Performance Evaluation of the Newly Developed Injectable JSATS Transmitter

Acoustic telemetry has been identified as a technology for observation of behavior and assessment of survival for juvenile Chinook salmon passing through the Federal Columbia River Power System. We developed a downsized transmitter that could meet weight and volume targets for implantation by injection.  The performance of the newly developed transmitter in the field environment was also evaluated to provide assurance that the new transmitter would function as designed both during implantation and following release of implanted fish prior to its full implementation in field studies in the Snake, Columbia, and Willamette rivers. About 700 run-of-river subyearling Chinook salmon were tagged with the injectable transmitter at Lower Monumental Dam and released at Central Ferry (SR rkm 133). The Snake River multi-dam performance study fish implanted with regular transmitters released at Central Ferry during the same period were used as the control fish for this study.  We found that single reach survival rates of fish tagged with the injectable tag are better than those of the fish tagged with regular transmitters at every downstream array and the difference became statistically significant starting at the autonomous array (SR rkm 68) in the forebay of Lower Monumental Dam.