Fish Deterrence and Guidance Technologies: From Innovative Concepts to Lessons Learned Part 1

Safe, effective fish barriers and avoidance and guidance technologies are a high priority for fisheries, hydropower, and water resource managers and their resource conservation needs.  Various applications have been deployed over the past few decades to block unwanted movements of both upstream- and downstream-moving fish. Typically, objectives are to redirect fish towards diversion bypasses, limit range extensions of invasive species, or prevent fish from entering areas where their presence is not wanted. Guidance and deterrence technologies can include physical structures (such as inclined planes and screens), sound in various forms, lights, water velocity enhancement devices, pulse-pressure acoustics, electric deterrence arrays, and techniques such as acoustic bubble barriers — in attempts to guide fish towards intended locations and away from tailraces, pumped irrigation canals, and other water intake structures.  The goal of this symposium is to focus on such fish deterrence and guidance technologies, including possible hybrid approaches that could improve success, and provide information to update bioengineers and resource managers about fish guidance technologies with particular attention on innovations, successes, challenges, and lessons learned.  Presenters will include engineers, biologists, hydrologists and other practitioners involved in the design, construction, application, and monitoring of various fish barriers and guidance technologies at an international level to discuss what works, what hasn’t worked, what is being considered, as well as novel approaches, innovative designs, conceptual modeling strategies, monitoring results, and lessons learned from past applications.