Migration Results of Acoustically Tagged Salmon Smolts at Rocky Reach and Rock Island Dams on the Columbia River

Acoustic tags were used to monitor the swimming patterns of downstream migrating salmon smolts approaching Rocky Reach and Rock Island dams on the Columbia River.  Downstream migrating yearling chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss), and sockeye (Oncorhynchus nerka) were surgically implanted with acoustic tags.  Fish were tracked in three-dimensions as they approached and passed into the turbine intakes, spillways, and surface bypass channel entrances at the dams during the 2010 spring outmigrations.  Various results will be presented including travel time through different reaches of the river, route specific passage, route specific survival and cross river upstream horizontal distributions.  A number of advances in the analysis techniques and software have been made over the past few years.  Some of these improvements include the development of various fish density algorithms and advances of three-dimensional animation programs.  Three-dimensional tracks of fish approaching the turbine intakes, spillways, and surface bypass channel entrances will be presented.  Concentrations of fish passage will be presented as three-dimensional fish densities superimposed over dam structures.