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Ransom, B. H. and T. W. Steig (1994). Using hydroacoustics to monitor fish at hydropower dams. Pages 163-169 in International Symposium of the North American Lake Management Society, Seattle, WA (USA), Lake and Reservoir Management.

In the USA hundreds of existing hydropower sites have federal operating licenses that expire by the year 2000, and many licenses are being considered for new sites. The mortality to fish passing through hydropower dams has been variously estimated at 2-30%. Many of the power producers applying for licenses in the USA and elsewhere have been required to evaluate the impact their facilities have on fish. Entrainment studies are potentially expensive, labor intensive, and can effect project operations. Estimates of fish entrainment may be required 24 hour/day for up to 12 months, with periodic evaluations of fish survivability through turbine units. Underwater acoustics (sonar) provides one method of obtaining these data that has been accepted by many government fisheries agencies (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 1987). Fixed-location hydroacoustic techniques have proved effective at documenting and quantify the abundance and behavior of fish passing through hydropower dams, and in reservoirs. In the last 15 years, hundreds of hydroacoustic evaluations of entrainment at hydropower dams have been conducted in the USA.