Juvenile Salmonid Pit-Tag Studies at Prosser Dam and the Chandler Canal Fish Collection Facility, Yakima River, 1991 and 1992 Final Report.

In 1991 and 1992, the National Marine Fisheries Service completed the second and third years of a 3-year study to estimate juvenile salmonid (Oncorhynchus spp.) timing and survival characteristics related to passage through the Prosser Dam complex, including the Chandler Canal and the Chandler fish collection facility, on the Yakima River. Yearling chinook (O. tshawyacha) and coho salmon (O. kisutch) were collected at the Chandler facility, PIT tagged, and released at various locations in the Yakima River, Chandler Canal, and the Chandler facility. Individual fish were subsequently detected at PIT-tag detection monitors at the Chandler facility and/or McNary Dam on the Columbia River. Survival through various reaches, PIT-tag detection efficiency, and Chandler Canal fish entrainment proportion parameters were estimated using maximum likelihood techniques. The research objectives in 1991 and 1992 were to: (1) assess the effects of passage through the Chandler Canal and the Chandler facility on the survival of juvenile salmonids, (2) determine the entrainment rate of juvenile salmonids into the Chandler Canal as a function of river flow, and (3) determine the efficiency and reliability of the PIT-tag monitoring system at the Chandler facility. The initial 1990 research plan was expanded in 1991 and 1992 to include several more release locations and many more release days