A Fisheries Evaluation of the Sunnyside Canal Fish Screening Facility, Spring 1985 Annual Report.

The Sunnyside Canal Fish Screening Facility (Sunnyside Screens) is part of a joint project by the Bonneville Power Administration and the Bureau of Reclamation to construct fish passage and protective facilities at existing irrigation diversions in the Yakima River Basin. This report summarizes the evaluation of the work conducted at the Sunnyside Screens. About 4000 chinook salmon, Oncorhyncus tshawytscha, and 2000 steelhead, Salmo gairdneri, smolts were released in front of or within the Sunnyside Canal Fish Screening Facility. We caught 3625 chinook salmon and less than 2% were descaled or dead. We captured 507 of the steelhead and none were descaled or dead. The Sunnyside Screens are in the Sunnyside Canal, about 360 m downstream of the Sunnyside Dam on the Yakima River (river kilometer 167). The screening facility diverts fish that have entered the canal back into the Yakima River. Descaling and mortality data were gathered by releasing branded fish into the canal, upstream of the facility, and capturing them before they returned to the river. Captured fish were anesthetized and examined for descaling that occurred during passage through the screening facility.