Evaluation of the Whooshh Passage Portal for Upstream Passage of American Shad.

Capone, Kimberly¹, Steve Amaral¹, Jenna Rackovan¹, Jake LaFontaine¹, Janine Bryan², Chad Holbrook³, Paul Jacobson⁴, ¹Alden, a Verdantas Company, Holden, MA, ²Whooshh Innovations, Seattle, WA, ³Santee Cooper, Moncks Corner, SC, ⁴EPRI, Palo Alto, CA

Providing effective passage facilities for American Shad and river herring at hydropower dams is a priority for resource agencies due to declining stocks and ongoing restoration efforts. Fish passage can be problematic for these species with respect to biological, engineering, and project operation considerations, as well as being costly to install and maintain. As an alternative to traditional designs, Whooshh Innovations has developed the Whooshh Passage Portal (WPP), a low-cost technology designed to safely, autonomously, volitionally, and efficiently pass fish upstream. To provide data on the performance of a complete system (i.e., volitional entry components, image scanner, accelerator, and passage tube), we conducted a field evaluation of American Shad passage through a WPP installed at a hydropower project on the Santee River in South Carolina. The study investigated volitional entry, sorting, and passage of shad with respect to transport-associated injury and mortality. The study results presented will be used to provide dam owners and resource agencies with information to assess the suitability of the WPP as a low cost and effective alternative to conventional fishways that are typically used for shad.