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Tracy Research Technical Report Abstract

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Volume 39

Karp, C., and J. Lyons. Evaluation of Fish Holding at the Tracy Fish Collection Facility, Tracy, California, Tracy Fish Collection Facility Studies, Volume 39, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Mid Pacific Region and Denver Technical Service Center, 26 pp..

The U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation’s Tracy Fish Collection Facility in central California
was designed to divert, collect, hold, and return salvaged fish to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Fish diverted from entry into the Delta Mendota Canal are collected and held in large circular recessed holding tanks for up to 24 hours (h) awaiting transport. We conducted experiments to determine if holding conditions were damaging collected fish. Sacramento blackfish, Orthodon microlepidotus; splittail, Pogonichthyes macrolepidotus; threadfin shad, Dorosoma petenense; American shad, Alosa sapidissima; and steelhead, Onchorhynchus mykiss, were held with wild entrainment for varying time periods, and then examined for scale loss. Some fish were held for 24-h survival assessment. We observed no open lacerations or missing body parts on the experimental fish. Both holding and fish lift/transfer processes caused some scale loss (up to 58.3 percent of the fish); however, most fish (92.2 percent) showed less than 5 percent loss. Twenty-four-h survival was high for all species except one test with American Shad. We found no statistical relationship between scale loss and holding time, debris load, tank velocity, and density of wild entrained fish.

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Updated January 29, 2013