After two weeks of inclement weather and a rapidly disappearing window for installation, Fishery board staff, Whooshh Engineers (Seattle USA) and SSE managed a successful deployment of a 120m long smolt guidance curtain on Loch Meig.
This floating boom is connected to 90 vertical electrodes suspended 4m down in the water column and has been designed especially to guide smolts into the fish pass at Meig Dam using a very low voltage electronic system.
The study aims to test whether the guidance system increases number of smolts exiting from Loch Meig by comparing passage rates of PIT tagged smolts when system is switched on vs. switched off. As part of the study 1250 fish will be PIT tagged at the Meig rotary screw trap site.
Data to follow!
