEMA’s Pulse- Chlorination® principle enabled the company to reduce its chlorine use considerably. This means lower energy consumption and reduced environmental impact. KEMA completed a project in South Korea for the Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant unit 2. The project focused on ways of improving Wolsong’s antifouling procedures.
Pulse-Chlorination® has been declared as a BAT (Best Available Technique) under the terms of the EU Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) for macro fouling mitigation in once-through cooling water systems using chlorine. Projects carried out between 1998 and 2003 resulted in chlorine savings up to 50% per year. The economic benefits are even more, because it reduces maintenance costs and environmental impacts and improves cooling water system performance.
The KHNP project team of the Wolsong NPP received KHNP’s best prize for Management Innovation 2002.
For more information please contact us.
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[download] Korean mussels - Global Contact 2003-1 (.pdf 402 kb)
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