| Ongoing
Projects: Fish Screen Program Fish screens are a proven technology used to protect a wide variety of aquatic species from entrainment into water diversions, including several species of endangered and threatened Pacific salmon. When fish are entrained, or drawn out of their natural habitats by hydraulic forces from a water diversion, they are most often injured or killed. Surveys of water users canals have shown that considerable numbers of salmon, steelhead, and other fishes can be entrained into gravity and pumped water diversions from Californias waterways in a single day. Fish screens represent a reliable technology that can reduce the cumulative impacts of entrainment. Fish screens, designed and built to National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)-Southwest Regions standards, offer a fine mesh, positive barrier between a natural fish-bearing stream and a water diversion point- eliminating entrainment and impingement of most juvenile and adult fish. NMFS-Southwest Regions Habitat Conservation Division plays an important role in Californias fish screening program through its leadership and oversight; as well as by conducting field research, performance assessments, and diving inspections. |
NMFS engineers are involved in all phases of federally-sponsored fish screen projects:
As of 2007, many of the largest water diversions in Californias Central Valley have been fitted with state-of-the-art fish screens, but thousands of smaller diversions throughout the state continue to operate with no screen in place. |
Back to Fisheries Bio-Engineering Projects 03/11/08 |
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