Event Title

Session A3 - Graduated-Field, Pulsed-DC Fish Guidance Technology: Successes, Challenges and New Concepts

Location

UMass Amherst

Event Website

http://fishpassage.ecs.umass.edu/Conference2012/

Start Date

5-6-2012 3:45 PM

End Date

5-6-2012 4:05 PM

Description

Various technologies have been developed for fish guidance at hydropower and water diversion projects. Historic attempts to guide fish with electricity used alternating current (AC) for deterrence (often with injurious consequences). This paper highlights an approach to fish guidance that combines new developments in the use of DC electric fields to direct or block fish movements. These include the ability to: (1) vary and control pulsed DC waveforms; (2) remotely monitor and adjust output levels; (3) implement safeguards to minimize potential human or animal interactions with deterrence fields; and (4) create Graduated Field Fish Barriers (GFFBs) for fish conservation (as well as non-graduated, abrupt deterrence fields where conditions warrant). We review the efficiencies of GFFBs and other bottom-mounted electric guidance arrays (which can be up to 100% effective) from results in peer-reviewed literature. Published accounts primarily address deployments to block movements of invasive species (e.g. Asian carp; Chicago Ship Canal). Hydropower facilities using GFFBs have included a tailrace barrier for a power plant in Vessy, Switzerland and a tailrace barrier at the Beeston hydropower facility in the U.K. There are 47 GFFB arrays in use around the world for fish guidance and deterrence. This paper outlines “the lessons learned” in applying electric barrier technology … addressing its successes, challenges, limitations and design modifications to enhance effectiveness. Whereas guidance and deterrence barriers have been largely successful for upstream-moving species, only limited success has been achieved with downstream-moving fish. Accordingly, we discuss some new but untested concepts for guiding downstream-moving fish. These innovative ideas include bottom-mounted, angled-array systems and surface-suspended systems having vertical electrodes (either of which could be used in combination with other deterrence technologies) to induce movement away from intake structures and avoiding incapacitation by the electric field.

Comments

Carl Burger heads the Science Department at Smith-Root, Inc. in Vancouver, WA where he and his team focus on the development and testing of innovative technology for fish behavioral guidance, invasive species control, and marine mammal deterrence. Prior to joining Smith-Root in late 2006, Mr. Burger spent 31 previous years with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service as a Pacific salmon research scientist (Alaska), a science center director (Washington), and a field administrator for the recovery of listed Atlantic salmon in Maine. He was President of the American Fisheries Society in 2001.

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Jun 5th, 3:45 PM Jun 5th, 4:05 PM

Session A3 - Graduated-Field, Pulsed-DC Fish Guidance Technology: Successes, Challenges and New Concepts

UMass Amherst

Various technologies have been developed for fish guidance at hydropower and water diversion projects. Historic attempts to guide fish with electricity used alternating current (AC) for deterrence (often with injurious consequences). This paper highlights an approach to fish guidance that combines new developments in the use of DC electric fields to direct or block fish movements. These include the ability to: (1) vary and control pulsed DC waveforms; (2) remotely monitor and adjust output levels; (3) implement safeguards to minimize potential human or animal interactions with deterrence fields; and (4) create Graduated Field Fish Barriers (GFFBs) for fish conservation (as well as non-graduated, abrupt deterrence fields where conditions warrant). We review the efficiencies of GFFBs and other bottom-mounted electric guidance arrays (which can be up to 100% effective) from results in peer-reviewed literature. Published accounts primarily address deployments to block movements of invasive species (e.g. Asian carp; Chicago Ship Canal). Hydropower facilities using GFFBs have included a tailrace barrier for a power plant in Vessy, Switzerland and a tailrace barrier at the Beeston hydropower facility in the U.K. There are 47 GFFB arrays in use around the world for fish guidance and deterrence. This paper outlines “the lessons learned” in applying electric barrier technology … addressing its successes, challenges, limitations and design modifications to enhance effectiveness. Whereas guidance and deterrence barriers have been largely successful for upstream-moving species, only limited success has been achieved with downstream-moving fish. Accordingly, we discuss some new but untested concepts for guiding downstream-moving fish. These innovative ideas include bottom-mounted, angled-array systems and surface-suspended systems having vertical electrodes (either of which could be used in combination with other deterrence technologies) to induce movement away from intake structures and avoiding incapacitation by the electric field.

https://scholarworks.umass.edu/fishpassage_conference/2012/June5/40