More Raritan River fish ladder info:

[AndyS]

Instead of going fishing today I went to the Lebanon Fisheries Laboratory. While there I was introduced to the two Fisheries Technicians
who are working on viewing the tapes from the fish ladder in South Bound Brook on the Raritan river. I got to sit in on a few hours of tape viewing from June 1999. The water was running a little high at the time and we were watching tape from around midnight till about seven in the morning. This is very interesting stuff. The viewing room itself is like a six foot by six foot box within the fish ladder. A light shines down from above at night so they can see the fish as they pass. I got to watch tons of eels going up and down the ladder as well as ALOT of striped bass. In the short time I was there we also saw crappie and some nice trout, and VERY big channel catfish.
The new high resolution camera is now installed and the tape takes a three frames per second picture. The two Fisheries Technicians
are really enthusiastic in their work. The camera is primarily for the tracking of shad so it will be recording in the spring months and only during the day. One of the main objectives is to see weather taking down the dams has a positive or negative effect on the shad run on the Raritan river. I think all this is really great, and to see the State taking the time and money to do the research. I hope in the near future I will actually be able to go inside the viewing room where the camera is and to see more tape from this year.
The Lebanon Fisheries Laboratory is open to the public during normal business hours.


http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/