January 21, 2025

Eric Belfanti ’26Students and faculty from Susquehanna University’s Freshwater Research Institute joined with the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association to rescue more than 900 fish that were stranded after the Adam T. Bower Memorial Dam was deflated for the season.

The fish were stranded in November and December after extended rainy weather led to an overflow of the Susquehanna River into a newly constructed fish passageway at the inflatable dam. With little information regarding the types of fish that traverse the dam, the rescue effort took on a research purpose as Sara Ashcraft, an ecologist with Susquehanna’s Freshwater Research Institute, and Dan Ressler, associate professor of earth & environmental sciences, used the opportunity to gather this data.

Using the FRI’s electrofishing backpacks to improve collection rates, Ashcraft and Ressler, along with Eric Belfanti ’26, a double major in environmental studies and physics from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, identified, counted, weighed and measured the fish before they were released back into the river.

Among the fish collected were smallmouth and largemouth bass, rock bass and various shiners and minnows — as well as 13 American eels.

“Gathering this information gives us an interesting baseline,” Ashcraft said. “Studying the connectivity of the fish passageway during high water events or fabridam inflation or deflation could help us develop plans that will hopefully help its management and better understand how fish are migrating along the river’s mainstem.”

Located just below the confluence of the western and main branches of the Susquehanna River, the Adam T. Bower Memorial Dam is the longest inflatable dam in the world. When inflated during the summer, it creates the 3,000-acre Lake Augusta, which is used for recreation. However, the inflated dam impedes the movement of fish up and down the river. The fish passageway, completed by the state in 2024, routes water around the dam structure, allowing aquatic life to bypass the dam.

Belfanti is a student representative on the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association Board of Directors.

“When the dam was built originally, planners weren’t necessarily concerned with fish migration because they simply weren’t thinking about it,” Belfanti said. “But now we can see how much the ladder helps these aquatic species. Seeing the consequences of these projects firsthand allows me to look at other projects and ask similar questions to gain a more holistic understanding.”

— Information and photos from the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association contributed to this story.