New Marking and Monitoring Techniques

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New Marking and Monitoring Techniques for Fish
( BPA Project 198331900 )
Northwest Fisheries Science Center
Fish Ecology Division
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Background
PIT-tag detection is a critical tool for
performing the monitoring and evaluation of
mitigation actions within the Columbia River
Basin.
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Project goal or problem
The "problem" that this project addresses
is how to expand the current PIT-tag
interrogation and tagging technologies to enable
the fisheries community to successfully carry out
the specified actions, research, and monitoring
activities outlined in the systemwide juvenile
and adult passage program summary and the 2000
BIOP.
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Results / Accomplishments
1998 NMFS started its RD program to adapt
the ISO-based 134.2-kHz technology for detection
of adult salmonids in fish ladders (orifices)
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Transceiver system
Antenna system
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2001 Full-ladder installation (prototype)
orifice
weir overflow
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Evaluation of full-ladder installation
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Reading efficiencies
Individual orifices 99.9
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Results from tagged fish at Bonneville Dam in
2001
Reading efficiency for full ladder ()
Species
Spring chinook salmon
95.9
Fall chinook salmon
90.5
B-run steelhead
96.5
Coho salmon
78.1
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2002 Technology advances
Changes in the transceiver
resulted in larger antennas
Alternative choke points
(e.g. counting stations and vertical slots)
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Examples of research issues
What will adult detection provide?
Management / Research / Monitoring tool to
evaluate mitigation efforts

• Conversion rates (needed to try to track losses
• of fish between dams)

• Smolt-to-adult return (SAR) information

• Investigating transport verses inriver issues

• Fallback rates

• The effects of facility operations

• Return estimates

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2002 Technology advances
Full-flow interrogation system
Main juvenile fish bypass pipe at McNary Dam
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2002 Technology advances
In-stream interrogation system
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FUTURE
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Bonneville Dam - corner collector
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Spillway at Little Goose Dam
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Proposed work for FY03-05
Upgrade transceiver system, so it can

• Control multiple adjacent antennas

• Control larger antennas

• Auto-tune to adjust for changing environmental
  conditions

• Reduce significantly the power requirements,
• internal noise, and the effects of external
  noise interference

• Accept additional interface cards such as
  sensor cards
• or flash memory

Develop and evaluate a high-flow interrogation
system for the corner collector at
Bonneville Dam
Adapt state-of-the-art tagging technology