The Council has been directed by the Congress, in the Conference Report accompanying the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act for the Fiscal Year 1998, to review "the major fish mitigation capital construction activities proposed for implementation at the Federal dams in the Columbia River Basin." The Council was directed to conduct this review by June 30, 1998, with the assistance of the Independent Scientific Advisory Board (ISAB).We previously submitted report ISAB 98-4, covering questions from the Council about the ecosystem context for mainstem fish passage measures as well as the questions about the specific measures for John Day and Bonneville dams, and ISAB 98-7 and 98-8, respectively, covering the surface collection and gas saturation questions.This report (ISAB 99-2) addresses issues concerning adult passage as part of our review of the Corps’ capital construction program. With respect to specific adult passage measures identified for improvement, the ISAB had information from the "Technical Background Paper for Review of the Corps Capital Construction Program" addressed to the System Coordination Team (SCT) from Council staff on February 9, 1998. We also had the Corps of Engineers Work Plans for 1997 and 1998, which identified measures for improvement of adult passage that the Corps proposed to undertake.We also were aided in our review of adult fish passage improvements through a briefing by Dr. Ted Bjornn (University of Idaho) and Lowell Stuehrenberg (NMFS) on November 16, 1998, that was attended by Corps representatives. In addition, we had Council Staff's Technical background paper (Council document 97-18) and reports on radio-tracking of Snake River fall chinook by Glen Mendel of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (memo of November 16, 1998 to the ISAB) and the conversion factors on dam counts from Mike Matylewich (Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission). The latter two reports were solicited by the ISAB. We also greatly appreciate the assistance of Larry Basham of the Fish Passage Center in gaining an understanding of the problems encountered in monitoring of numbers of adults passing the dams.Questions to the ISABThe immediate questions before the ISAB with respect to adult passage are:Are the proposed measures for improvement of adult passage at the Corps projects necessary and desirable; and Do they represent a complete list of necessary and desirable measures to assist in accomplishing the region’s goals for restoration and recovery?
