ORIGINAL PAPER
Swimming abilities of juvenile estuarine fishes: implications
for passage at water control structures
Matthew E. Kimball
.
Kevin M. Boswell
.
Lawrence P. Rozas
.
Elizabeth K. Berwaldt
.
April R. Richards
Received: 2 January 2017 / Accepted: 19 September 2017 / Published online: 23 September 2017
Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2017
Abstract The capability of early life history stage
fishes to access nursery habitat within managed salt
marshes is dependent on their ability to negotiate
water control structures (WCSs). Knowledge of
swimming ability and hydrodynamic preferences is
essential to assess the impact of WCSs on fish
movement in managed marshes. These data, however,
are lacking for many common estuarine fishes, and the
utility of the data for the few species examined thus far
is limited. We examined critical swimming speeds and
derived linear relationships between fish size and
swimming speed for juveniles of six common estuar-
ine fish species of the southeast U.S. and northern Gulf
of Mexico coasts. White mullet Mugil curema dis-
played the greatest swimming ability among these six
species and was able to swim against cur-
rents C 30 cm s
-1
higher than the other species
examined at the same size. The remaining species
displayed lower critical swimming speeds and were
classified into groups of moderate (pinfish Lagodon
rhomboides, striped mullet Mugil cephalus) or slow
(silver perch Bairdiella chrysoura, spotfin mojarra
Eucinostomus argenteus, spot Leiostomus xanthurus)
swimmers. Our results suggest that high-flow condi-
tions at WCSs would likely preclude the passage of all
but the largest juvenile fishes, and passage for most
juveniles would occur under low-flow conditions;
these flows at WCSs are dictated largely by site-
specific tidal and weather conditions.
Keywords Critical swimming speed Á Juvenile fish Á
Marsh management Á Salt marsh Á Water control
structure
Introduction
Estuaries are naturally dynamic aquatic environments,
where water depth, flow direction, and flow velocity
are in constant flux, however, many estuarine habitats
are currently under some form of management that
regulates water flow and alters natural hydrological
conditions (Knudsen et al. 1985; Montague et al. 1987;
Cowan et al. 1988; Robinson and Jennings 2012).
Approximately 11% of marshes along the southeast
U.S. Atlantic coast are under such management
(Montague et al. 1987). Estimates of the extent of
managed marshes are available for some states such as
South Carolina (14%; Robinson and Jennings 2012
M. E. Kimball (&) Á E. K. Berwaldt Á A. R. Richards
Baruch Marine Field Laboratory, University of South
Carolina, Georgetown, SC 29442, USA
e-mail: matt@belle.baruch.sc.edu
K. M. Boswell
Marine Sciences Program, Department of Biological
Sciences, Florida International University, North Miami,
FL 33181, USA
L. P. Rozas
NOAA/NMFS/SEFSC, Estuarine Habitats & Coastal
Fisheries Center, Lafayette, LA 70506, USA
123
Wetlands Ecol Manage (2018) 26:383–390
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-017-9580-9
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