FY 2022 Hood Canal Bridge Fish Passage Mitigation

This project will entail implementing and testing on-the-ground measures to reduce the impacts stemming from the presence of the Hood Canal Bridge. The Hood Canal Bridge is a migration barrier to juvenile salmonids, including ESA listed Puget Sound steelhead, Puget Sound Chinook, and Hood Canal summer chum. This implementation project, which includes several components including design, fabrication, deployment, and operations will primarily help fund the operations and adaptive management of a fish guidance structure “fillet” on the Hood Canal Bridge. The structure will be deployed to facilitate fish passage and alter fish / predator behavior in the project area (The project area was identified as a high predation zone during phase 1 of the Hood Canal Bridge Ecosystem Assessment). In addition to assisting in the deployment and development of the structure, the tribe will use visual acoustics (multibeam imaging sonar), and remote underwater video to ensure that the structure is functioning as designed. The data generated by PGST will be used to adaptively manage the system and to provide detailed information on fish schooling, predator behavior, and fish-predator interactions in the project area. In addition, our project partners at NOAA Fisheries will use acoustic tagging and tracking to describe fine-scale migration patterns of steelhead as they encounter the Bridge and to identify migration paths associated with survival and mortality. Post deployment results will indicate whether the fish guidance structure; alters fish / predator behavior and increases the probability of juvenile steelhead survival.

This project will leverage significant state funds ($3.6 million allocated by RCO for FY21) secured by project partner Long Live the Kings to construct structural bridge modifications.

Acoustic telemetry studies conducted by NOAA in 2017 and 2018 revealed that ~50% of tagged steelhead smolts that encountered the Hood Canal Bridge did not survive past it. This project builds on several years of PCSRF investments to assess bridge impacts. The tribe completed the primary components of the Impact Assessment in 2020; since that time, the tribe has worked with partners from Long Live the Kings, National Marine Fisheries Service, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington State Department of Transportation, United States Navy, and Hood Canal Coordinating Council to design fish passage mitigation strategies at the bridge.

This project will help forward Phase 2 of the Hood Canal Bridge Ecosystem Assessment which is designed to: 1) implement and iterate on the highest priority management actions recommended through the Phase 1 process. and 2) address remaining high priority knowledge gaps regarding bridge impacts on juvenile Chinook and chum salmon, and adult salmon returning to natal Hood Canal watersheds.