The Effect of a Deflector Net on the Movements of Radiotagged Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) Smolts at the Intake of the Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Facility, Connecticut River, 1995 (Draft)

• Main Author: Northeast Utilities Service Company
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst 1995
• Subjects: Atlantic salmon; Connecticut River; entrainment; intake; monitoring; Northeast Utilities; Northfield Mountain; pumped storage; radio tags; Salmo salar; salmon; smolt; upstream
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/fishpassage_reports/287

Northeast Utilities Service Company installed a deflector net upstream of the Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Facility intake on the Connecticut River to reduce entrainment of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) smolts. The effect of the net was evaluated by releasing 91 radiotagged hatchery-reared smolts near the intake and monitoring their movements near the net, in the intake area, and downstream. Overall, 62% of the 66 radiotagged smolts that swan downstream passed the intake and 38% were entrained. Comparison with the results of an evaluation conducted in 1994 indicated that the deflector net reduced the percentage entrained by half, even though some of the smolts that avoided entrainment had apparently gone around the net and entered the intake area. The 1995 results indicated that lengthening the net could result in further entrainment reductions.