EFFECT OF WATER VELOCITY ON PASSAGE OF SALMONIDS 

 IN A TRANSPORTATION CHANNEL 



By Joseph R. Gauley, Fishery Biologist (Research) 

 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Fish-Passage Research Program, Seattle, Wash. 98102 



ABSTRACT 



Passage times of fish at velocities of 1 and 2 feet per 

 second were compared in a 4-foot wide transportation 

 channel, with a water depth of 6 feet. The timing 

 zone was about 100 feet long. 



Passage times did not differ significantly between 



water velocities for any one of three species: chinook 

 salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), steelhead trout 

 {Saltno gairdneri). and sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus 

 nerka). The two salmon species moved faster than 

 steelhead trout at both water velocities. 



Transportation channels for migrating adult fish 

 are part of the fish-passage facilities at many clams. 

 These channels vary somewhat physically, but all 

 have the primary purpose of providing a passage 

 area leading either to or from the fish ladders or 

 other passage facilities. Most of the large dams 

 on the Columbia River — Bonneville, ]\IcXary, and 

 The Dalles, for e.xample — have a multiple-entrance 

 collection channel on the dowTistream side of the 

 powerhouse which also serves as a transjDortation 

 channel. In addition, independent channels are 

 occasionally provided at some dams to pass fish 

 from a single major entrance to a distant fishway. 

 The Dalles Dam is ec^uipped with both types (U.S. 

 Army Corps of Engineers, 1957). These channels 

 make it possible for one fishway to serve two or 

 more collection points. Some channels are nearly a 

 quarter mile long and may require up to 1,000 

 cubic feet per second (c.f.s.) of water for operation. 



Water velocity in a transportation channel is 

 important fi'om the standpoint of fish passage as 

 well as water use. Clay (1961) reported that the 

 accepted standard velocity for ensuring continuous 

 migration of fish through open channels is near 2 feet 

 per second (f.p.s.). Preliminary experiments at the 

 Fisheries-Engineering Research Laboratory at Bon- 

 Note — Approved for publication March 8, 1966- 



neville Dam indicated that a velocity considerably 

 less than 2 f.p.s. might be satisfactory for passage of 

 salmonids. If so, velocity standards for transporta- 

 tion channels could be lowered and less water used 

 without impeding the passage of migrating fish. 



The purpose of this sttidy ' was to determine if 

 salmonids would move up a transportation channel 

 as rapidly in a water velocity of 1 f.p.s. as in 2 f.p.s. 



EXPERIMENTAL EQUIPMENT 



The study was made in the Fisheries-Engineering 

 Research Laboratory at Bonneville Dam on the 

 Columbia River. Details of the laboratory were 

 described by Collins and Filing (19G0). The experi- 

 mental transportation channel (fig. 1) was 4 feet 

 wide, 91 feet long, and operated at a water depth of 

 6 feet. Fish were timed over a distance of about 

 100 feet. (This included a short introductory area 

 extending from a release compartment to the chan- 

 nel.) Water velocity was controlled by regulating 

 the head on a weir located between the flow-intro- 

 duction pool and the test channel. Headwater 

 elevations producing velocities of 1 and 2 f.p.s. were 

 determined before the experiment was started. 



I Research financed by tlie U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as part of a 

 broad program to provide design criteria for more economical and efficient 

 fish-pasaage facilities at Corps projects on the Columbia River. 



FISHERY bulletin: VOLUME 66, NO. 1 



59 



