In 2017, FISHBIO began providing services to California American Water to help monitor the steelhead at Los Padres Reservoir on the Carmel River. We evaluated a recently installed behavioral guidance system and floating surface collector that are intended to assist the downstream migration of coastal steelhead. The fish guidance system, positioned in front of the Los Padres Reservoir spillway, consists of a string of buoys with curtains suspend below. This device directs fish into a floating surface collector, which sends them into a pipeline leading from the top of the dam down to the Carmel River below. FISHBIO designed and installed a Smolt Spy video monitoring system within the surface collector to identify and enumerate fish moving through this system. We have also provided support with maintenance and adjustments of the guidance system and debris management buoys.
