The purpose of the proposed project is to evaluate the ability of the fishheart fish passage system to provide safe, effective, and timely passage for certain migrating fish species found in waters of…

The purpose of the proposed project is to evaluate the ability of the fishheart fish passage system to provide safe, effective, and timely passage for certain migrating fish species found in waters of the east coast of the united states (U.S.). The fishheart fish passage system is a recent innovation invented in finland which has only proven passage for certain fish species in finland and sweden. Project activities would primarily be completed by the electric power research institute (epri), fishheart LTD., verdantas flow labs, and the pacific northwest national lab (pnnl). Planned activities include the deployment of a fishheart fish passage system at santee cooper's spillway DAM on the santee river (south carolina), use of monitoring technologies to evaluate fish activity while operating the fishheart system, collect and evaluate fish that pass through the fishheart system, and engagement with historically black colleges and universities (hbcus). Findings would be reported to the U.S. Department of energy (DOE) and research community, which would include the delivery of a final technical report to DOE. Beneficiaries of the project would include stakeholders affected by research and advancement of fish passage technologies at hydropower facilities.