As existing hydropower and water control projects are being relicensed and new projects, including kinetic and ocean energy, are being proposed, piloted, implemented it is obvious that the rapid pace of these developments requires rapid and simultaneous information on the presence, abundance, distribution and behavior of biological components of the affected habitat. Many of these projects are located in remote or relatively inaccessible locations - some of them completely unmanned and automated. All of these projects are looking to control costs as they are also required to assess and monitor biological interactions. New technologies enable the automated collection, and near-real-time assessment and reporting, of presence, abundance, and behavior of fish and other biological components in the vicinity of the devices or structures of concern.
New kinetic and ocean energy projects, in particular, are benefiting from this technology as it allows real-time consideration of operational requirements to respond to changes in biological activity. Technology which has been incorporated into automated control of existing fish passage facilities and into real-time ocean observing systems is now being incorporated into new and existing fish passage and fish interaction studies and operations.
Examples of operational systems as well as prototype applications will be presented.