Experiments Using Video to Monitor Outmigrating Columbia River Juvenile Salmonids At Bonneville and Mcnary Dams in 2011

In 2011, video was recorded of fish passing a viewing window at the Bonneville Dam juvenile bypass and subsequently reviewed.  We estimated that only 8.6% of the smolts could be identified by species due to high turbidity, algae growth, the rapid speed of the fish, and the width of the area being monitored. 

In 2011 we also used video and PIT tag technology at the McNary Dam juvenile bypass to capture PIT tag code-imprinted video images of selected juvenile fall Chinook tagged upstream in June, 2011 as they passed through a clear 10 cm diameter pipe.  We detected 81 of the 86 PIT tagged fish which passed.  Of the detected fish that could be positively identified, for 61.5% the presence/absence of an adipose fin could be determined and 47.8% were oriented parallel to the flow.  Fish traveled through our system at up to 4.5 m/s resulting in only two images per fish being captured. The majority of the fish observed (56.4%) appeared to be making contact with the inside of the pipe as they passed.