The Sensor Fish: Measuring Fish Passage in Severe Hydraulic Conditions

Abstract

This article describes PNNL's efforts to develop the Sensor Fish, a waterproof sensor package that travels thru the turbines of spillways of hydroelectric dam to collect pressure and acceleration data on the conditions experienced by live salmon smolts during dam passage. Sensor Fish development is sponsored by the DOE Advanced Hydropower Turbine Survival Program. The article also gave two recent examples of Sensor Fish use: turbine passage at a McNary Kaplan turbine and spill passage in topspill at Rock Island Dam.