THIS PROJECT SEEKS TO ADDRESS HOW SINGLE AND REPEATED PASSAGE OF STURGEON THROUGH RESTORATION HYDRO TURBINE (RHT) INFLUENCES THE FISH’S STRESS RESPONSE, BEHAVIOR AND GROWTH CAPACITY AS WELL AS INSTANCES OF ACUTE INJURY OR MORTALITY. OBJECTIVE 1: DEVELOP AN RHT RUNNER SUITABLE FOR OPERATION AT ROTATION VELOCITIES SPANNING THE RANGE OF IN SITU HYDROPOWER OPERATIONS ACROSS THE UNITED STATES. EXPECTED OUTCOME: A HIGH TIP SPEED (HTS) RUNNER FOR RHT TURBINES FITTING INTO AN EXISTING 55-CM AXIAL FLOW MODEL TURBINE, INTENDED TO CONDUCT SCALE PASSAGE TESTING AT A MAXIMUM RUNNER TIP SPEED EXCEEDING 33 M/S. OBJECTIVE 2: CONDUCT CONTROLLED EXPERIMENTS COMPARING THE RATES OF ACUTE MORTALITY AND PHYSICAL TRAUMA ASSOCIATED WITH THE RHT OR CONVENTIONAL THIN-BLADED PROPELLER RUNNER AT MULTIPLE ROTATIONAL VELOCITIES RANGING FROM 0 M/S TO GREATER THAN 20 M/S. EXPECTED OUTCOMES: DETERMINATION OF MAXIMAL VELOCITIES ASSOCIATED WITH ‘SAFE’ PASSAGE OF JUVENILE WHITE STURGEON THROUGH EITHER THE RHT OR CONVENTIONAL TURBINE. OBJECTIVE 3: MEASUREMENT OF LETHAL AND SUB-LETHAL IMPACTS OF RHT PASSAGE ON JUVENILE WHITE STURGEON AT LOW AND HIGH OPERATIONAL VELOCITIES. EXPECTED OUTCOMES: COLLECTION OF DATA PERTAINING TO THE IMPACTS OF RHT PASSAGE IMPACTS ON SHORT- AND LONG-TERM MORTALITY, GROWTH RATES, AND BEHAVIOR. ADDITIONALLY, COLLECTION OF FROZEN BLOOD PLASMA SAMPLES FROM FISH EXPOSED TO PASSAGE FOR LABORATORY ANALYSIS (OBJECTIVE 4). OBJECTIVE 4: ANALYSIS OF THE COLLECTED BLOOD SAMPLES FOR EVALUATION OF PHYSIOLOGICAL STRESS RESPONSE. EXPECTED OUTCOMES: MEASURED CONCENTRATIONS OF BLOOD PLASMA CORTISOL, GLUCOSE, AND LACTATE FROM FISH EXPOSED PASSAGE THROUGH THE RHT AT LOW AND HIGH VELOCITIES. OBJECTIVE 5: STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF COLLECTED DATA ON FISH MORTALITY, GROWTH, BEHAVIOR, AND STRESS RESPONSE. EXPECTED OUTCOMES: SCIENTIFICALLY RIGOROUS RESULTS DETERMINING THE LETHAL AND SUB-LETHAL IMPACTS OF RHT PASSAGE ON JUVENILE WHITE STURGEON. OBJECTIVE 6: WRITE ONE OR MORE SCIENTIFIC MANUSCRIPTS DOCUMENTING THE RESULTS OF THIS WORK FOR PUBLICATION IN THE SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE AS WELL AS A FINAL REPORT. EXPECTED OUTCOMES: DRAFT MANUSCRIPTS READY FOR SUBMISSION TO SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.