KEOKUK DAM 
109 
INJURING AND DESTRUCTION OF FISH 
EXTENT AND CHARACTER OF INJURY 
From the time the plant was completed there have been complaints by the fish- 
ermen that fish were being maimed and killed. These injuries are variously attrib- 
uted to the turbines and rock piles at the base of the dam; some think they occur 
while fish are trying to ascend and others while they are moving downstream. Al- 
though no conclusion has been arrived at, the evidence is presented in full so as to 
be readily available for future investigation. 
The observations by Surber (Coker, 1914, p. 15), and by Stringham during 1915 
and the first half of 1916 failed to throw fight upon the matter, though a few dead 
and injured fish were noted. 
In August, 1914, the author observed several examples of the paddlefish taken 
in a floating gill net in swift water below the dam, the snouts of which had been 
broken off entirely. During June and July, 1915, there were usually some dead fish 
floating in an eddy at the south end of the finished half of the power house, and in 
the course of the same months reports from four independent sources told of dead 
catfish floating down the river. 
On May 26, 1916, a goujon, 84 centimeters (33 inches) over all, was found float- 
ing past the lock with the left half of the head to the shoulder girdle cut off; the fish 
was fresh, and the flesh was used by one of the men working at the lock. A German 
carp about 1 meter long was found in the eddy below the power house on June 9 
with a gash near the dorsal edge just behind the collar bone. Another fish of about 
the same size and probably the same species was seen on July 15 floating down the 
tailrace with its head cut off to the shoulder girdle. One or two more large and some 
smaller fish were seen floating, but the character of their injuries was not ascertained. 
From the beginning the complaints had centered largely on the paddlefish, but 
very few representatives of this species were taken during 1915 or the first half of 
1916. On July 31, of the latter year one was picked up off Main Street in Keokuk, 
having the bill or snout broken off and the operculum hanging loose. Up to August 
23 one other example (a very small one) was seen at Keokuk, and this likewise had 
the snout broken. On alternate days, beginning August 23 and ending August 31, 
seine hauls were witnessed in which 53 paddlefish were taken, being more than were 
seen in the course of the rest of two seasons’ work. Of these 36 fish, constituting 
66 per cent, had the snouts broken. Included in these 36 were about half a dozen 
with the bones cracked but the snout not lost nor bent, and approximately as many 
with part of the snout gone. The usual type of injury was a fairly clean cut, there 
being no general mashing of the snout. The body was otherwise unhurt. 
With a view to learning whether paddlefish suffer this way in other localities 
some inquiries were made. On August 24, 1916, Earl Bauter, then at Montrose, 
Iowa, mentioned that they had taken one on the Illinois River the preceding fall 
with its snout broken. In reply to a question he said that they had caught altogether 
75 to 100, and the rest were sound; most of them were caught in a seine and a few 
in hoop or fyke nets. Of half a dozen large ones taken in Keokuk Lake that summer, 
all were uninjured. Dr. George Wagner, who in 1904 examined about 1,500 at Lake 
Pepin (Wagner, 1908), wrote on September 13, 1916, that all were taken in seines, 
and that while he kept no record of injuries he is very sure that none of them showed 
any sign of broken bones. On September 18, 1916, Austin F. Shira, director of 
the Fisheries Biological Station, Fairport, Iowa, said he had seen about 500 taken in 
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