Project Overview

The St. John’s urban waterway, the Waterford River, has historically supported Salmonid migrations however in recent years the river no longer supports an Atlantic Salmon run. Through this project Aquatic Conservation Initiative assessed the Waterford River for Salmonid habitat by identifying and assessing barriers to salmonid migration, monitoring water quality relative to fish habitat, and assessing damages to the Waterford River bottom.

Beyond the Waterford River being a historic salmon river and key natural asset to the city of St. John’s, the Waterford River was also chosen for this project due to noted increasingly common extreme hydrological events that have occured on the river during periods of increased precipitation. The climate change forecasts for Eastern insular Newfoundland indicate increased temperatures, precipitation, and flood risk.

The goal of this project was to assess the viability of future habitat enhancements to ensure successful salmon introductions in the years to come. Emphasis was placed throughout the project on public engagement through activities such as river clean-ups, litter characterizations, and the collection of citizen data to understand how recent high-water marks compare to historical data. Finally, through partnerships with local organizations we have shared our findings publicly through seminars, workshops, and final reports.

Findings

The Waterford River is heavily influenced by human activities. Significant litter and human structures were found within the river during litter clean-ups. Several sections of the river are channelized and lack substrate diversity, including near the St. John’s Harbour dry dock. There is also concern with storm water run off from several adjacent paved lots that introduce pollutants into the river, such as, road salt and motor vehicle waste. Evidence of anthropogenic pollution is present on river bed and shore rocks that are rust coloured which is indicitive of increased iron within the waterway. Increased iron could be of issue alone, however increased iron results in bacterial blooms that could negatively impact fish habitat.

Throughout the duration of the project, three litter clean-ups were completed. During litter clean-ups, many bags of trash were removed and several larger items such as shopping carts, playground sets, and building materials.

Despite anthropogenic influence, the results from water quality monitoring suggest the Waterford River water is suitable for Atlantic salmon and fish habitat. These water quality findings are further backed by the observed presence of American eel (Anguilla rostrata) and Brown Trout (Salmo trutta) present in the river.

We recommend to increase the naturally diversity of the river by adding key fish habitat such as refuge pools, riffles, and diversifying riverbed substrates to improve fish habitat in channelized river sections, with prioritization given to the river section at the mouth of the river near the dry dock. We also recommend that fish passage under the St. John’s Harbour Dry dock be investigated as this site on the river seems to be a source of river back flow, however investigation into this site was beyond the scope of this project and our organizational capacity. Other areas of concern such as urban runoff could be remedied through further community education, watershed planning, and replanting of appropriate native plants to counteract the adverse environmental impacts of pollution from storm water runoff.

This work was made possible through funding from the Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation.