Robert P. Mueller

Survival Estimates for Juvenile Fish Subjected to a Laboratory-Generated Shear Environment

Abstract Juvenile rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss and steelhead (anadromous rainbow trout), fall (age-0 and age-1) and spring Chinook salmon O. tshawytscha, and American shad Alosa sapidissima were exposed to shear environments in the laboratory to establish injury–mortality thresholds based on estimates of strain rate. Fish were exposed to a submerged jet having exit velocities of 0 to 21.3 m/s, providing estimated exposure strain rates up to 1,185/s. Turbulence intensity in the area of the jet where fish were subjected to shear was minimal, varying from 3% to 6% of the estimated exposure strain rate. Injuries and mortalities increased for all species of fish at strain rates greater than 495/s. American shad were the most susceptible to injury after being subjected headfirst to a shear environment, while steelhead and rainbow trout were the most resistant. There was no apparent size-related trend in susceptibility to high shear except that age-0 fall Chinook salmon were more resistant to shear environm...

Tagging Juvenile Pacific Lamprey with Passive Integrated Transponders: Methodology, Short-Term Mortality, and Influence on Swimming Performance

Abstract This study was conducted to determine the feasibility (i.e., efficiency and nonintrusiveness) of tagging juvenile Pacific lampreys Lampetra tridentata with passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags and to determine any associated impacts on survivorship and swimming ability. Juvenile Pacific lampreys were obtained from the John Day Dam fish collection facility and tests were conducted at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in 2001 and 2002. A new PIT-tagging procedure was used to inject 12-mm tags 5 mm posterior to the gill openings. Lampreys were allowed to recover for 3–4 d following surgery before postmortality and swimming tests were conducted. The PIT tagging procedure during 2001 did not include a suture, and 2.6% of the tags were shed after 40 d. During 2002 a single suture was used to close the opening after inserting a tag, and no tag shedding was observed. Overall short-term mortality rates for lampreys 120–155 mm (total length) held for 40 d at 8°C was 2.2% for tagged and 2.7% fo...

Upstream Passage Monitoring: Difficulties in Estimating Survival for Adult Chinook Salmon in the Columbia and Snake Rivers

We reviewed current methods used to estimate survival of adult chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) as they migrate upstream past hydroelectric projects in the Columbia and Snake rivers, evaluated known and unaccounted-for loss factors, and assessed how adult survival estimates could be improved. Dam counts and associated passage conversion rates do not always provide accurate estimates of adult survival between hydroelectric projects. Expansion techniques for reconstructing run size and harvest rates also contribute to variability in estimates of run size and potential loss between hydroelectric projects. Use of passage conversion rates to estimate in-river survival of adult spring chinook salmon had less uncertainty than for estimates of other runs. Fixed-run cutoff dates for migration timing result in a high uncertainty for monitoring relative numbers of summer chinook salmon. We also found it difficult to reconstruct run size to spawning areas or to estimate interdam survival for fall chinook in lower Snake River dams because of straying and high incidence (e.g., up to 40% at some projects) of fallback behavior. In-river survival estimates of adult chinook salmon would be improved by factoring adult fallback percentages into passage estimates, combining spring and summer runs for accounting purposes, and reassessing harvest accounting

Laboratory Studies on the Effects of Shear on Fish

The overall objective of our studies was to specify an index describing the hydraulic force that fish experience when subjected to a shear environment. Fluid shear is a phenomenon that is important to fish. However, elevated levels of shear may result in strain rates that injure or kill fish. At hydroelectric generating facilities, concerns have been expressed that strain rates associated with passage through turbines, spillways, and fish bypass systems may adversely affect migrating fish. Development of fish friendly hydroelectric turbines requires knowledge of the physical forces (injury mechanisms) that impact entrained fish and the fishs tolerance to these forces. It requires up-front, pre-design specifications for the environmental conditions that occur within the turbine system, in other words, determining or assuming that those conditions known to injure fish will provide the descriptions of conditions that engineers must consider in the design of a turbine system. These biological specifications must be carefully and thoroughly documented throughout the design of a fish friendly turbine. To address the development of biological specifications, we designed and built a test facility where juvenile fish could be subjected to a range of shear environments and quantified their biological response.

Effects of Jet Entry at High Flow Outfalls on Juvenile Pacific Salmon

Abstract We conducted field studies and laboratory experiments to explore the relationship between direct injury and mortality rates of juvenile Pacific salmon Oncorhyncus spp. and the jet entry velocities characteristic of high-flow (>28.3 m3/s) outfalls at hydroelectric facilities. During field tests, the range of calculated mean entry velocities was 9.3–13.7 m/s for low (28.3 m3/s) and high (68.0–70.2 m3/s) outfall discharge rates and two receiving water elevations. Mortality and injury rates of balloon-tagged hatchery juvenile spring chinook salmon O. tshawytscha in the field tests were less than 1%. At a high-velocity flume in a laboratory, small (87–100 mm fork length (FL)) and large (135–150 mm FL) hatchery fall chinook salmon were exposed to velocities of 0.0–24.4 m/s in a fast-fish-to-slow-water scenario. Jet entry velocities up to 15.2 m/s provided benign passage conditions for the sizes and physiological states of juvenile salmonids tested under the particular environmental conditions present d...

Injury and Mortality of Juvenile Salmon Entrained in a Submerged Jet Entering Still Water

Abstract Development of more eco-friendly hydroelectric facilities requires better understanding of the biological response of juvenile fish when they migrate through the turbines and other downstream passage facilities. Juvenile fall Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha were exposed to turbulent shear flows in a laboratory by using a fast-fish-to-slow-water mechanism in which test fish were carried by the fast-moving water of a submerged turbulent jet into the slow-moving water of a flume. Fish were released at six nozzle velocities: 6.1 (reference control), 12.2, 15.2, 18.3, 21.3, and 22.9 m/s. The onset of minor and major injuries occurred at 15.2 and 21.3 m/s, respectively. The acceleration magnitude threshold (m/s2) of major injury for the fast-fish-to-slow-water mechanism in this study was found to be significantly higher than that for a slow-fish-to-fast-water mechanism used in a previous study in which test fish were introduced into a turbulent jet from slow-moving water through an introduction...

Use of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to Identify and Characterize Overwintering Areas of Fish in Ice-Covered Arctic Rivers: A Demonstration with Broad Whitefish and Their Habitats in the Sagavanirktok River, Alaska

Abstract In northern climates, locating overwintering fish can be very challenging due to thick ice cover. Areas near the coast of the Beaufort Sea provide valuable overwintering habitat for both resident and anadromous fish species; identifying them and understanding their use of overwintering areas is of special interest. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery from two spaceborne satellites was examined as an alternative to radiotelemetry for identifying anadromous fish overwintering. The presence of water and ice were sampled at 162 sites, and fish were sampled at 16 of these sites. From SAR imagery alone, we successfully identified large pools inhabited by overwintering fish in the ice-covered Sagavanirktok River, Alaska. In addition, the imagery was able to identify all of the larger pools (mean minimum length = 138 m, SD = 131, range = 15–470 m) of water located by field sampling. The effectiveness of SAR in identifying these pools varied from 31% to 100%, depending on imagery polarization, the inci...

Observations of the Behavior and Distribution of Fish in Relation to the Columbia River Navigation Channel and Channel Maintenance Activities

This report is a compilation of 7 studies conducted for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1995 and 1998 which used hydroacoustic methods to study the behavior of migrating salmon in response to navigation channel maintenance activities in the lower Columbia River near river mile 45. Differences between daytime and nighttime behavior and fish densities were noted. Comparisons were made of fish distribution across the river (in the channel, channel margin or near shore) and fish depth upstream and downstream of dikes, dredges, and pile driving areas.

Hydroacoustic Evaluation of Juvenile Salmonid Passage at The Dalles Dam in 2004

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Portland District engaged the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to evaluate juvenile salmon passage at The Dalles Dam in 2004 to inform decisions about long-term measures and operations to enhance sluiceway and spill passage and reduce turbine passage to improve smolt survival at the dam. PNNL used fixed-location hydroacoustic sampling across the entire project, especially at the sluiceway and spillway, using multiple split-beam transducers at selected locations. At the sluiceway nearfield, we used an acoustic camera to track fish. The fish data were interpreted and integrated with hydraulic data from a CFD model and in-field ADCP measurements. Two sluiceway operations were compared: West only (SL 1) vs. West+East (SL 1 + SL 18). Based on our findings, we concluded that The Dalles Dam sluiceway has the potential to be highly efficient and effective at passing juvenile salmonids. This potential could be tapped with hydraulic and entrance enhancements to the sluiceway. We recommended the following: (1) six rather than three sluice gates should be opened to take advantage of the maximum hydraulic capacity of the sluiceway. (2) The turbine units below open sluice gates should be operated as a standard fish operations procedure. (3) In 2005, the Corps and fisheries agencies should consider operating sluice gates in one or more of the following combinations of six gates: (a) SL 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 and SL 18-1, 18-2, 18-3 (repeat 2004 operation), (b) SL 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 and SL 11-1, 11-2, 11-3, or (c) SL 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 and SL 2-1, 2-2, 2-3. The following elements for surface flow bypasses which should be considered during design of any sluiceway enhancements at The Dalles Dam: (1) form an extensive surface flow bypass flow net (surface bypass discharge greater than {approx}7% of total project discharge), (2) create a gradual increase in water velocity approaching the surface flow bypass (ideally, acceleration 3 m/s) to entrain the subject juvenile fishes, (4) adapt the shape and orientation of the surface entrance(s) to fit site-specific features, and (5) consider installing a forebay wall to increase fish availability to the surface flow bypass.

Feasibility of Tracking Fish with Acoustic Transmitters in the Ice Harbor Dam Tailrace

The Juvenile Salmon Acoustic Telemetry System (JSATS) has been used at many dams but has never been deployed in the near-dam tailrace environment. The use of JSATS in the tailrace is of interest to fishery managers to evaluate downstream passage behavior of juvenile salmonids and dam approach behavior of upstream migrating adult salmon and lamprey. The acoustic noise level and detection range of JSATS were studied to determine the feasibility of deploying JSATS in the Ice Harbor Dam tailrace. The noise level measured from the powerhouse deck was less than 104 dB re 1 μPa except for the turbine outlet near the spillway, and 350 m downstream of the dam, the noise level was less than 106 dB. The measured noise levels would allow a theoretical detection range of 100 m to 350 m and 85 m to 320 m, respectively. Validation experiments showed that the detection range is 113 to 184 m using hydrophones deployed from the powerhouse deck and 148 m using hydrophones deployed 500 m downstream of the dam.