The Juvenile Salmon Acoustic Telemetry System: A New Tool

Abstract

Limitations of biotelemetry technology available in 2001 prompted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Portland District to develop a new acoustic telemetry system to monitor survival of juvenile salmonids through the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. Eight years later, the Juvenile Salmon Acoustic Telemetry System (JSATS) consists of microacoustic transmitters (12 mm long, 0.43 g weight in air), autonomous and cabled receiving systems, and data management and processing applications. Transmitter pulse rate can be user‐defined and as configured for this case study was set at 5 seconds, with an estimated tag life of 30 days and detection range of 300 m. Before JSATS development, no technology existed to study movement and survival of fish smaller than 10 g migrating long distances from freshwater and into saltwater. In a 2008 study comparing detection probabilities, travel times, and survival of 4,140 JSATS‐tagged and 48,433 passive integrated transponder (PIT)‐tagged yearling Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha; mean fork length 133.9 and 135.3 mm, for JSATS and PIT‐tagged fish, respectively) migrating the Snake and Columbia rivers to the Pacific, the JSATS provided survival estimates at more locations with greater precision, using less than one‐tenth as many tagged fish as the traditional PIT‐tag system. While designed to be optimized for juvenile salmonid survival assessment in the Columbia River basin, JSATS technology may be used in a variety of environments. Information regarding different acoustic telemetry systems from various vendors is presented and discussed relative to the nonproprietary JSATS.

Contributed Review: Source-localization algorithms and applications using time of arrival and time difference of arrival measurements

“…Transmitters with frequency and pulse codes that permit fish to be individually identified can provide detailed information on both the large-and smallscale behavior of fish (Berman and Quinn, 1991). A recent example is the Juvenile Salmon Acoustic Telemetry System that is being used to monitor the survival and behavior of juvenile salmonids migrating downstream through eight large hydroelectric facilities within the Federal Columbia River Power System to the Pacific Ocean (McMichael et al, 2010;Weiland et al, 2011;Deng et al, 2011;and Deng et al, 2015).…”

Perspective: Towards environmentally acceptable criteria for downstream fish passage through mini hydro and irrigation infrastructure in the Lower Mekong River Basin

“…Internationally, advances across a broad range of in-field technologies, such as the balloontag recapture technique, 30 biotelemetry, 31 and sensor fish, 32 have provided a greater understanding of the hydraulic conditions experienced by large migrating fish at different river infrastructure. Targeted experimental work has also provided design criteria which can help to protect smaller fish (such as larvae and juveniles).…”

A summary of the use of electronic tagging to provide insights into salmon migration and survival

“…Hence, smaller transmitters are needed to delineate their migratory pathways, rates of movement, and their reach-specific survival. These transmitters have been developed as part of the Juvenile Salmon Acoustic Tracking System (JSATS) in the Columbia River (McMichael et al 2010). This will make it possible to track the smaller individuals of these other runs and other salmonid species in the near future.…”

“…Secondly, the signals emitted from these beacons are unique so that each tagged fish can be recognized by its code, which enables recording movement patterns and mortality of individual fish. This has been accomplished with two types of coding, pulse interval modulation or frequency phase shifting (McMichael et al 2010). Thirdly, automated monitors have been developed that identify and record the passage of individual fish from the unique signals emitted from these beacons (Klimley et al 1998).…”