Heavy rain on Sunday brought the water level up about 3′ causing major damage to the two fences on Lower Harry’s River near Stephenville Crossing.
That didn’t affect the salmon counting though because the site uses Dual frequency IDentification SONar (DIDSON) imaging equipment and adjusted the beam to a longer scan. Normally a 10 M scan is used providing a more detailed image. While the wider beam isn’t as clear it can certainly identify the fish movement, so the count continued regardless.
DFO staff were at repairs for the last few days. The attached photos were taken this afternoon and give you a good idea of the damage.
This is the opposite bank of the river and showed more of the damage to a shorter metal fence. The pipes were bent along with the frame. The power of the water was awesome. The support for the DIDSON unit can be seen in the lower right.The DIDSON Sonar is attached to this pipe (black object on the arm) and survived the flood so it could continue recording any passing fish. The width of the beam was expanded to accommodate the widened gap between fences.DFO workers Scott Caines (Science Project Leader), Steve Duffy, and Garnett White begin installing hundreds of conduit into holes in the steel channeling. It took many hours of hard in-river work to get the frames set up again. Even though the fence was guyed with extra support ropes it was no match for Mother Nature.
The DIDSON Sonar is attached to this pipe (black object on the arm) and survived the flood so it could continue recording any passing fish. The width of the beam was expanded to accommodate the widened gap between fences.
DFO workers Scott Caines (Science Project Leader), Steve Duffy, and Garnett White begin installing hundreds of conduit into holes in the steel channeling. It took many hours of hard in-river work to get the frames set up again. Even though the fence was guyed with extra support ropes it was no match for Mother Nature.