Item in River Channel

[Tony]

Does anyone know what the floating device by the Apex bridge is? It's tied to the bridge which indicates it's floating, and it looks like it has a fan/propeller/turbine in it.

[twobits]

Does anyone know what the floating device by the Apex bridge is? It's tied to the bridge which indicates it's floating, and it looks like it has a fan/propeller/turbine in it.

Sounds like it is some type of flow meter. If you know the water depth and speed of the current you can calculate the volume of water passing. Likely for the approaching spring freshet and dam control.

[Giants Head]

It is a fish trap that allows the fisheries people that work for the band to gather data.

[Anonymous123]

It is a fish trap that allows the fisheries people that work for the band to gather data.

Do you know that as a fact, or are you just guessing? Fish traps don't usually have turbines.

[Daspoot]

There has been a large fry-trap upstream from the PIB/Apex bridge in many of the past years, the one they were using did have a large rotating cone trap, but from the sounds of what is described here this sounds like a flow-meter.

[Giants Head]

I just drove down to the bridge to confirm. It is a fish trap.

[Daspoot]

It is Kokanee/Sockeye fry emergence timing. so that makes sense

[Tony]

I'm going to go with the theory that it's a fish trap, but it can't be very effective. It's maybe 15' across and the channel has to be at least 75' wide there....

Won't a lot of fish just swim by?

[Daspoot]

It's not meant to catch all the fry, just sample and give data on out-migration and rough density figures. I took a look myself. It is the same fry trap as before, but the location has changed a little.

It will be interesting to see how the Sockeye re-introduction matures, If it goes well it may mean changes to the drop structures along the path. It would warm my heart to see Sockeye, Chinook and even Steelhead making their way into Skaha and maybe even Okanagan lake again. The nutrients these fish bring back into the local environment would change the watershed closer to what it was 50 years ago.

Kudos to the Okanagan FN on both sides of the border for making this happen!

[Tony]

Awesome. Thanks for clearing that up. In all my years living here I don't recall ever seeing one of them in the channel before. Interesting.

[Daspoot]

In previous years it was up by the old golf-course bridge structure by Art Knapps.

[kgcayenne]

It is very important to keep track of the numbers due to the recent projects to re-establish spawning habitat. We look forward to more projects that bring Sockeye up farther than they have been since the channelization of the OK River.

[wanderingchef]

It would take a huge development to get the mentioned fish back into okanagan lake. The dam that created the channel killed the migration route and also knocked out more the 75% of all wet lands between Penticton and the border. It would be great to see it happen but would be a huge undertaking...... A worthwhile one in my opinion. While we are at it maybe we can retro fit the current dam to produce power of some sort...... Seems like a missed opportunity as all that water flows past without producing a single watt of electricity.