West Fork partnered with King County to position a PIT detection barge on the Green River in Tukwila, WA. The target species was PIT tagged Chinook smolts moving downstream from their spawning grounds. The PIT barge was anchored to concrete piers beneath a major bridge over the river to allow for precise positioning of the vertical PIT antennas within the water column during varying flow events. Our breakaway system allows debris that gets racked against the FINs to pass under the pontoons and antennas without damaging any of the components. As with our previous barges, the onboard 600w solar array and large battery bank allowed for continual 24/7 detection.
