Extent of injury and mortality arising from entrainment of fish through a Very Low Head hydropower turbine in central Ontario, Canada

摘要: Because of growing interest in deploying newer very low head (VLH) turbine technology to generate electricity rivers, there is a need assess how fish fare interactions with VLH turbines. We assessed injury and mortality rates from experimental entrainment species local the study site at Wasdell Falls on Severn River, Ontario, which one first such installations North America. Using balloon tags recapture before/after assessments, we found minimal differences between control (no entrainment) treatment (entrainment) groups. One adult northern pike (Esox lucius Linnaeus, 1758; 1.16% total entrained fish) was killed by strike. Abrasion-related injuries (i.e., scale loss, torn fins) were most common form both fish, likely attributed handling not passage per se. Telemetry monitoring subset revealed that post-passage low. These results suggest has negligible effects studied here, thus, turbines may be suitable for increasing generating capacity dam sites risk fish.